Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Raising Flaps just before Touch down.

I practice at this 4100' long grass runway and usually have the place to myself. I have practiced here for years now with head winds, tailwinds and no wind. This is what my flare looks like and I am close to 40 kts getting ready to stall onto the wheels. Next time I will take some pictures of the panel while in the flare. It only took me about 2000 landings to get comfortable and today I am at 2700+ landings since 2016 when I learned to fly. I think my G5 is showing TAS at 47 at this moment?
IMG_1853.JPG
 
Why? If you are floating in a C-172 with flaps, the approach speed must be way too fast. I knew a C-172 pilot that liked to fly his approaches at 75 kt, plus 5-10 kts extra for gusts and for the family. This is how we wound up using 3980 feet of a 4000 foot runway when I rode copilot on an XC trip. On the return trip I demonstrated how the proper approach speed would not stall the aircraft, and the landing roll can be done in two runway lights.

The last thing I want to be doing while in the flare is managing the throttle (for a potential go-around or burst of power to smooth out a gust-induced balloon or sink), the yoke, AND the flap switch. That seems like one hand too many. And as others have pointed out, on retracts, there are "other" switches to mangle during the flare.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Why? Is this one of those questions about the theory of a short field technique you’ll never need to use because you never go into fields short enough to require anything more than standard book technique?
Click to expand...

How short would that be?
 
Brian said:
How short would that be?
Click to expand...
Depend on the airplane, of course.

My base for a few years was 7B9 in CT, an 1800’ runway. Flew 152s and 172s there regularly, but also landed there in a Piper Arrow (my first lesson in a retract) and a DA20.

More recently, I flew a DA40 into Stanton’s, a restaurant in SC with an uncharted strip they say is 2300’ long, although my measurement says that includes from the end against the road to the end against the trees. :D. This is the custom airport diagram I made for ForeFlight.

Basic short field technique with normal braking,

1714734302211.png
 
Last edited:
Some of the fun short ones around here are:
Camano Island, 13W, 1750': short but sea level and the N end goes right to the water with no obstructions, so if you're taking off to the N you've got no worries as long as you get the wheels up before you run out of pavement.
Shady Acres, 3B8, 1800': feels like landing in a residential backyard. And it is, for practical purposes! Some obstructions on both ends, so do it on a nice cold day with thick air and low DA.
Strom, 39P, 1810': long enough, but only just. And the pavement is rough, so you need to land both soft and short.
First Air / Monroe W16, 2087': long enough that no special technique is required, but short enough that you better not be too fast. A good practice / intro before doing shorter fields like 13W or 3B8.
Whidbey Air Park W10, 2470': with tall trees on both ends of the runway, the view out the windshield can be intimidating. But no special technique is required - just don't be too fast, and it's good practice for that.
 
I did a lot of my training at 1C3 (Argyle, NY). It's a 2400' grass strip with one turn-off smack dab in the middle. There's a small flight school building next to the turn-off, so it's really easy to know where 1200' is when you're landing and pretty darned easy to estimate 600'. There are also fairly tall trees on short final for 03 and there used to be a hedge at each end of the runway.

Landing there on 03 meant flying low over trees and then sort of swooping down to the runway while missing the hedge. I would be annoyed with myself if I couldn't get the 172 down and stopped within 600' with normal braking and no lifting of flaps. I think the shortest I ever had was around 400' but that might have been with a headwind.

Taking off was a different story. With two onboard with full fuel on a summer day and proper technique, I could get into ground effect, increase airspeed to 60 MPH and begin to climb by the time I passed the flight school at 1200' and miss the trees not far from the end of the runway. I'm guessing that if I needed to fly out of a shorter piece of grass that was reasonably smooth and it was just me onboard with less than half-full tanks, I could probably be out of ground effect by around 800'.

I should fly over there sometime and test that and see how well I can do.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom