Back when I started flying, one of the most important lessons I learned was to always look for a place to land. It didn't matter what speed I was flying, nor what altitude. My IP constantly drilled me on where I would land at the time if I had an engine failure. This was on every flight and many times during the flight. It soon became second nature to always have a landing area picked out just in case.

 

Take off from any airport, climb to 3000 ft. and cruise. Now, press "B". You've just lost your engine. You should know your best angle of descent, your best airspeed, and already have a landing destination in mind. I would suggest you pick two just in case.

 

Let us know where and how.

 

I just did this at Molokai. Five miles out, 2000 ft. and killed the engine. I was able to make rwy. 6 in the CC. I had already picked an alternate (a large field nearby) just in case. And all the way to the runway, I kept looking for other possible landing sight just in case I couldn't make Molokai. Brought back old memories.

Hi,

 

I had previously collected yesterday's aerocache but decided to check out the location anyway. While well up the valley in the cub I ran out of fuel. I knew my only chance of landing without crashing was to head back to the coast. I immediately turned but was doubtful that I could stretch my glide to make it to the shoreline. I realized I wasn't going to make it but spotted a bit of a clearing just inland adjacent to a stream. I avoided the trees but ended up in this narrow stream without crashing. I thought I was okay until my aircraft sunk in this impossibly narrow stream as I watched myself drown. I must have been in shock as I think I could have exited prior to my demise. Ah well.

 

Jim F.

My instructor also drilled this into me. It is one of my favorite activities with Flight. But when you hit "B" you lose eveything. No flaps, you will be landing hot, so plan accordingly. I prefer to just go to idle and use the gear and flaps as needed. Even the C-46 can be landed off airport. Taking off again is half the fun.

Hi,

 

I had previously collected yesterday's aerocache but decided to check out the location anyway. While well up the valley in the cub I ran out of fuel. I knew my only chance of landing without crashing was to head back to the coast. I immediately turned but was doubtful that I could stretch my glide to make it to the shoreline. I realized I wasn't going to make it but spotted a bit of a clearing just inland adjacent to a stream. I avoided the trees but ended up in this narrow stream without crashing. I thought I was okay until my aircraft sunk in this impossibly narrow stream as I watched myself drown. I must have been in shock as I think I could have exited prior to my demise. Ah well.

 

Jim F.

 

That's the real world. Sometimes even the best looking area contains some unseen hazard. I had a friend in a Cessna 175 some years ago that landed on a grass strip and hit a ditch that was almost impossible to see. Destroyed the aircraft, but he wasn't hurt badly. Thank goodness I never had to use my training. I feel like I would have been ready though due to my instructor.

One thing I neglected to mention. If you press "B" to kill then engine, make sure you release the parking brake. Landing with it set can increase your crash count. :lol:

 

Another way is to just pull the mixture back to shut the engine off.

I have actually already tried this but by accident. A couple of times while swooping around and talking to other people, I lost track of things and ended up far from any airport, totally out of fuel, and once, while several miles out over the ocean. In each case I was lucky enough to glide into a landing at the nearest field I could reach.

 

The game even has an award for it. I got "Silent but deadly" for landing the Mustang that way, once.

Killing the engine by bringing the mixture back to zero seems to be the best way. That's how I did engine out glide tests in the Stearman way back when. Just killing the engine with the B key will cause the landing gear to drop in the Icon, for example. The Icon doesn't have a mixture control, so kill the engine with the ignition key. In the Mustang the B key will lower the gear, which may not be what you want. The mixture control works well in that case. As far as I know, you can still lower the gear in all planes with retractable gear without the engine running.

 

One thing to keep in mind is that if you have a prop control, bring it all the way back as well. It will stretch your glide by quite a bit.

 

Some of these planes glide like a brick, but you can get at least a 5:1 glide ratio in every case with the prop control all the way back. It may be a little hard to flare if you're exactly at best glide speed, so a bit more speed is good if you don't mind giving up a bit of glide distance at the last moment.

 

Note: I think the Stearman's glide ratio was around 3.5 to 1 with the prop control forward. Other aircraft are probably similar.

 

Hook

Just killing the engine with the B key will cause the landing gear to drop in the Icon, for example.

 

Correction. BASYS reminds me that this behavior was fixed in an update. Well, reminds is too strong a word: I had no idea it had been changed. Thanks Paul.

 

Hook

The C-46 makes a great glider also, for a 50,000 lb aircraft. Just a bit more demanding.

Here's another challenge for you. Climb to the observatory on Mauna Kea, cut your engine, and see if you can make the nearest airport. Use whichever a/c you like.