These are Wolfgang's words, with his son's permission, concerning how we should be situated to land slowly and softly on the beginning of the relatively short runways of his day. Whether doing the round out and hold off technique or the "stall down" technique, whether three-point or wheel touchdown, he expected we would use simple clues to arrive "all slowed up and ready to squat."

STOL contests have popularized a technique similar to Stick and Rudder's "stall down" by setting a near stall pitch attitude and holding that all the way to touchdown. That gets them all slowed up but the squat requires Navy quality gear. Both Wolfgang's "stall down" and the Army's apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach use the apparent speed up in a stabilized rate of closure as we near the desired touchdown spot to trigger a safe deceleration coming into ground effect where Vso is no longer applicable. Again in Wolfgang's words, "The 'stall-down" landing requires that you blend the approach glide, the flare-out, and the slowing up of the airplane all into one maneuver so that, when you arrive at ground level, you arrive in three-point attitude, all slowed up and ready to squat. This can be done by feel, and if you can make a three-point landing the easy floating way, it will not take much practice to change to the more precise and harder stall-down way. You simply slow up your approach glide when you get within 50 feet or so of the ground and keep on slowing it up. This will make the final float much shorter, and if you start the slowing up of your glide high enough and time the back travel of the stick just right, the final float will become just a brief hesitation on the ship's descent, and there you sit." (p. 302) "The clue to watch is the intended landing spot and the scenery beyond it and to the sides of it. Once the normal glide has been broken, the process of stalling the airplane down can be gauged entirely by watching the spot and the perspective to which it appears and its apparent motion." (p. 304)

The only approach technique Wolfgang does not cover here is the drag it in type of shallow glide angle stall down approach. Using a normal or even steep approach, the deceleration sufficient to require the power to drag it in can be employed in Wolfgang's stall down approach. We simply use the visual clues he mentions, the apparent rate of closure, to gauge the deceleration. We already have thousands of iterations of that technique decelerating autos coming into intersections.

To save tin and skin I highly suggest that whatever landing technique we use, we arrive "all slowed up and ready to squat." This would negate the need for most late and therefore dangerous go arounds. In my experience with default pitch and power to decelerate, I have not had to go around. I have added power to again fly in ground effect to jump a late seen ditch or rough spot requiring a second stall down. And I have gone around problems with rudder turns in low ground effect.

What's in your wallet?

You are Jimmy & thanks for that !

What V speed is associated with "all slowed up and ready to squat?" 1.3 Vso has nothing to do with it. Vso, and out of ground effect number, has nothing to do with it. Does the technique involve more science or art? Is it an instrument maneuver or a contact maneuver? What will happen if we choose an appropriate V speed and set that for landing? Is there an appropriate V speed?

What energy can be associated with "all slowed up and ready to squat?

airspeed
potential energy of altitude
wind energy
ground effect
relative wind
prop blast over wing root
heat

Is there an appropriate V speed?

Does the technique require more science or art?

Concerning airline autoland for Cat III approach, will ILS and radar altimeter do it or is some AI required? Just asking, I really don't know.

Autoland III is a major math problem that the FMC, Autopilots (yes, we use 3 autopilots on auto land) and pilot compute. There is staged de-crabbing, flare height, rollout guidance and auto braking all going on. The pilot is there to set up the proper landing flap and approach settings based on the weight and day of landing conditions. The once you landing, you need to get the airplane to the gate, stand. This is not so easy in really reduced viz. Go slow, use all eyes, and let ATC know if your are not 100% sure where you are.

Callouts are also there to support the Pilot Flying in mode awareness and to ensure the airplane is in fact doing what is expected. Many accidents occurred where the pilot said he wasn't sure what the airplane was doing. The pilots are expected to do nothing more or less than what is required or in the procedure. We are truly locked-in and don't want or need extra callouts or guessing what the other pilot just said. If conditions are not right, simply "Go Around" is the call- made by any pilot up front and we sort it out later.

Thanks for the explanation. I quit II work because I lost feeling in my fingers and didn't keep up with the new computer driven nav/com systems. I wonder about the high number of IMC accidents by older pilots. We didn't grow up with computers and even with competency I don't think we are as comfortable or nimble with them as are younger pilots. Mario Brothers if this doesn't work try that just doesn't compute the same with us. I suffered through small knobs, but touchscreens were just too much. We who have lots of IMC time understand how important being comfortable with the systems is. That said, I have no problem riding in the back of an airliner with you young guys managing things up front.

48Stinson, why can't a waypoints programmed GPS be used for taxi on complicated airports? I had to ask for progressive taxi at night, but mostly just didn't fly at night. It was easier in Hueys because they just sent you from and landed you on or near the parking spot. Blue lights may work for Martians.

In some progressive airports such as Incheon, they provide green centerline taxi paths, and say "Follow the greens" to your stand., There are still charted taxi text-instructions that you must comply with.

As far as waypoints on ground, no, both (or more) pilots are eyes outside. No heads down while taxi. A HUD could benefit but there is no such thing as highway on the ground for taxi. Lastly, ANY miscalculation on ground will cause millions in dollars of expense or even loss of life.

We do use iPad with AMM - Airport Moving Map for ground taxi which helps but large aircraft have hit light poles in the fog due to wingspan restrictions not being adhered to.

I’m going to use this with my dog

Hey, he’s all slowed up and ready to squat, can you please let him outside

I started at age nine with the architect we built golf courses for. 170, 180, Comanche, twin Comanche, and Aztec before I went to college. His wife had show chow dogs we moved when shows and golf course negotiations lined up. As co-pilot valet, I was the one who "squirted the dog."