We have 5 light sport aircraft in our group of back country flyers and we came to realize, while flying Idaho strips, that we had better be very good at making accuracy landings if the engine goes silent.

We are fortunate, here in SoCal to have many dry lakes to land on.

We have devised an accuracy training syllabus to help us be able to handle engine out emergencies.

On one of the dry lakes...namely El Mirage...we set up target cones and flag markers at 100 foot intervals before and after the target cones to mark our accuracy touch downs. This is just a few miles south of where the ultimate dead stick landings were done with the space shuttle at Edwards AFB.

The various stages of the syllabus progress until we shut down the engine on the 1000 foot AGL downwind and can land within 50 feet of the target cones. Many new comers to our sessions have been as much as 200 yards short and after a few tries can land within a couple hundred feet. Then they perfect it to be much closer.

We also practice the deadly turn back which isn't deadly if you know the minimum turn back altitude of your aircraft and your skill level.

We practice monthly and invite any pilots who are in the Southern California area to join us to observe or participate. Those who have participated have said they feel much more confident in the event of an engine failure.

The lake bed is very smooth and you have a 5 x 3 mile surface to practice in.

Sounds like a great opportunity. And your guide a valuable resource. Any chance to upload it?

When is your next event? Could you post these here and I might fly out from KCMA.

Thanks,

Tom

I would like to check this out also.

John when are these events held? Is there an e-mail list, or a web page for it? I fly out to El Mirage frequently on Saturdays to practice landings and there usually isn't anyone else there. I usually go set up a couple of cones at the old windsock near the SW corner of the lake, occasionally I go there and hang with the R/C guys at the NW corner near the toilet blockhouse. BTW I loaned or gave your old Avid B to Pete Plumb up in Shafter to use as a development test airframe for his new O-100 engine.

Practice makes perfect. Years ago, we held landing contests at Laramie every Wednesday evening in the summer. We marked the runway with a flour line, and the rules were simple. You could use any flaps you wished. You could reduce power and even carry power all the way to touchdown if you wished, but if you had to add power, DQ. Landing short at all, DQ. The one landing closest to the line but not before it was the winner, and had to buy the beer for everyone else. I'm proud to say that I bought the beer frequently.

The flour line was a couple thousand feet from the numbers, for safety, so that landing short was still on the runway. That's still a good idea, for practice. While I may occasionally choose to plunk it on the numbers, planning to land on the thousand foot markers is safer, in case I misjudge.

One night, a young fellow came out and after watching, asked if he could participate. The problem was that he was a stranger to the area visiting his grandparents, he'd only recently soloed, so he couldn't be allowed to take an airplane up alone. I volunteered to go with him, with the promise to everyone else that I wouldn't say anything or do anything, unless safety required me to intervene. It was amazing to see a kid with almost no experience do such a remarkable job of spot landing. He won that night, but because he was too young to buy beer, everyone chipped in that night. I filled out his logbook as dual, but really, that kid could have taught others, he had such good judgment on planning the spot landings exactly right.

Cary