Most of you have probably heard of the F18 that crashed into a couple of houses in San Diego. The plane was carrier based, and lost one engine over the ocean. It was deemed too risky to try a carrier landing, so they brought him in.
At first I was miffed the pilot didn't "go down with the ship", staying with the plane in hopes of at least seeing it dumped into a street instead of bailing out and letting it land willy-nilly wherever. Then someone pointed out to me these things don't glide. I was under the impression all planes did. I was told that when you lose all engine power in these things, you have no more control (I assume the controls are all hydraulic with no "backup" system). If that's the case, the F18 with both engines out is a flying casket, so you might as well save yourself.
From my private pilot days, I remember the Cessna 150 had a 6:1 (I think) glide ratio. If you lost power at 5000 feet AGL, you had like a couple of days to pick a spot to set it down. I remember having to land one without power in an Illinois cornfield.
So, are all jet fighters (and I guess the big commercial jets too) uncontrollable with engines out?
