This was an interesting view/option from someone who is obviously “walking the walk”. Setting up a hand held, with a different perspective and view..
Quote. For the last 7 years I have been flying my Bonanza to work (weekly not daily…). Part of the route goes over the mountains where the only option if the engine quits is the interstate. At night/IFR I set up my #2 radio (Garmin 430) to display the interstate beneath me. Have simulated loosing an engine to see how it would work and the display is spot on over the Interstate. If I configure to land early (gear and flaps) it really limits my time to react to anything if I break out close to the ground.
My game plan is to stay clean until I can see where I’m headed. I may or may not use the gear but will always try to use the flaps to get as slow as possible. Damaging the airplane is not a concern.
I wear my shoulder harness from take-off to landing leaving one less thing to remember.
If there is a traffic jam, no place to land on the hwy I hope to crash close enough so that someone can help or at least limit the time it takes to find me…
Peter wrote:
Would that not depend on the chances of you never becoming visual before ground contact?
I was thinking about the glide distance. Clearly, if you are concerned about not getting visual before ground contact, you should fly at minimum sink speed (or possible even less), which is always slower than best glide speed.
Dave_Phillips wrote:
I would trim for minimum sink rather than best glide.
Unless you have an area you are aiming for which requires Vbg, Dave is correct. You want to minimise kinetic energy at the point of impact while retaining control. In a propeller aircraft minimum sink is on the wrong side of the power required curve, and typically is materially slower than Vbg.
Assume Vbg is 80-100 knots for a typical high end retractable, this equates to around 1.6 million joules (1/2Mass*V2). If minimum sink is around 65 knots, the kinetic energy to dissipate on impact will be around 0.8 million joules. Not suggesting this is survivable, but just want to show how a small reduction in speed, while retaining control, does have potentially an influence on outcome.
Arguably fixed tricycle gear provides some additional crash-worthiness. The set of engine failures in low IFR for SEP is probably quite small, but it may be that the Cherokee Sixes and Cessna 182s have a better survivability due to lower speeds and quite a robust nose wheel and engine mount arrangement. A 182 at minimum sink is down to 0.5 million joules of Ke, and you can fit air bag seat belts to them through STC.
Ensuring emergency services know you have a problem, getting everyone strapped in and braced, shutting fuel and electrics off would also need to be taken care of.
The thread on the V35 and C210 accident reports had a C210 which lost an engine in cruise IFR. The emergency was well managed but it resulted in an undershoot off airport forced landing.
There was a time when you might be expected to fly an instrument approach as a glide approach, and because your vacuum pump departed with the engine, using limited panel.
It requires some mental arithmetic and good knowledge of your type’s clean glide ratio. You then set up a CDFA at a higher, quite a bit higher platform altitude at the FAF.
A clean retractable might glide 9:1 (with adjustment for wind) with a windmilling propeller in coarse pitch. With a 5nm FAF that implies crossing the FAF at between 3,500 and 4,000 AGL, your crossing altitudes are correspondingly higher, and ideally you are at around 800 feet AGL at 1nm. Once the runway is assured the gear and flaps are extended and a normal glide approach is concluded.
The PC12 with a better glide ratio may adjust the FAF altitude slightly lower, a fixed gear type, higher.
Will see if ATC may allow one of these IFR glide approaches, but why not practice them? SET AOC practice these I believe, and know their emergency IFR en route engine out alternates.
Wow, this is the tough stuff! I suppose it’d be an NDB approach too, and no Mayday call warranted….
How realistic is it to always have an instrument approach within gliding distance?
With modern avionics you don’t need an Instrument approach: As you fly substantially above glide slope it would be a 2D-approach anyways. And with GPS you can fly a 2D approach to any given point.
@Malibuflyer agree – GPS in OBS mode, although the AOC probably requires an element of planning.
Malibuflyer wrote:
And with GPS you can fly a 2D approach to any given point.
Yes you can, but doing it in IMC would be unwise. A Citation accident at EDRT is a good illustration of possible consequences.
Ultranomad wrote:
Yes you can, but doing it in IMC would be unwise.
With your only engine failing in IMC – and that’s what we are discussing here – you very quickly run out of really wise options. Therefore even unwise ones all of a sudden don’t look that bad any longer in such a situation ;-)
If you are landing with 100m-400m you are pretty stuffed whatever superior navigation technique & avionics you have or runway infrastructure, engine state is irrelevant, it should be idle at 15ft-45ft MDH anyway 
If you have 5km visibility & 1000ft agl ceiling you can cloud-break safely with a Garmin D2 watch even inside a valley
For engine failure scenarios, why approach would require a different technique than en-route, how people plan to sort this out en-route with OVC002 bellow? the most likely scenario when flying any glide path (synthetic or published) with engine off is a 100% stall once you are bellow 1:20 glide under VBG speed, unless it’s a K21
- If it happens on glide path, you just dump approach glide path and fly VBG on LOC and hope for the best 
- If it happens overhead in hold, you forget IFR and spiral down at 45deg on electric AI until you cloud-break
- If it happens elsewhere, you keep the ROD at 800fpm wing level and close you eyes
There is one landing technique where you do the whole approach and landing with “stick only” by flying low & fast vs high & slow depending where you are vs VBG and best L/D glide but it’s not something I would try in IMC, with no visual refs it may involve hitting VS to burn height or flying VNE near the ground …
More interesting question for IFR, if engine failure happens overhead will you pick opposite runway and fly it’s ILS with 25kts tailwind & then circle to land? or just fly S manœuvres around the LOC to stay above GP? If ever you go bellow GP will you throw ILS and start 45deg spirals or you will “pull up” to catch it and at what speed you stop pulling up
