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If you spend enough time at the field you will hear these two words. Usually said with lots of excitement, almost always in a negative way. If your engine decides to dead stick (shut off in flight) there are a few things you must remember to get your plane back go the runway safely. Keep in mind that with no power your planes ability to fly is the airspeed left from altitude. Some planes glide better than others based on design and wing loading, but a few general rules apply to all.
As soon as your motor dead sticks get the nose slightly down to avoid stalling. This will keep the airspeed up and allow the plane to glide. Also make sure you call out DEAD STICK. This will get you the right of way in the sky. Look for an accessible open area to land that requires few to no turns to get too. The fewer turns the better chances you have to keep your airspeed up, reducing your chances of stalling, and increasing your chance to make a nice glide in for a smooth landing. If you have no choice due to wind or landing location, and you have to make a turn to land, try to use rudder only. This will keep the plane flying on the wing and help avoid tip stalls from dropping the wings in an aileron turn. The fact is you only have a limited amount of airspeed to use and when you use your ailerons you use it up a lot faster. Once you stall 9 times out of 10 you've lost it. So keep away from turns if at all possible. Remember on your final approach when you are going to land to just fly the plane all the way to the ground. Try to avoid the tendancy to do too much of a flair keeping in mind you don't have power to abort the landing if you have too. Once you've lined up with your landing choice its pretty much like a normal landing. If you are landing in tall grass or a dirt field with heavy loose dirt you may want to try to hold out before touch down just to avoid any small damages incurred on impact. So remember, keep the nose down, try to avoid turns, use rudder if you have to and most importantly relax on the sticks. Also I did not factor wind into the article being that dead sticks don't alway shappen in the "proper" landing posistion, so your left to do the best with what you've got. This should help you keep that puppy in one piece next time it happens. Till next time happy flying. |