Adoption of this technique for individual pilots and their aircraft and their personal abilities is a huge variable, one that can only be addressed by a live human instructor in the cockpit. Please do not go out and try this stuff by yourself in an environment where you can be hurt or damage your equipment. We publish these articles to open your mind and provide inspiration about what is possible, but make no mistake-- pushing into new, uncharted waters in your personal skillset has risks. Go out with a qualified instructor, and even then, be careful. Reading about it on the Internet is no substitute.
I'll let the conversation about the details pick up from here, but please remember that safety and preservation of property trump bragging rights. Some risks aren't on the menu when you're a hundred miles from assistance.
I'm going to respect this person's anonymity (I made a few select edits), please do not try to identify them here, that's not the point, just take the message and the outcome for what it is. The person who wrote this will definitely read your responses.
Edit: I'll add that I'm not posting the preface above to take anything away from the pilot's comments. They seem fairly experienced, in fact. However, I do want to revisit the message and the purpose of The Approach article, which is to provide a very broad technique for flying a pitch attitude that provides an appropriate AOA that will result in shorter, more controlled landings when appropriate. The message is NOT to get as slow as possible, or to approach as steeply as possible. Those are certainly possible, but the ultimate outcome should be a safe approach, not riding the ragged edge, or getting behind the power curve. Perhaps we will edit the article to more strongly emphasize these caveats.
-Zane
Hi all,
I want to speak out a warning to try these kind of approaches!
But let me explain.
I have by far not the flight hours Patrick has, in fact I have 1050 hrs TT. 250 Hrs in gliders. 350 tailwheel and the rest on T41s, 172s incl. RG's, Pipers and Huskies. I think I am a decent pilot and since I finished my AC ( 260HP) last year, I have flown 200 hrs most of it cross country and in the backcountry. I landed at Cabin Creek, Wilson Bar, Sodier Bar, Deadwood Reservoir and lots of other strips, always the way I learned it with an approach speed 1.2 or 1.3 of Vso. Because it is an experimental aircraft I could not rely on a POH but had to fly those speed myself. From that I know that Vso of my AC is 37ktn add 20% to 30% and you are in the vicinity of 45 to 49 ktn. (Very similar to Patricks M7 I guess) With full flaps I had never a problem to get into one of those fields and additionally I could always slip the aircraft. (Yes, I am coming from a glider background, I have no problem to slip an aircraft) Those technics worked for me all the time. I could stop my AC in 300 to 400 ft and thats always way shorter than one actually need on those strips. (i.m.h.o. those short field landings are highly overrated because you need to get out of those fields again and you usually need more take off distance than you need to land! )
So a week before New Years Eve I did read Patricks article and thought that is an interesting thing worth trying. I went out to my airport and flew a some stalls the get my speeds again and then tried his method on our dirt RWY. And... it worked! My landings were short, within 300 feet.
I noticed that the elevator authority was almost gone and that you need that power burst Patrick is talking about to get at least some authority on the elevator in that transition from decent to flare. But..... It worked.
Until December 31st. I was out again to practice and this time I came a little to short. We have a cross RWY and that RWY has a drainage ditch.
Of course I was eager to shorten my landings even more and when I pushed the throttle in for the power burst, the RPM increased, nose came up but the AC did not stop sinking.
What happened? For some reason I had lost my altitude before I had overflown the ditch. On the approaches before, that power burst did get the nose up (tail down) and the aircraft settled down in an almost trheepointer with a fully stalled wing. This time, the ground wasn't there and although the nose came up, the aircraft did sink slightly into the ditch. The rest happened fast. My 26" Goodyears hit the edge of that ditch. The right gear leg was torn out of it's mount. When the aircraft began pointing the nose left, the left gear collapsed and the prop hit the ground and disintegrated.
The aircraft came to a stop and that was by far the shortest landing I have ever made.
We all know that similar situation can happen everywhere in the backcountry. When you approach Angle Point, UT or Soldier Bar, ID you actually land on a carrier. Before you reach your RWY the ground is a few hundred feet lower than the actual RWY. You might get a downdraft or something or you don't have a straight horizon, like approaching Cabin Creek, to check your wings and then you have no reserve! You and your aircraft are doomed.
I was lucky! It happened at my home airfield help was instantly there and I walked away! Except a big dent in my EGO and a few thousand buck to repair the aircraft I am fine. For strips like Deadwood Reservoir or Mile High, I doubt that this method will work at all because you will not have enough speed to follow the ascending ground. So my guess is you will impact like a stone.
But I also learned something.
If something works for you! Don't change it!
I don't blame somebody except myself! I was stupid enough to depart from that principle.
And again. Shortfield landings are overrated and they push you into some kind of dangerous competition which is complete unnecessary!
Fly safe
