Private Pilot Flight Training and Instruction Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM Forced Landings If altitude permits, glide range may be increased if propeller is stopped. Speed half way between best rate and best angle of climb is duration glide speed. A fair field with maneuvering altitude is better than a good field which requires a stretched glide. Hit the softest, cheapest thing you can, as slowly as possible. There will be one forced landing for every 200,000 flying hours. Hope to fly that long. An airplane at 3000' has over 75 square miles of emergency landing area available. At 5000' there are 270 square miles available to have an accident. Cars should be so lucky. 40% of pattern flying is such that the runway could not be made in the event of engine failure. Less than 5% of fixed gear single forced landings result in serious injuries to occupants. C-150/152s are over twice as likely to be involved in a forced landing compared to C-172. (Mostly due to air ...contamination of fuel tanks.) 14% of daytime forced landings are serious 20% of night forced landings were serious 25% of instrument condition forced landings were serious. Road forced landings are statistically safer. A crash at 85 knots will be twice as severe as one at 60 knots. The goal of a forced landing is to arrive slowly but under control. Faster is preferable to loss of control. Ground contact at minimum controllable will have an impact less than a car-to-car collision. Returning to the airport on takeoff is a proven killer during engine failure emergencies. If you haven't taken remedial instruction, don't do it. In the event of engine failure, excess airspeed is lost before altitude. Use it to gain altitude. At engine failure, removing flaps will extend your glide.Flight Reviews do not seem to detect flying deficiencies. Written by Gene Whitt Flight Training Article Library | Back To 4VFR.COM