Our lesson yesterday was about the third or fourth we’d had together and we are both getting a fair feel for the challenger and her somewhat unique flight characteristics. Bob was getting a handle on straight and level flight, basic turns, climbs, and descents. We had discovered one of Bob’s quirks along the way. Bob does not like to put the nose down. The pitch down attitude bothers him. We’d talked about how, while it is possible to descend an airplane with a nose high pitch attitude, it’s not always the safest technique to use for long descents.

Reminding Bob about maintaining a margin of safety against running headlong into the wing’s critical angle of attack and the ensuing aerodynamic stall thereafter. Once I was reasonably well assured Bob grasped this concept we went up to fly the pattern and work toward making his first landings. Bob was doing a fantastic job and soon was flying the pattern well. He was even making the takeoffs relatively unaided.

As is my usual manner I was sneaking other bits of important information in on him. Hoping he wouldn’t notice and become overworked. One of the biggest things I was imparting on him was the special way I fly airport patterns. I was showing him how to position the aircraft so as to always be within gliding distance should the engine fail. I try to use humor in my lessons. My story goes something like: “ if you go to all the trouble to acquire an airplane, learn to fly it, get a weather briefing, fly it someplace, navigating and burning fuel along the way, it would be bad form to crash not on the runway once you arrive.” I then added “Bob, always enter the pattern and position your airplane at distances and altitudes that would allow you to glide to the runway if you had to declare an emergency and land without the use of your engine.”

One Example I like to use to highlight how not to do things is what you can observe at nearly any airport around the country on a daily basis. A C-172 driver will extend his downwind leg, add flaps to slow the airplane and then add power to unceremoniously drag the poor little airplane back to the runway on final. I tell Bob ,”NO! Come in too high if you have to and then use flaps or slips or dutch rolls or S-turns (or whatever you must) to lose altitude. This way you will have the runway made even if the engine quits.” This is how I do it, and that’s how I teach it.

After just a few patterns Bob was flying the pattern in this fashion and feeling quite in control of the airplane. By this part of the lesson, I was having him descend the airplane to just about thirty feet above the center line and then leveling off and flying down the length of the runway until we reached our pre-selected abort point .Then he was to execute the go-round and climb back to pattern altitude. On one of these passes we had climbed back up and were setting up for our base turn from down wind, Bob was making his base to final radio call and putting in a bit of an aerodynamic slip to lose altitude. JUST THEN, the engine did in fact quit! It had been running perfectly and suddenly there was a deafening silence in our cockpit.

At this point I took over the controls and was flying the airplane from the back seat. Already slipping to lose altitude, we were in a good position to make the runway. It couldn’t have been a more perfect learning moment! I flew the airplane to a nice gentle engine off landing and we rolled to a quiet stop on the center line. I was so excited and happy. I began to laugh while thinking about my mental image of Bob when he looked back at me (from his position in the front cockpit) somewhat frantically waving and pointing to the tachometer while proclaiming “Wolf, you do know the engine is not on right?” Yes Bob, I kind of noticed that (when the formerly screaming two cycle rotax mounted upside down right behind my skull became ruthlessly silent) but thank you for letting me know. I was patting Bob on the shoulder telling him how perfect this was and he asks me “what’s perfect and why are you so happy?” I say to him “Bob, you’ll never ever forget this moment and you’ll always and forever remember what I was teaching you about how to fly the
pattern and never drag the airplane in!” He then laughed and said “Yes! we are safe and sound and my little airplane is not bent up in the least!”

Later we were able to restart the engine and taxi back to the hangar. We inspected the airplane and found nothing wrong with her other than that Bob (A truly gifted and highly skilled mechanic) had recently synchronized the carbs and set the idle RPM a bit on the low side.) We decided that It must have been the combination of the engine being at idle power and the slipping maneuver that could have caused the stoppage by loading up the prop. We also made a pact to label the electric boost pump to be used while flying the pattern. Then we took her up again and executed a box pattern climb to a high altitude and tested the airplane. We never encountered another issue with her (after turning up the idle slightly) and have now built a rather nice checklist noting to engage the booster pump for take-offs and landings.

One funny thing that happened before we went back up was that Bob caught me looking over the airplane very thoroughly and he inquired “Wolf, are you worried about the safety of this airplane now?” I said “no Bob, I’m so not worried about it that I’ve decided to slow down and take a moment to check things over to be certain I’m not missing something.”

Digesting all that I learned on this flight , I’ve decided that the extra money I invested in my motor-glider training was money well spent. This little episode was one hell of a return on investment. My instructor, the legendary Jon Thornburgh, did a hell of a job preparing me to meet these challenges. To be honest, flying that challenger (engine off) was a piece of cake and felt just like (if you take away the European styling and grace, and carbon fiber airframe, and the sick L/D, and the 100Hp 9 series engine with featherable prop) flying the Samba that I’d trained in while in Torrance with Jon.