Not that drastic, and also based on one study I found (there may be more current ones???), pitch has a play into it whether a stopped or windmilling prop has less drag.
Reason I looked is I was under the impression that a windmilling prop produces less drag and I personally see no beneficial reason for cutting mixture on a perfectly working engine.
Once you know you have the runway made, glide issue is a non issue.
As leardvr mentioned, shutting down a perfectly working engine takes your last option out should a go around be in order. (flare to early, whatever). We are talking a failed landing gear in this thread, not a failed engine.
If you are talking at altitude, then you may want to think about shutting down the engine should it have failed to extend your glide but based on the above study, you better know the optimal pitch on whether it’s better to shut 'er down or let it windmill…
More food for thought. I’m on final, begining to flare A/S set and I pull the prop back to “feather.” What happens to my airspeed? All of a sudden there’s less drag. I’m flaring when I am because I’m used to the decelerasion I get in the flare. Now will the airspeed continue to settle? Maybe it jumps back up and flare becomes a brief climb followed by rapidly decreasing speed. I might stall, I’m not going around. I panic pull back and SLAM it in. Now the a/c has spare damage and I have possible internal injuries. That’s my thought process during those 3 hours.
Right, but if I have an extremely long runway to work with so in an effort to minimize aircraft damage by stopping the prop I think I would come in steep, shut it down just short of the threshold and glide in. No sense in causing more damage than necessary…I realize safety is first, but if I know I can still make it in safely while causing less damage, why not?
To all that given their opinion on my landing - the mixture was cut and the prop continued to windmill the whole way down as you saw. I was hoping that the prop would stop so I may have a chance to position it but that did not happen - I was committed from the time I cut the mixture.
As you know, hindsight is always 20/20.
Minimal damage (if you want to call it that) was done to the plane and it’s back in the air.
There is the final verdict. Mixture was cut, when doing so the prop will NOT stop when moving forward. the Relative wind is turning the prop, and lets entertain the idea that you could feather a piston single (which for many reasons you CANNOT) as all those others had said you have to escape goat, no other options than to put her on the belly. Now one more thing, cut the mixture engine stops running but is still windmilling, adjusting the pitch would be very unlikely to be succesful, Because oil pressure is what adjusts the pitch change on a single. Windmilling engine will still show oil pressure but likely not enough to increase prop pitch, When oil pressure is lost it defaults to Flattest pitch i.e. highest drag!!! resluting in decrease in glide peformance
