Glide Distances

[kimberlyanne546]

A person wrote about a moving map, in another thread, that would show your plane's "cone of safety" as you gained altitude.

In other words, as you got higher, your glide distance would increase and the digital circle around your plane would get bigger.... hopefully to include nearby airports.

I must confess that my flying is often dictated by airspace rules (staying under bravo shelves), cross country rules (even / odd), and my small plane (less altitude is easier).

I also must confess that I have never calculated glide distance, which could bite me in the a$$ if I had a true in plane emergency.

How many of you calculate these things in your flight plans or keep on board a tool that would help you calculate this?

 

[Jim Logajan]

I also must confess that I have never calculated glide distance, which could bite me in the a$$ if I had a true in plane emergency.

How many of you calculate these things in your flight plans or keep on board a tool that would help you calculate this?

So far, the only time I concerned myself with glide distance is when I fly gliders and during training in powered airplanes.

If I'm concerned about engine out, I'll simply opt to fly the highest reasonable altitude and select a route with the highest fraction of land-able terrain.

When I need to know "right now" how far I can glide, I use the angle method, where you sight down a certain number of degrees (estimated of course) from the horizon and say "I can glide to any spot within that circle around the airplane." Some people use a pretty deep angle (such as 45 degrees down from the horizon) to take into account maneuvering and such. But I think that may sometimes take away possibly better options.

 

[Jim Logajan]

I like much better some more reasonable methods mentioned above like with projecting your fingers onto the scenery.

The first time I tried extending my arm in a SGS 2-33 training glider so I could use that trick on estimating degrees down from the horizon, I discovered there was a minor flaw: the cockpit ain't that big; not even straight forward, to extend an arm.