Jets = Gliders?

Apparently, jets can glide when their fuel gets cut off due to some reasons! For details, read the following from a veteran pilot in an egroup I am a member of:

"Who said jets can't glide, everyone who knows anything about heavier than air flying machines knows that every aircraft can glide --- the distance one can glide will depend upon the aircrafts best glide ratio. How does one get to calculate the "best glide ratio" ?? Well take the L/D Ratio of the aircraft, lets say, the L/D is 15:1, or say 20:1 Reverse this figure and you get 1:15 or 1:20 , that is the glide ratio of that particular aircraft ---- so for 1 (One) mile of altitude you get a glide distance of 15 or 20 miles. Jets (Vampires) have been flying in India since the late forties (1948) , the aircraft had an L/D ratio of 20:1, so the best glide angle was 1:20 --- i.e. for every mile altitude (5280 feet = 1 ststute mile; 6080 feet = 1 nautical mile) the Vampire would glide 20 (twenty miles) Clean a/c, gear and flaps up at the best speed of 160 knots. So from 30,000 feet it could cover 100 miles. Now you have to consider the wind, with a tail wind fly the best glide speed, but with a headwind you must as a rule of thumb add the wind component to the Indicated airspeed and then fly the new speed. Ferrying a Vamp from Kanpur to Palam, in the winter, winds were approximately 300/60 - 80 Knots, the engine flamed out between Aligarh and Ghaziabad, and I just made it straight in to Palam's R/W 27. The Air Force teaches dead stick landings at all stages on all their fighters, they work a "high key" and a "low key" point, there have been hundreds of dead stick landings on all types. The longest "glide" by any aircraft is over 2,500 kilometers done over the Andes (South America) in February 2003.

Now if there is a "bearing failure" front or worse rear, then the glide takes on a whole new picture, the engine does'nt "windmill" freely, it feels as if the airbrakes, or landing gear has been extended ---- it will stil glide, but not nearly as far.

As far as Commercial aircraft are concerned, Air Canada had an incident in the very early '80's. The Company had been used to working fuel figures in Kilograms, they got new aircraft with fuel gauges in Pounds. From the computerised flight plan they loaded fuel as required, only reading the numbers in figures. Halfway through the flight the crew realised the error, they now had a critical condition. Both engines flamed out, radar guided them to an unused airfield on the shores of Lake Winipeg only to find the local aeromodelling club were having their annual competitions, anyway the field was cleared and the aircraft landed. Yes the Ram Air Turbine was the only source for their electrics, this aircraft, like many of the others, could not make use of the APU in flight, the APU doors were activated by the WOW switches (Weight on Wheels). Regarding the hydraulics --- provided the aircraft has not had a failure with consequent loss of all fluid, then the windmilling RPM from the engines is most often sufficient to lower the gear, flaps can be deployed electrically, but will be very slow going down, no reverse, emergency brakes --- dont pump them or you lose what is there.

The aircraft that flew 157 miles from 30,000 feet would possibly have had a very strong tailwind ----- 140 to 180 Westerly winds over the Pacific and US in the winter. Even the Airbus has a better than 11:1 L/D or 1:11 glide angle, but congrats to the pilot for remembering what he had learnt from his gliding experiences.

Methinks, that all pilots should fly gliders to hone their skills, and give them an awareness of what power there is in the sky above us. In India we have some of the best gliding conditions in the world; Standing Waves right across the Himalayas, strong thermals across the whole sub-continent, what we lack is the "Spirit of Adventure" --- we also expect to be spoonfed by the Government agencies.

Thanx for reading this far, had to answer some of the queeries that have been raised about this issue."

* L/D= Lift/Drag!! (and not Length/Diameter :)
* The Air Canada incident being talked about in the email is Gimli Glider incident (but for the experience pilot, it could have become Gimli Glider Accident)