Emergency Approach and Landing (Simulated) (ASEL, ASES)

No. The Area XII note requires that for ASEL or ASES the evaluator must select at least Tasks B and C. Simulated engine failure is guaranteed on a single-engine flight instructor practical test — prepare it as the centerpiece of the area.

For AMEL or AMES this Task does not apply; the multiengine required set is Task E or F, Task G, and at least one other Task.

Order matters more than any individual item, because the first two steps buy time for the rest:

1. Airspeed — pitch for best glide immediately. The failure may occur above or below best glide; if above, let the airplane slow (or bleed speed by climbing) until reaching best glide, then lower the nose and trim. If at or below, lower the nose immediately to maintain or accelerate to best glide (AFH 9-28).
2. Field — pick the landing area and turn toward it. Select considering altitude, wind, terrain, obstructions, and available glide distance (AI.XII.B.S3).
3. Checks — the restart/cause check, then the emergency checklist. Critical items: fuel selector position, quantity in the tank selected, fuel pressure (electric pump), mixture, magnetos, carburetor heat (AFH 9-29).
4. Declare — ATC or 121.5, transponder to the emergency code, and the ELT plan.
5. Execute — configure, secure, and fly the pattern to the field.

Teach the reason for the order: every second off best glide is altitude thrown away, and a field chosen at 3,000 feet has ten times the options of one chosen at 800.

Best glide is the airspeed at which the airplane travels the greatest forward distance for a given loss of altitude in still air, and it occurs at the highest lift-to-drag ratio, L/DMAX (AFH 3-22).

Three consequences the student needs:

• Any deviation, fast or slow, reduces the glide ratio — the curve falls away on both sides (AFH 3-22).
• Weight does not change the glide angle if the pilot flies the right speed. A heavier airplane needs a higher airspeed for the same glide ratio; both airplanes reach the same touchdown point, the lighter one just takes longer (AFH 3-23). So a lightly loaded trainer's book number at max gross is a few knots fast.
• Drag-producing components — flaps, gear, cowl flaps — steepen the glide, so to maximize distance all drag-producing components need to be eliminated if possible (AFH 3-23).

Minimum sink is the speed that maximizes time in flight — the airplane loses altitude at the lowest rate. It occurs at a lower airspeed than best glide and results in less distance traveled (AFH 3-23).

It is generally not a published airspeed but is typically a few knots less than best glide (AFH 3-23). Use it when time matters more than distance — the AFH's example is ditching at sea, where staying airborne to prepare, brief, and let help arrive beats covering another mile of identical water.

Teaching point: distance and endurance are different optimizations of the same drag curve, and the student needs to know which problem they are solving before picking a speed.

With a tailwind the airplane glides farther because of the higher groundspeed; with a headwind it does not glide as far because of the slower groundspeed (AFH 3-23). Indicated best glide is unchanged by wind — the wind changes the ground track, not the air mass performance.

Practical teaching: teach students to determine wind direction and estimate its speed from the windsock, smoke from factories or houses, dust, brush fires, wind farms, or patterns on nearby water (AFH 9-28). Then bias the field selection upwind of where the still-air math says you can reach, because a headwind leg late in the approach is what turns a comfortable pattern into a stretch.

Three of them, and each changes a different part of the problem:

• Density altitude. Best glide is an indicated airspeed, so the number on the ASI does not move — but performance speeds vary with weight, configuration, and atmospheric conditions (AFH 13-2). An increase in density altitude increases the landing speed but does not alter the net retarding force: the airplane lands at the same IAS as at sea level, but because of the reduced density the TAS is greater (PHAK 11-17). Higher TAS at the same IAS means a higher groundspeed at touchdown and a longer slide — the minimum landing distance at 5,000 feet is 16 percent greater than at sea level (PHAK 11-17). Teach the student to pick a longer field on a hot high day, not a closer one.
• Temperature and the engine. A long idle descent through cold air is the shock-cooling case; that is why you clear the engine (AFH 9-29). It cuts the other way in the student's decision too — a cold-soaked engine may not deliver the go-around power they are counting on.
• Turbulence and gusts. Pilots often use the normal approach speed plus one-half of the wind gust factors in turbulent conditions — 70 knots normal with 15-knot gusts gives 77 knots (AFH 9-20). Applied here, the gust additive comes off the glide margin, so a gusty day shrinks the field you can actually reach. And in turbulence the airplane still has to respect the design maneuvering speed limitation (AFH 18-8).

