"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
ink.net...
In the MU-2, I always lower the gear and 5deg flaps on downwind between
midfield and abeam the numbers depending on how much speed I need to
lose.. I go to 20deg flaps on base and do nothing on final. Power is only
changed if I misjudged something. On an ILS it is the same drill without
the turns, flaps 5deg with gear up until one dot high then gear down, at
1/2 dot high flaps 20deg. Again power isn't changed until landing unless
there is a large wind change between GS intercept and the runway.

It has been a few years but I remember my Turbo Lance being the same with
16.5"MP being the required power setting.

I'm a bit amazed that you descended to the runway in your Turbo Lance with a
power setting of 16.5" MP (regardless of what RPM you also use/see at that
setting...it does matter though). I have a very draggy airplane (Lake
Renegade) even without the gear and flaps out, but my descent power setting
is generally in the 13-15" range, depending on weight, wind, etc. Never
having flown a Lance (turbo or otherwise), I don't know first-hand, but I'd
expect a descending pattern flown at 16.5" MP to be pretty wide.

As far as comparison with the MU-2 goes, I'm not convinced it's necessarily
a great comparison. If I recall, the MU-2 has relatively high wing loading,
which should make descents easier. Also, in a twin (a turbine no less) I
would certainly expect a wider pattern to be appropriate. That's ignoring
whether the differences between turbines and pistons, including prop
systems, have any effect (I'm not sure they do, but I'm not sure they don't
either).

In my single-engine piston airplane, I try to stay reasonably close to the
runway, probably not a priority for you in your turbine twin. Some people
even go so far as to fly power-off descents in the pattern. In that extreme
example, obviously descent power is less than level-flight power.

The Helio is different. The trick is to slow down as soon as possible
because the flap speed is only 70kts. Once full flaps are set then slow
down and ADD power to slow down some more. The better you get the more
lower the speed and more power will be required. The limit is about 30kts
and full power. I can't do that yet but I saw it demonstrated at OSH this
year.

Well, I suppose if you really want to practice the short-field stuff (and
with a Helio, why wouldn't you?) flying power-on "backside of the power
curve", that's fine. But it's hardly applicable to this discussion. All
airplanes can land much shorter with appropriate power-on, slow-flight
techniques, but we normally avoid that part of the flight envelope.

I certainly concede that in any airplane, if you want to steepen your
descent without reducing power, you can simply fly at an appropriate
airspeed slower than max L/D speed (to a point, of course). But that's not
a normal operation, and I don't think it applies here.

Pete