FLYING LESSONS for March 5, 2026

Topics this week include: >>How to get down. >>Ditch the headset >>Drag decision

This week’s LESSONS

Let’s catch up on your comments and insights. To the Debrief!

Questions? Comments? Supportable opinions? Let us know at [email protected]. https://pilotworkshop.com/products/ifr-mastery?utm_source=flyinglessons&utm_medium=emailbanner

Debrief

Readers write about recent LESSONS:

Reader/instructor Richard McGinnis continues last week’s LESSONS and the past three weeks’ discussion on engine failure:

The principle of reaching a suitable landing site with maximum available altitude is foundational to emergency training as you stated. Yet in my years of flight instruction, I found that even when pilots managed to arrive over the airport with what appeared to be ample altitude, most still failed to complete a successful power‑off landing. The gap wasn’t judgment about where to go—it was understanding how to get down.

To address this, I used a standardized training scenario: position the aircraft 2,500 feet AGL over a local non‑towered airport, then simulate an engine failure. Most pilots required at least three repetitions before they could consistently get the airplane onto the runway.

Two error patterns emerged repeatedly:

The “shortened normal pattern” trap. Many pilots instinctively tried to fly a compressed version of a standard pattern, complete with base and final. They underestimated the altitude required for a 180‑degree or even a 90‑degree turn, and the result was almost always a landing short of the runway in a clean aircraft.

The “high and aligned” dilemma. After the first failure, pilots often corrected by getting aligned with the runway early and with excess altitude to make a normal approach. While they succeeded in positioning, they lacked the technique—and sometimes the confidence—to shed altitude aggressively and safely. This led to overshooting the runway.

The Missing Skill Set: Several underlying issues contributed to these outcomes:

Many pilots had never practiced a steep, power‑off, high‑drag final approach close to the ground while maintaining proper airspeed. They had practiced the idea of transitioning to best glide speed repeatedly but did not have an SOP to get to the runway. The idea of using speeds other than best glide had not been thought through.
The sight picture of a gear‑down, full‑flap, no‑power descent was unfamiliar and initially unsettling.
Even those comfortable with the pitch attitude often failed to employ a forward slip to control excess altitude.
The idea of accepting a tailwind landing—when it was the only survivable option—was rarely considered because all the literature said this is unacceptable.

The encouraging reality is that most overshoots would likely have resulted in a survivable runway overrun at low speed. Still, with structured practice at altitude followed by repetition of the scenario, pilots quickly learned to manage energy, control glide path, and make a normal landing on the runway.

A Sobering Reminder: Had our fellow flight instructor [whose accident prompted last week’s LESSONS] incorporated this scenario into his own recurrent training and SOP list—and practiced it periodically—he and his wife might still be with us today. The LESSONS is clear: mastering the mechanics of energy management in a real engine‑out glide is not intuitive. It must be a priority, taught, practiced, and reinforced.

Three standard Airman Certificate Standards (CS) maneuvers—two Commercial checkride tasks, one on the Private and Commercial Practical Tests—can be used to teach these LESSONS. Steep, obstacle-clearing short field landings, Power Off 180s(pulling power to idle on downwind opposite the landing zone and making a steep, power-off glide to landing) and Power Off 360approaches (in which the pilot makes a full 360 degree power off gliding turn to a landing). Thanks for providing much to think about, Richard.

Award-winning flight instructor John Teipen adds:

With the recent discussions about off-field landing techniques and potential causes, I am reminded of a habit that should be part of each preflight preparation. That is to not put on a headset until after engine run-up, especially with ANR. Even with all the noise a trained ear might detect the rattling of a loose oil cap, muffler clamp or other abnormality. Modern ANR headsets do a great job protecting our hearing and improving communications, but they can also mask the sounds of potential problems.

Good reminder, John.

Reader Brad Wolansky wraps up what my personal commitments make an abbreviated FLYING LESSONS report this week:

I had a nice text conversation with Scott (aka Gunny) [Perdue] regarding his video analysis of the A36 accident [from last week’s report]. In his video he implores us to think in advance about how we might handle various emergency situations. Of course the biggest emergency piston twin pilots have trained and “thought ahead” about is losing an engine. Fair enough. It’s an important one.