The instructor's framing: wind moves the field you can reach, density altitude moves the field you need, and gusts move the speed you must carry. Make the student say which one is biting on the day you fly it.

The AFH frames the approach planning around three factors that are seldom compatible: wind direction and velocity, dimensions and slope of the chosen field, and obstacles in the final approach path. When compromises must be made, aim for a wind/obstacle/terrain combination that permits a final approach with some margin for error (AFH 18-4).

Two counterintuitive points worth teaching explicitly:

• Because a pilot who overestimates glide range is tempted to stretch across obstacles, it is sometimes better to plan the approach over an unobstructed area regardless of wind direction (AFH 18-4).
• A collision with obstacles at the end of a ground roll or slide is much less hazardous than striking an obstacle at flying speed before the touchdown point (AFH 18-4). Land long into the far fence rather than short into the near one.

The AFH gives you the answer, and it is the more instructive one: the student should plan and fly a pattern for the field first elected until you terminate the simulated emergency. That gives you an opportunity to explain and correct the errors, and gives the student a chance to see the results of the errors (AFH 9-28).

The exception: if during the approach the student realizes a poor field was selected — one that would obviously result in disaster — and a more advantageous field is within gliding distance, a change should be permitted (AFH 9-28). Then debrief the hazard of last-minute decisions: excessive maneuvering at very low altitude (AFH 9-28).

The general rule for the student's decision-making: do not hesitate to discard the original plan for one that is obviously better, but do not change your mind more than once (AFH 18-4).

From the AFH's power-off approach error list and the emergency landing discussion:

• Attempting to stretch the glide during an undershoot — the fatal one (AFH 9-27).
• Skidding turns in an effort to increase gliding distance (AFH 9-27).
• Premature flap or landing gear extension, killing glide range early (AFH 9-27).
• Failure to lower the gear in retractables (AFH 9-27).
• Use of throttle to increase the glide instead of merely clearing the engine (AFH 9-27).
• Arriving too fast. "Eagerness to get down" is one of the most common faults — students forget about speed and arrive at the field with too much of it. Too much speed is just as dangerous as too little; it produces float and overshoot. Pilots cannot dive at a field and expect to land on it (AFH 9-28).
• Failure to divide attention — running the checklist at the expense of flying the approach.

The correction set for a misjudged glide is the one instructors should stress: slipping the airplane, using flaps, varying the position of the base leg, and varying the turn onto final (AFH 9-28). Note what is not on that list — adding power and diving. You can always spend excess altitude with drag or a longer ground track, but you cannot buy altitude you did not save, which is why arriving high is a recoverable error and arriving low is not.

7700 on the transponder and 121.5 MHz on the radio — teach the student to declare early and expect help, not paperwork. An installed Emergency Autoland system does exactly this on the pilot's behalf: it squawks 7700 and broadcasts on the last selected frequency and on Guard, 121.5 MHz, then repeats its call sign and intentions (AFH 18-22). If an automated system's designers judged those two actions worth doing first, so should your student.

If an ATC facility is available, an emergency should be declared (AFH 13-33). The practical instructor point: declaring costs nothing and buys radar vectors to the nearest suitable airport, traffic separation, and equipment standing by.

The AFH is unambiguous about who introduces it and how: during dual flights the instructor gives simulated emergency landings by retarding the throttle and calling "simulated emergency landing" (AFH 9-28). The word "simulated" is spoken out loud, every time.

Your explanation phase (AIH 9-5) covers:

• Objective — develop accuracy, judgment, planning, procedures, and confidence when little or no power is available (AFH 9-28).
• How it will be introduced — a smooth throttle reduction and the verbal call, at any point and in any configuration.
• Who owns the throttle. During a simulated emergency landing either the instructor or the pilot should have complete control of the throttle. There should be no doubt as to who has control, since many near accidents have occurred from such misunderstandings (AFH 9-29). Decide before the flight and say it out loud.
• Termination criteria — the go-around altitude and who calls it.
• Completion standards — best glide ±10 knots (AI.XII.B.S1), a committed field, and appropriate checklist use.

