FlyWire A36 Bonanza Engine Failure Best Glide and Min Sink

FlyWire takes a look at the two engine failure speeds you kneed to know. Best Glide is usually in the Handbook, but how do you figure out what the Minimum Sink Speed is?
FlyWire is about exploring flight and the freedom this incredible experience brings us on a personal level. Flying has always captured the imagination and excitement of living life to its fullest. Hi, I'm Scott Perdue. In a former life I flew the F-4 and F-15E, more recently I retired from a major airline. I've written for several aviation magazines over the years, was a consultant for RAND, the USAF, Navy, NASA as well as few others, wrote a military thriller- 'Pale Moon Rising' (still on Kindle). But mostly I like flying, or teaching flying. Some of the most fun I had was with Tom Gresham on a TV show called 'Wings to Adventure". We flew lots of different airplanes all over the country. Now with FlyWire I want to showcase the fun in flying, share the joy and freedom of flight and explore the world with you. Make sure you subscribe if you want to go along for the ride!
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[@alanex5225]

Good research and I'm sure handy for lots of pilots. Thanks for video.

[@charleshouser3123]

Excellent, thank you.

[@granthensley3073]

Thanks for the great video.

[@tbas8741]

Thats something i wanted to ask a few times. Regarding Zoom climb on engine out. Say you are having a little joyride and buzzing the runway @ 500ft or low passes at higher speed/max speed. Then your engine dies Which would you do and which is best. A) Use the speed and energy to Zoom climb up at high as possible before slowing to best glide then establish that. B) Just stay level and slow to best glide then look for spot to land (even if it happened @ 250ft or 500ft but max speed) C) Just use the speed and energy and look for spot to land without slowing t best glide as only upto 500ft high)

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

It depends on the situation/possible landing sites. Plus your ability to fly the plane in a zoom profile, capture a predetermined speed and maneuver the airplane. Have you tried the profile? If you try it for the first time for real, your odds of success are small.

[@tbas8741]

@@FlyWirescottperdue Sorry im not a real pilot, Just a Flight Simmer & Researcher (due to medical reasons mostly, if i could i would fly) Tho i have flown a Real 737 Simulator owned by Qantas Airlines (video on my channel) and landed it fine 3 times in a row with real qantas check captain behind me :D who was "impressed" to quote him

[@SteveZimmermannPhotography]

Oh, and another thing: you glossed over the importance of pulling the prop back for max pitch/minimum rpm; it’s worth a bit more explanation. In my experience, that’s even more important than getting the speed exactly right for extending glide range.

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

Ah, I did say it and use that technique for these glides. But you give away one of the main features of the next video in the series. Stay tuned, I think you'll be happier;)

[@FalcoGeorge]

Great video. Great subject. Thanks

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@DanFrederiksen]

Loose math says that about a 1:11 best glide ratio. Sound about right? Interestingly I arrive at about 1:11 on both best glide and min sink. So seems there is a broad range there if you are trying to reach far. Another possibility is that the book best glide speed is for a fairly loaded plane. The ratio doesn't change much with weight but the speed does. So if you are flying light, best glide speed might be a bit lower.

[@mannypuerta5086]

Good stuff to ponder and practice. As mentioned by others, weight is a factor for glide speed. Less weight, less speed. Gliding distance is actually farther at higher weights (the higher speed a function of weight/stall speed). The aft CG influence of the survival gear in my aft baggage also has a positive effect during the glide. Flap gap seals, wing extensions and pulling the prop back as you did all contribute to best glide or min sink speed. This “flight test” procedure should be done on the airplane to see what works for the mods on the individual airplane. Taking the example of two identical 182’s, but one with flap gap seals and one without, the one with the seals has a noticeably extended glide distance. With WingX extensions and flap gap seals on my 185, I had to change the glide ratio on ForeFlight to make the map page glide circle more appropriate for my airplane. A good rule of thumb for a surprise engine out glide is to maintain a speed between Vx and Vy. It may not be exactly accurate, but it will be close enough under the distracting and performance limiting circumstances to correct the speed for the actual weight of the aircraft, yet still allow enough energy for the power off flare and touchdown. Once you pitch for the speed make sure to trim the aircraft to help you maintain the desired target speed while going through the distracting restart attempt and finding a touchdown location. Trimming for speed will also contribute to more elevator authority during the landing flare.

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

Good stuff, Manny. Especially the trim comments.... helps prevent ground rush and inadvertent slowing the airplane down!

