Have you tried this with your EZ?

[Dave in Eugene]

I was reading that Dick Rutan, in his demonstrations of the a/c, would killl the power, dive at the runway, then pull up and circle back for a landing... all without power...

anybody ever tried it?

Last night I was the only one in the Pattern and crossed the #'s at about 120 knots power to idle... didn't make it back...

Tried again and crossed the numbers at 140 knots...got closer but did not make it back with out power... I will need more practice but wondered if anyone has this down.


Also practice simulated engine out on deperture return to runway... I can make is back easy with 500' and not with 300' of altitude....

Anybody else have experience with these? I'd love to hear it.

All the best..safe flying,

Dave

[Jack]

I was reading that Dick Rutan, in his demonstrations of the a/c, would killl the power, dive at the runway, then pull up and circle back for a landing... all without power...

anybody ever tried it?

Dick is one of those golden stick and rudder type pilots. This was an airshow and no doubt he practiced it many times before.  I have seen him fly in Mojave back in the 80s and he is damn good.

I have cut my Long motor at 10,000' and checked my glide ratio.  It improves if you stop the prop from turning.  I posted the data in this forum before. I used 70KIAS and dim memory recalls about 800FPM coming down.  My hard deck was 5,000' over a big freaking airport.

If I had to do a real engine out landing.  Overhead the field at 1,000" AGL for a high key would be a starting point.  Tis far easier to lose altitude then gain it.

Cheers;

Jack

[seth schlam]

I had a similar maneuver demonstrated to me once in a G103 sailplane.  We touched down at Vne then pulled up in a climbing turn and made it back to the 180 position at 1000 ft above the runway, and proceeded with another landing, so if you can do a touch and go in a sail plane, it might be possible in an EZ.  
                   Seth S.

[GlennBob]

Though it may be very stimulating to push the performance envelope of this aircraft,  I sincerely hope I don't read about you in the obits.  This is how we lose pilots and friends and it serves to reduce the safety record of this craft.  Enjoy your bird, but don't take unnecesary chances ! !

Glennbob

[Dave in Eugene]

I appreciate the consideration... I don't plan on turning the engine off....
and I willing to take some risk in this case.

Dave

[Chairboy]

I was watching Dave last week when he was practicing, and I can vouch that he appeared to be taking a very measured and prudent approach to determining exactly what the parameters for his plane are in a some likely in-pattern emergencies.  I watched as he methodically determined a minimum safe 'return to airport' altitude for engine failure on take off, for instance.  

Based on some recent crashes I've read about where folks augered in because they tried to turn back when they should have just set it down straight ahead, maybe more folks should figure this stuff out before it's an emergency.

But back to Dave, based on what I've seen, I'm confident that he's keeping his head squarely on his shoulders.

[Charles Davis]

I was practicing a simulated engine out with an instructor and was shocked that had the engine actually quit, I would have come up short!  This really shocked me (I have a lot of glider time, and never came close to landing short).  But, the winds were more than I had judged, and the windmilling prop had more of an effect than I expected.


It can be very helpful to practice these things before you need them.

My most humble suggestions:
1. Practice it a lot in Flight Simulator first.
2. Practice up high first.
3. If you have a field with 2 runways at about 90 degrees to each other, you can always abandon the procedure and land on the other runway if you are going to come up short.
4. Use the rule of a touch down point 1/3 down the runway.

[Drew]

And gear up/ board up until you KNOW you are going to make the runway.