Passenger: How far can we glide if the engine quits?
Pilot: Oh, we can make it all the way to the crash site! 
Nice video of a simulated engine failure in a Piper PA-28 Warrior. [NB: The joke is not in the video. 
]
As they used to say about many light twins:
Q: What’s the second engine for?
A: To take you to the scene of the accident in style. While doubling the chances of having an engine failure in the first place.
Sailplanes, on the other hand, can make it all the way to a crash site on no engines at all.
(Said the former sailplane student, whose first lesson in simulated rope breaks ended in a nearby cow pasture.)
I quit being an instructor because I kept letting my students almost die. <VEG>
They did not want to learn the realities of the results of bad plans on their part and that they should really listen to folks who had ‘been there, done that.’
Bawahahahaha
The problem with realistic training is it got (gets?) too many CFIs killed. Glad you weren’t one of them. Light twin engine failures were real dangerous training events especially before the advent of blue-line speeds. Ditto spins in many models.
I’m reminded also of the old joke about the procedure for a forced landing at night:
1. Glide down to close to the ground.
2. Turn on your landing lights.
3. Choose the appropriate action:
A. If you like what you see: land.
B. If you don't like what you see: turn off the lights.
Works every time.
I used to love performing and teaching engine-out scenarios. Very interesting exercise in energy management, and it was always different because of varying aircraft weight, winds, density altitude, etc.
Before I wised up to the FAA special emphasis areas, I even used to cut the engine on students after takeoff and have them land straight ahead on the same (large) runway. That one always got their heart rates up. And while I now realize it was hazardous, I always did it very carefully and still think it was a worthwhile drill.
I simulated a crash once …in MS Flight Simulator
Only once? I’m pretty sure we called it MS crash simulator when I was a kid.
As one of the instructors said at the safety seminar a few weeks ago, “Takeoffs are optional, landings are mandatory”
One of my ‘I am fed up with this ass who thinks he knows everything’ was to fly then out out to a favorite spot I had and have an engine failure with the emphasis on ‘not being able to figure out what was wrong.’ There was only one place to go and they would find it and on a very short low final I would bring the engine back and off we would go. When we could not get back there, that engine quit again. <VEG> No place survivable to go. I would eventu -------- ally give them the engine back and ask them why they left the first area without know what was wrong when it was obviously the only place to be able to survive an engine failure.
I took my multi-engine flight test in an old Piper Aztec that was kind of tired.
Part of the ride was at OKM with long runways in wide open country with a fence being the tallest thing you could hit.
So came the the engine fail and you had to keep going with the takeoff. I finished cleaning up and setting power and was flying along with about a 10’ per minute rate of climb, all she could do, and after a while when it was obvious I could get back to the field or go someplace for maintenance or whatever, the examiner, who had helped instruct me in instruments and known me for a while expressed that I was not even sweating in these trying circumstances.
I said, “R, you do remember I fly a 85 HP Swift, even in the hot humid summer?”
I always had to move right to miss the Greeks house across 21st street when taking off to the south with full fuel & a passenger. Climbing was optional in that poor little plane. Bawahahahah
If I ever landed anyplace with a density altitude above 5000 ft, I would have to either taker it apart & truck it out of wait for a cold windy day in winter…
That Swift was behind the power curve in a full power vertical dive. It needed flying real carefully ALL the time.
Was a fella bought a 7AC Champ and wanted to learn to fly. Older guy. Went through all the local instructors, there were many back then. They all quit so he came to me. I quit instructing because of my reaction to him.
He did not listen, yelled about it being his airplane and in general was a royal PITA.
Finally one day we were once again trying to get a decent landing and he blew up and demanded that I say nothing, do nothing as he could fly just fine and this landing was to be all his.
So I pulled my feet back as best I could and crossed my arms and clamped my mouth shut. We went 'sprong, bounce, side tip, grass flying and then wonky jawed towards the East fence. It seemed to me that we were not going to die so I held my pose as we hit the fence, went up on the nose and were now on the wrong side of the fence with a broke airplane and a screaming pilot.
I knew I had to quit because that was not how to be a good instructor. I had to be able to handle PITA types better. When the looky loos said they would call the FAA about the accident he begged them not to. He was originally saying that it was my fault but someone pointed out that it would be hard to prove and it was known that he would fight the instructor for the stick and did not listen, etc…
So we all helped him push it in his hanger and I walked away and let my instructor rating lapse. Official flight instruction was not for a guy like me.
I never heard if he ever got a Pvt Lic.
In later years, I would fly with many people who were trying to learn to fly planes that I had a lot of time in but never as an official instructor. They wanted to learn and already had a license. Were legal in the planes, just not very good. Those I could help and had fun doing so.
Interesting vid. Thanks for sharing.
You may not have noticed that although the CFI was calm and measured, I probably would have had my chute tightened up, the door open, and bailed out right past the last cow or two (or three) we had passed if no runway was in sight.