[@SteveZimmermannPhotography]

Thanks for the video, Scott. From my glider flying days, I know that best glide speed varies as a function of weight. I believe the POH states that the best glide speed of 110 knots for the A36 is at max gross weight; at lighter weights, as you were in this video, the best glide speed will be a few knots slower. Unless you’re gliding into a headwind, flying a few knots too slow is less detrimental to glide range than flying a few knots too fast...and your sink rate is worse at the higher speed, too. Min sink speed (and even more so the sink rate at min sink speed) is also affected by weight, in a similar fashion. Sometime you should sit down with a group of glider guiders and ask about speed-to-fly: I guarantee the conversation will last as long as the beer continues to flow. 😉

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

Thanks Steve. Excellent observation. One thing to remember is that flying a Glider and a single engine airplane with the engine just failed are two different animals. Sure they are airplanes, and sure the speed should/does vary with weight. But the issue here turns more on a single engine pilot learning to be a glider pilot in five minutes. There really isn't enough time to learn niceties, better to have target speeds that are close. Short of a hurricane there aren't any thermals that will increase your energy in an engine failure situation.

[@SteveZimmermannPhotography]

Agreed, Scott: the subtleties of speed-to-fly don’t amount to a hill of beans when the motor quits. But my main point is that for the A36, 110 knots is more of a not-to-exceed number than a plus-or-minus target speed. And flying faster than the optimal speed for a given situation has the added disadvantage of putting you on the ground sooner, as well as closer.

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

@@SteveZimmermannPhotography Excellent point!

[@GreenGuyDIY]

On my Commercial check-ride I went for the target speed (Vy) and the examiner said "good that was text book; now let me show you how to find out faster the best glide since we are not a gross weight." He then cut the engine (and did not pull the prop) and said look off the left wing and put the wing tip level with the horizon looking from the leading edge to the trailing edge. Hold it there and look to where your airspeed settles. Voila, there is your Vy at this weight. It is not prefect but close enough that very quickly the first calculation is done to enough precision that plus or minus a knot or two is not going to make a substantial difference.

[@hansvansnick]

Thanks for the great video. Good explanation. Was wondering to see the power and propsettings during the demonstration.

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

Hans, thanks! I thought I had the JPI in the frame only to realize that I didn't after the fact. One of the upcoming videos in this series will have it in the frame for you! Thanks for watching!

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

The Throttle was in idle and the rpm was 1000... the prop was all the way back.

[@AmericanBonanzaSociety]

Another good one, Scott. I especially like that you bring up ground rush, which is rarely mentioned in this context, and the need to have enough speed to have control authority to arrest the descent, flare and land. In the A36 you’re flying you’ve noted before there is a Landing Without Power speed of 81-83 knots (calibration differences for different models of A36). This is five or more knots faster than normal 50-foot landing speed, in part to assure you have extra airflow over the elevator to arrest this impressive engine out rate of descent. I get why you’re not pulling the prop back for purposes of your demonstration, but I’d still stress the essential need to do so to have the best set of available options. Thanks for doing this series. - Thomas P. Turner

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

Thanks Tom. For this video I wanted to have a slightly different take, a worse case scenario to more closely approximate the startle performance for an unplanned/unexpected engine failure.Exploring the boundary limits, so to speak. I totally agree that pulling the prop back is the best course of action. What I didn't want is for someone to use these videos as a replacement for instruction and training. I appreciate your comments!

[@offdutyagain]

Scott, Another great video! If you run your minimum sink speed down into the low 70's, what happens to what little energy you have when you dirty up the airplane? Can lowering the gear exacerbate the problem? Assuming you wait until the last minute to lower the gear can you run the risk of a stall without sufficient altitude to recover? Thanks for these videos. You've taken book situations and shown how things happen in the real world.

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

Michael- Yep, when you lower the gear you loose speed, and at min sink you just don't have the energy to arrest the sink rate for a flare... it will be a hard landing.

[@christheother9088]

I've always assumed best-glide and min-sink speeds corresponded to best rate-of-climb and best angle-of-climb respectively. Is that correct?

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

No, not quite. For some airplanes perhaps the Drag polars are aligned. You can use Vx or Vy as approximations.

[@chronikentertainment7856]

For most light aircraft they are close, but not the same. The difference lies in the vertical component of thrust in the climb, and the wing being blown by propwash - reducing angle of attack artificially.

[@GreenGuyDIY]

How far back did you pull the prop? It did not sound like you feathered.

[@SteveZimmermannPhotography]

He pulled the prop control all the way out: coarse pitch, minimum rpm, minimum drag. Why not feathered? 1) You can’t feather the prop on an A36; 2) You wouldn’t want to feather the prop on a running engine in any case. Then you really would have a dead engine.

[@GreenGuyDIY]

@@SteveZimmermannPhotography Have never had what looks like a great pleasure to fly a Bonanza

[@neatstuff8200]

Did you feather for glide?

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

You can't feather a single engine Prop. What you can do is pull the prop back to full coarse. I talk bout that in another video. It doesn't have any effect on Speed... which is what this video is all about. If you are able to pull the prop back it will save you over 500 FPM in descent rate.

[@soflaav8r]

What happened to your MFD?

[@FlyWirescottperdue]

Av8rMark- I have issues with that MFD. It has just had the Max upgrade done. Aspen is going to replace it.