contactflying wrote:I've not been extremely successful at selling the apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach.

'Splain please. This is not something I am familiar with.

tcj wrote:For most of the review he had me fly my Cherokee 180 at 55 mph...lots of it. We were flying high near the airport when he said "Now land straight ahead on the runway". I said, I didn't think I could get down in time to land. My usual approach speed was 75 to 85 mph. His reply was, "You know this airplane will fly just fine at 55 mph". So I did and landed right on the numbers. Best flight review I ever had,

I failed my first private check ride because the examiner asked me to touch down on the numbers, and I floated about 200 feet beyond the numbers. I was a little upset at the time, because my instructor never emphasized airspeed control on final and at touchdown. We were just cautioned to stay away from the stall and carry extra speed. In fact I remember learning little about energy management in my primary training. Picked that stuff up with gliders. My second checkride consisted of one trip around the pattern to demonstrate that i could land on the numbers. I am usually stopped on the numbers these days I am very thankful that the examiner provided me with this lesson.

Geoffrey-I think I wrote an original post on the apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach, but here it goes briefly. This is the way Army aviators are taught to land in primary helicopter school. I had an airplane commercial when I when to Ft. Wolters in 1969 and saw the possibilities for very short field airplane work. If you look at an object 1/4 mile ahead while cruising at 500' AGL, it appears to be closing with you at a brisk walk, slow canter, steady gradual speed or whatever you want to call it. Your ground speed is probably near your airspeed, which is much higher. We are not concerned with ground speed, airspeed, or any indicator in the airplane. Ground speed is closer to the concept, but not the same. It is the "apparent rate."

When we practice slow flight and stalls at altitude, hopefully we learn the sounds, sights (not so good up this high), and kinetic feel of stalls and much more importantly the nearness of a stall. We apply that knowledge to the simple sight of the apparent rate of closure to come up with an approach that will completely or at least mostly remove the need for the more difficult to learn (initially) round out, flair, and hold off approach to landing.

At about 500' high and about 1/4 mile out on any approach, we will pick up this apparent brisk walk rate of closure with the numbers. It will very rapidly become a very fast run rate of closure unless we begin use the elevator to slow up. This will cause a climb unless we adjust power to stay on whatever glide angel we desire (steep or shallow makes no difference.) The closer we get while stabilized (no change in pitch or power,) the faster will become the apparent rate of closure. The lower we get while stabilized (no change in pitch or power,) the faster will become the apparent rate of closure. If we use pitch and power to maintain this apparent brisk walk, however, we will continue to decrease ground speed until the numbers disappear under the nose. We will continue to slow down requiring addition of power. At this point (very short final) we use that knowledge of the sights and sounds and feel of near stall speed to hold what we have, pull back just a bit to protect the nose gear, or close the throttle (power will be more that the normal stabilized approach at this point because we will be much slower than 1.3 Vso. We use our understanding of stalls to delay stall until almost down or down. We use our understanding of stalls to not be cruising in ground effect here. It will be weird but when done well you will touch down softly with power still on. Re-treads: those who have flown many normal stabilized or even faster approaches can expect to have to close the throttle and flair a bit. However, there will be no long hold off. Zero timers using the apparent rate of closure approach solo in less than seven hours regardless of nose or tail wheel airplane. Crop dusters and many bush pilots use this type approach even if they don't call it by the Army terminology.

Thanks. I'll play with the idea.

I forgot to say use full flaps if you have them. If the wind is strong and/or gusty you will have to use considerable throttle movement to maintain glide angel. It is just another control and is essential on any slow approach. In strong gusts when dropping, put the throttle in all the way and then adjust. When rising, close the throttle and then adjust.