smokyray
Well Known Member
How far can your RV glide? We just returned from a humanitarian visit to the Bahamas, helping roof some hurricane damaged homes with another VAFer, WC. During our return we stopped to grab lunch at a small island along our route. Parked nearby was a Cherokee Six with a buckled cowling. Being a curious A&P I walked over to inspect. I found the LH cowling buckled and broken open and a quick glance inside showed why, 1 cyllinder had blown completely off the case. (I've seen this many times on Turbos) The windshield was completely covered with oil but the guy was able to glide to dry land from over 20 miles away at altitude, and a hard surface runway. Well done across the board and a happy ending.
This raises the question for you, how far can you glide? Have you practiced power off glides? In the F-16 we practiced glide approaches as a matter of currency, mandatory. It became almost mundane and when it really happened to me, the glide approach and landing wasn't too surprising(despite being on fire ). In my RVX I routinely set a hard altitude when coming home and reduce the power to idle at set distances to observe glide capabilities at different airspeeds. I have done this in my C/S HR2, my RV4 and many other RV's I fly on pre-buy inspections as part of my report.
Results? 87 KIAS in my RVX produces the best glide ratio producing a 10 mile glide to straight-in approach from 10 miles distant at 5K altitude, no wind. Your mileage may vary and you need to have a hip pocket number for when or if it happens to you. If you practice contingencies they aren't as much of a surprise when they happen for real. Or to quote General Patton: "the more you practice in peacetime, the less you bleed in war."
V/R
Smokey
This raises the question for you, how far can you glide? Have you practiced power off glides? In the F-16 we practiced glide approaches as a matter of currency, mandatory. It became almost mundane and when it really happened to me, the glide approach and landing wasn't too surprising(despite being on fire ). In my RVX I routinely set a hard altitude when coming home and reduce the power to idle at set distances to observe glide capabilities at different airspeeds. I have done this in my C/S HR2, my RV4 and many other RV's I fly on pre-buy inspections as part of my report.
Results? 87 KIAS in my RVX produces the best glide ratio producing a 10 mile glide to straight-in approach from 10 miles distant at 5K altitude, no wind. Your mileage may vary and you need to have a hip pocket number for when or if it happens to you. If you practice contingencies they aren't as much of a surprise when they happen for real. Or to quote General Patton: "the more you practice in peacetime, the less you bleed in war."
V/R
Smokey
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