Hang around RAS long enough and you'll get yelled at here, too! =-O

On 7/22/2015 12:05 PM, Bob Pasker wrote:
When I transitioned to gliders, I lost two very important visual cues which I used flying airplanes: the center line or runway edges, and a aiming point marking, whether it's just a (possibly displaced) threshold, or at IFR airports, the piano keys, TDZ, or aiming point markings.

In airplanes, on a stabilized approach at 500ft, with proper wind correction, I can land within commercial standards at whatever point on the runway I like, on the centerline.

But gliderports are different. They have a wide variety of geometry (eg Estrella has a narrow strip and Seminole lake is 200ft wide), a combination of surfaces (eg part dirt, part tarmac), and there may be other aircraft off to the side that just landed or are staged at the departure end, or another glider landing right behind. Or there may be three parallel runways (Air Sailing, Estrella), and the ship landing in front of me doesn't announce which one he's going to land on, so I can't decide which runway I'm going to land on until I can see him on final. I've even had airplanes ask me to "extend downwind" so they can do a low pass in the opposite direction. Then there's the glider tows and departures which add another degree of complexity.

Furthermore, I have gotten yelled at for landing on the centerline when there's another ship off to the side on the runway (there were hundreds of feet between us). I've gotten yelled at for overflying aircraft to land beyond it. I've gotten yelled at for landing on the threshold, and coming to a stop well before another craft, etc, etc. So sometimes in the pattern when there's someone on the single runway, in the back of my head, I'm wondering not "where's the safest place to land," but "how can I land without the other pilot yelling at me", a narrative I then have to reject.

So I have had to adapt my landing technique to this very dynamic pattern and landing environment.

The result is something that I'm sure to get flamed for: when entering the airport area, I will have my pre-landing checklist completed, arrive with enough altitude to figure out what's going on (traffic and winds) before committing to land, remain close enough to the airport that I can choose to land at any time, and fly at L/Dmax. When I'm #1 and I have a trajectory for every aircraft landing, taking off or taxiing, then I commit to a landing spot, and make whatever is the appropriate pattern and approach given the circumstances, but no more shallow than a normal glider approach.

I feel that this gives me the most time to decide what I'm going to do in this dynamic landing environment, and I am continuously in a position to land should I need to at any time.

--b

https://www.faasafety.gov/files/gsla...%20Concept.pdf

--
Dan Marotta