As someone who has flown from Pennsylvania to Tennessee and back without an engine, veteran glider pilot Tom Knauff probably knows a thing or two about best glide speed. “We rarely use it,” he says. So much for that. After he spends a few minutes explaining the theory of soaring, and how serious glider pilots approach their sport very technically, Knauff’s reasons for rarely using best glide speed come into focus. There’s irony in the fact that a speed pilots of powered aircraft use only when flying without power is reserved pretty much solely for aircraft with engines. Even then, Knauff makes a convincing argument that best glide speed is, in many cases, irrelevant—and even when it is used, it’s pretty squishy. for a day THE STEMME S 10-VT has a glide ratio of 50 to 1—once the engine is shut down and the propeller is stowed. PLUS View a video of pilot Tom Knauff in action. JULY 2013 FLIGHT TRAINING / 37