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Short Field Landings
How short is too short?
Short field landings are the latest rage. We all like to see how short we can land, and practicing short field landings is good preparation for any forced landings we may have in our future. Fortunately, most of our practice is on runways long enough to provide a large margin of safety in case we overshoot our touchdown point.
But what about going into really short fields, where there is no such safety margin? We have probably all done it at some time, but doing it is always risky.
The temptation for many people seems to be to carry some power while making an approach barely above stall speed, and to cut power when they reach their chosen touchdown point. The risks entailed in hanging it on the prop like this include the remote possibility of a power failure and the far more likely possibility that the headwind will suddenly subside,either of which will suddenly put the aircraft below its power off stall speed. This ensures at best a hard landing short of the desired touchdown point, and at worst a stall/spin crash.
Building a safety margin into our airspeed may cause us to overshoot our touchdown point if the headwind does not suddenly subside, thereby making a short landing impossible. Another risk is that the landing surface might not be suitable for good braking, causing us to run off the departure end whether or not we touch down precisely at our chosen point. Dragging it in at absolute minimum speed also makes a last minute go-around more challenging, should one become necessary.
I think a good compromise is to not rely on power, to carry a little extra speed and altitude during the approach, and to slip at the last moment to bleed off that excess speed and/or altitude. This makes precisely hitting the chosen touchdown spot a little more difficult, so requires the field to be a bit longer to allow for some float. However, I think this is a good trade-off for reducing the risk of a hard landing or a stall. The bottom line is that without some headwind, you cannot expect to land in the minimum landing roll distance specified in your POH. Don't even try to land in such short places.
Bold pilots may disagree, but I think old pilots will concur. Leave your comments on the Contact Me page.