Every simulated emergency landing approach is terminated as soon as it can be determined whether or not a safe landing is assured — in no case should it continue to a point where it creates an undue hazard or an annoyance to persons or property on the ground (AFH 9-29).

That gives you three separate termination triggers, and you should brief all three:

1. Success is established — the student would obviously make the field. There is no learning left below that point, only risk.
2. Failure is established — the student would obviously not make the field. Same logic.
3. Hazard — livestock, people, low-level obstructions, or a descent into terrain you cannot see the far side of.

The go-around itself is the highest-risk moment of the exercise: low, slow, cold engine, nose coming up. Brief the power application as gradual and the pitch as following the power, not leading it.

During all simulated emergency landings, keep the engine warm and cleared (AFH 9-29). A piston engine held at idle in a long descent through cool air shock-cools the cylinders and may not deliver power when you finally ask for it — at exactly the moment you need it most, on the go-around.

Two disciplines:

• Clear the engine periodically — a brief power application during the glide. Teach the student to expect it and not to treat it as thrust.
• Do not let a clearing burst become a stretch. The AFH lists "use of throttle to increase the glide instead of merely clearing the engine" as a common error (AFH 9-27). If you are the one clearing it, say "clearing the engine" so the student does not read it as help.

The same principle appears in the emergency descent Task: prolonged practice should be avoided to prevent excessive cooling of the engine cylinders (AFH 18-8).

The low-altitude cross-controlled stall. The AFH describes the exact mechanism twice:

• A low-level gliding steep turn during an engine failure emergency. If the rudder is excessively deflected in the direction of the bank while the pilot increases elevator back pressure trying to hold altitude, the situation can rapidly turn into an unrecoverable spin (AFH 3-24).
• The setup is easy to fall into because in a glide the control forces are light: reduced airflow means reduced rudder pedal pressures, so a student conditioned by powered flight applies too much rudder and produces slips and skids (AFH 3-24).

Your guardrails: name the ball, name the airspeed, and take the controls if either goes uncorrected. Do not wait for both.

• Level one — the rule. The pilot should not attempt to stretch a glide by applying back-elevator pressure and reducing the airspeed below the recommended best glide speed (AFH 3-23). Attempting it is likely to land the airplane short and may lead to loss of control if it stalls (AFH 3-23).
• Level two — why. Below L/DMAX, induced drag rises steeply. Raising the nose reduces airspeed, and total drag increases, so the glide ratio worsens. You are trading the very thing you are trying to buy.
• Level three — what the pitch control is actually for. The purpose of pitch during the glide is to maintain maximum L/D, which may require fore or aft control pressure (AFH 3-23). Pitch is not an altitude lever in a glide; it is the L/D selector. Once the student internalizes that, "stretching" stops sounding like an option and starts sounding like a category error.

Flaps improve maneuverability at slow speed and lower the stalling speed, so their use on final approach is recommended when time and circumstances permit. But the associated increase in drag and decrease in gliding distance call for caution in the timing and extent of their application; premature use of flap and dissipation of altitude may jeopardize an otherwise sound plan (AFH 18-4).

For retractable gear the AFH declines to give a rule: a hard and fast rule concerning the position of a retractable landing gear at touchdown cannot be given (AFH 18-4). In rugged terrain and trees, or during high sink rate impacts, an extended gear has a protective effect on the cabin area; that has to be weighed against a collapsing gear rupturing a fuel tank. Follow the AFM/POH. On level but soft terrain or a plowed field with a normal touchdown assured, a gear-up landing may result in less damage (AFH 18-4).

The instructor's rule that overrides all of it: positive airplane control during the final part of the approach has priority over all other considerations, including configuration and checklist tasks (AFH 18-4).

One electrical note belongs here, because students get it backward: deactivation of the airplane's electrical system before touchdown reduces the likelihood of a post-crash fire, but the battery master switch should not be turned off until the pilot no longer has any need for electrical power to operate vital airplane systems (AFH 18-4). Turning the master off does not silence the ELT — it is independently powered and transmits automatically on impact on 121.5, 243.0, or 406.0 MHz (AFH glossary G-5). The full ELT regulatory picture is covered under Task XII.D.