But what about approaching a field with low or no power? Specifically, how does lowering the gear fit into the decision tree? I can’t remember an instructor ever telling me NOT to lower the gear (if the gear is working). But how about the relationship between lowering the gear and VMC? If I’m approaching VMC or losing altitude controllably, there seems to be an argument for NOT lowering the gear and destabilizing the approach / losing control of the airplane.

In my Seneca, I get a tremendous slow down (aka loss of airspeed) when that gear drops. In the A36, the pilot dropped his gear and lost any remaining energy to control the airplane. As I think ahead about what I’d do, perhaps windscreen obstructed, perhaps single engine or worse, and approaching VMC….drop the gear or no? Feels like…no…i.e., use what remaining energy I have to control the airplane to land on the strip on its belly and be able to walk away. Not something anyone has ever trained me to do. You?

As I wrote last week, and in agreement with Scott Perdue, for several years I’ve been teaching that a controlled, gear-up touchdown should be the default when landing without power. Gear extension at power off glide speed adds roughly 500 feet per minute to the rate of descent. If instead you apply up elevator to keep the rate of descent constant I’d expect to lose as much as 30 knots of airspeed in an airplane like an A36 or a PA-34. Thank you, Brad.

I should be able to devote more time to FLYING LESSONS next week. Please accept my apologies for this abbreviated report.

More to say? Let us learn from you, at [email protected]

Share safer skies. Forward FLYING LESSONS to a friend.

Please help cover the ongoing costs of providing FLYING LESSONS through this secure PayPal donations link. Or send a check made out to Mastery Flight Training, Inc. at 247 Tiffany Street, Rose Hill, Kansas USA 67133. Thank you, generous supporters.

Thank you to our regular monthly financial contributors:

Steven Bernstein, Montclair, NJ. Robert Carhart, Jr., Odentown, MD. Greg Cohen, Gaithersburg, MD. John Collins, Martinsburg, WV. Dan Drew. Rob Finfrock, Rio Rancho, NM. Norman Gallagher. Bill Griffith, Indianapolis, IN. Steven Hefner, Corinth, MS; Ellen Herr, Ft Myers, FL. Erik Hoel, Redlands, CA. Ron Horton. David Karalunas, Anchorage, AK. Steve Kelly, Appleton, WI. Karl Kleiderer. Greg Long, Johnston, IA. Rick Lugash, Los Angeles, CA. Richard McCraw, Hinesburg, VT. David Ovad, Resiertown, MD. Steven Oxholm, Portsmouth, NH. Brian Schiff, Keller, TX. Paul Sergeant, Allen, TX. Paul Uhlig, Wichita, KS. Richard Whitney, Warrenton, VA. Jim Preston, Alexandria, VA. Johannes Ascherl, Munich, Germany. Bruce Dickerson, Asheville, NC. Edmund Braly, Norman, OK. Steven Hefner. Lorne Sheren, New Vernon, NJ. “The Proficient Pilot,” Keller, TX. Kynan Sturgiss, Hereford, TX. Bluegrass Rental Properties, LLC, London, KY. John Foster. Joseph Victor, Bellevue, WA. Chris Palmer, Irvine, CA. Barry Warner, Yakima, WA. Todd LeClair, Cadiz, KY. Jim Hopp, San Carlos, CA. Adrian Chapman, West Chester, PA. Ed Stack, Prospect Heights, IL. Robert Finley, Dubois, Wyoming. Robert Finley, John Kinyon, Lawrence Copp, V. Andrew Smith, Kevin Echols. Claude Bundrick, Shreveport, LA. John Croft, Upper Marlboro, MD.

Thank you to these 2026 donors:

Robert Sparks, Mark Sletten, Thomas Jaszewski, Douglas Olson, David Field, Michael McRobert, Wayne Colburn

NEW THIS WEEK: Albert Chaker, Textron Aviation Employees Flying Club

Pursue Mastery of Flight

Thomas P. Turner, M.S. Aviation Safety

Flight Instructor Hall of Fame Inductee

2021 Jack Eggspuehler Service Award winner

2010 National FAA Safety Team Representative of the Year

2008 FAA Central Region CFI of the Year

Disclaimer