wait, isn't your best glide speed meant to cover as much distance per loss of altitude? If my engine goes bang at 50ft I don't care for my glide speed, I care for my stall speed - that runway is running out fast so in the event of a bang, I want to be at 64 rather than 75, nose down, flaps out etc, quite the opposite from things you typically want when your engine goes at 2000ft and 2 miles of shore. Am I wrong?
Martin
Flying is all about energy and drag management. You basically have two sources of energy! One from the engine and the throttle controls that the other from the potential energy in the airframe and the elevator controls that.
with a failed engine you have one source of energy and that is in the airframe and trading altitude for airspeed i.e. you become a glider.
Your enemy in this situation is drag so you keep away from adding drag until you need to steepen your approach to a landing or get rid of excess energy which without drag will lead to excess speed or energy
So in an engine out situation don't think speed but energy. The higher speed you have the more energy you can tap into and the less altitude you need to trade for that energy.
As the AOA increases so does the drag. At fifty feet its more important to keep the aircraft flying and take what you have. Don't just try to land ahead into wind when there is a perfectly good field 90 degrees left or right but most important keep it flying and thats energy and drag management
The nearer the stall you are the more drag you are dealing with and the more altitude you will have to trade
Speed to a certain extent is your friend
Pace