The AFH calls loss of initiative over attitude and sink rate at touchdown the most critical and often the most inexcusable error in an emergency landing, even in ideal terrain (AFH 18-4):

• An excessive nose-low attitude risks sticking the nose in the ground.
• Steep bank angles just before touchdown increase stalling speed and the likelihood of a wingtip strike.
• The vertical velocity goes to zero instantly on contact, so it must be controlled: a flat touchdown at a sink rate well in excess of 500 fpm on a hard surface can be injurious without destroying the cabin structure — especially gear-up in low-wing airplanes, whose rigid bottom precludes cushioning by structural deformation. In high-wing airplanes similar impacts can collapse the overhead structure (AFH 18-4).

Touchdown should be at the lowest possible controllable airspeed, using all available aerodynamic devices (AFH 18-3).

This is the psychological work of the Task, and the AFH treats it as such. Almost any terrain can be considered suitable for a survivable crash landing if the pilot knows how to use the airplane structure for self-protection (AFH 18-1). The mechanism is (1) keeping the cabin area relatively intact by using dispensable structure — wings, landing gear, fuselage bottom — to absorb the stopping violence, and (2) avoiding forceful bodily contact with interior structure (AFH 18-2).

The numbers make it concrete: a typical light airplane is designed to protect occupants in crash landings exposing them to 9G forward. At a uniform 9G, the stopping distance from 50 mph is about 9.4 feet; from 100 mph it is about 37.6 feet — four times as great (AFH 18-3). Doubling the groundspeed quadruples the total destructive energy (AFH 18-3).

So: dense crops, brush, and small trees are energy absorbers, not hazards — cultivated fields with dense crops such as mature corn and grain are almost as effective in stopping an airplane with repairable damage as an emergency arresting device on a runway (AFH 18-2).

The AFH lists three, and naming them in the brief is the single highest-value thing you can do in this Task (AFH 18-1):

• Reluctance to accept the emergency. An unconscious desire to delay the dreaded moment produces failure to lower the nose to maintain flying speed, delay in selecting a landing area, and indecision.
• Undue concern about getting hurt. Fear is part of self-preservation, but when it becomes panic it invites the outcome. The success of an emergency landing is as much a matter of the mind as of skills.
• Desire to save the airplane. A pilot conditioned during training to always find a relatively safe field may ignore basic airmanship to avoid damage — turning back with insufficient altitude, stretching the glide, accepting a no-margin approach.

That third one is a direct indictment of lazy instruction. If every simulated failure you give happens over a friendly valley at 3,500 feet, you are building precisely that conditioning. Vary the altitude and the terrain, and say out loud that there are times a pilot should be more interested in sacrificing the airplane so the occupants can safely walk away from it (AFH 18-1).

Teach the arithmetic, then the conclusion. The FAA's traditional example: engine fails at 300 feet AGL. After a typical 4-second reaction time, a standard rate turn takes 1 minute for 180°. At a 65-knot glide the turn radius is 2,100 feet, so the airplane ends up 4,200 feet to one side of the runway and needs another 45° of turn — 225° total, 75 seconds plus the 4-second reaction. At roughly 1,000 fpm the airplane has descended 1,316 feet, putting it 1,016 feet below the runway (AFH 18-7).

Conclusions to draw:

• A standard-rate or shallow turn consumes too much time, requires too much distance, and generates an unacceptable solution — a turn back, if attempted, requires a higher bank angle (AFH 18-7).
• Continuing straight ahead or making a slight turn gives time to establish a landing attitude and lands under control as slowly as possible; it usually represents the option with the lowest risk (AFH 18-7).
• A turn back at low altitude is an unacceptable risk for student pilots, low-time pilots, untrained pilots, pilots without adequate proficiency, and pilots flying airplanes with insufficient glide performance (AFH 18-7).
• If you do teach it, teach it properly: practice turns in both directions at a safe altitude in the make and model flown, after simulating a failure from a climb, until altitude loss is consistent and an accelerated stall is avoided — and expect that in a real emergency the loss will be at the high end of the range observed in practice (AFH 18-7).