"I googled it up" - yes sure your friend google - sure great, first of all it's 8:1, considering clean configuration, windmilling and no wind.
1. Nobody lands with clean configuration, so with full flaps, you have lots of Drag.
2. We don't know if engine was windmilling, it could have been stuck, making it give more DRAG.
3. Wind conditions, you don't even take account of this.
Speed would have been around 60 kts. Let's just for fun use your 480 ft theory, do you really believe somebody will start changing landing spot at 60 ft? You have around 5 seconds before you will touch down?
I am not sure what kind of imaginary fantasy world you live in, but your thought process does not belong to reality. At 60 ft you have around 5 seconds before you touch down, it's already to late at this point.
But reality is much less, you will never glide 480 feet from 60 ft with flaps full and head wind, more likely half of that distance, which gives you even less time to decide to do anything.
I don't need to google this to know this, it's simple maths
Even if he sees the danger at 60 ft, or even 100 ft, the time to make the decision is to short before you hit the ground. Time is more important than distance in this case, because once you are committed than there is no turning back.
Originally Posted by
AirJing
Well BusDriver, I've made my assessment based on an assessment of the information provided, which indicates an engine failure.
OTOH you have decided I'm clueless based on something you have just made up.
I have a PPL and have flown a C152 many times, although not for about 7 years. A C152 not being fresh in my memory, I googled it up and it has a glide ratio of about 10:1 with a windmilling prop, which I then dropped to a guess of 8:1 given I don't know what the weight or configuration of the ac was. Feel free to look that glide ratio up for yourself given you have decided I am clueless and you are the clear expert here; not that it matters because even if it was 5:1 you would still have 300 horizontal feet to work with. Given an instructor would have been PIC, I'd expect they should be able to work with that.
I also looked at cockpit photos I have from flying C152s on landings with and without flaps (the no flaps landing being on training flights). I could see plenty on the ground in both cases and certainly had I been over a beach instead of a runway, I would have been able to tell the difference between a beach full of sunbathers and a deserted beach out of some Robinson Carsoe fantasy. Then I looked at photos I had with engine-idle practice forced landings, where I saw that solid nose down attitude which you seem to think I found from FlightSim 1965.
Even the 60 feet I quoted implies very late decision making. Anybody who can pass a flying medical can make out people a lot more than 60 vertical feet and a few hundred horizontal feet away. There appeared in the after-event photos to be nothing in the way of weather which would prevent a pilot from seeing a long way.
If you have some specific knowledge you would like to share about how far you can see in a C152, you may wish to consider sharing it. Making things up hasn't worked out so well for you so far.