The perfect approach

"Capt.Doug" wrote in message
...
(snip)
I bled off the extra airspeed and more in the flare. The touchdown was
sweet. There was just a hint of a bunny-hop before the ground-spoilers
popped, but the runway is so bumpy that the passengers probably didn't
notice. Without moving the throttles from idle, I popped the reversers and
let it roll to the end of the runway. We rolled onto the taxiway without
using the brakes. It was a perfect idle-thrust approach from
top-of-descent
to the gate.

I spent the rest of the day sitting with my crew at a bar on the beach
enjoying the little things in life. Over the bar was a television. The
folks
on the television were surrounded by snow. I bet their day wasn't near as
perfect as mine.

D.

No problem. We do it all the time in sailplanes. Flying out of Truckee,
California we will typically start our final glide home from 60+ miles out
and 17,900 msl and cross rocks, trees, and Lake Tahoe, then some more rocks
and trees (no landing options at all in the last 20+ miles) and arrive at
pattern altitude, 7,000 msl. No throttles to bump forward if we guess
wrong, either. ;-)
-Bob

No problem. We do it all the time in sailplanes. Flying out of Truckee,
California we will typically start our final glide home from 60+ miles out
and 17,900 msl and cross rocks, trees, and Lake Tahoe, then some more rocks
and trees (no landing options at all in the last 20+ miles) and arrive at
pattern altitude, 7,000 msl. No throttles to bump forward if we guess
wrong, either. ;-)

Damme, good all over you! Perhaps not so interesting as a two-hour (utterly
safe and illegal) IFR flight in a Cessna 140 w/exactly one needle and one ball
-- or being arrested by an Arizona highway patrolman in Arizona (long story)
while flying that same Cessna, but close enough.

Your glider stuff requires skill and judgement. The Cessna stuff only requires
a certain disrepect for dumb laws.

Quent

"QDurham" wrote in message
...
(snip)
Damme, good all over you! Perhaps not so interesting as a two-hour
(utterly
safe and illegal) IFR flight in a Cessna 140 w/exactly one needle and one
ball
-- or being arrested by an Arizona highway patrolman in Arizona (long
story)
while flying that same Cessna, but close enough.

Your glider stuff requires skill and judgement. The Cessna stuff only
requires
a certain disrepect for dumb laws.

Quent

I used to fly a Cessna 140, and I understand perfectly. It sort of brings
it out in a person, doesn't it?
-Bob

I used to fly a Cessna 140, and I understand perfectly. It sort of brings it
out in a person, doesn't it?

Oh indeed! Heading north out of Amarillo(?), full moon, Christmas eve,
admiring the L-shaped warm cabin when suddenly the cabin lights up to the point
where could read a newspaper. OK -- good news bad news:
1. Gee! Isn't that beautiful!
2. ****! What's on fire?
3. Geeze! We are flying north and have just crossed over the east-west snow
line.
4. Ahh! Isn't that nice!
5. Jeeze! Have they scraped the snow of the runway at the airport to which we
are hopefully pointed?
6. What's the goddam frequency?
7. Aha!
8. Blah tower, cessna blah blah...
9. "Cessna blah blah, runway blah is OK. Cleared for straight in. Report long
final."
10. "Cessna Blah blah "OK".
11. By golly no snow on runway.
12. By golly snow about 8 inches deep on taxiway. Hmmm. Axles only about 7
inches above runway.
Made it OK. Airport manager (smelling distibctly of Christmas cheer) arrived,
assessed the situation, told us we'd have to get into a (1940 era) hangar as
they had inadvertantly removed all the tie-down ropes in the process of snow
removal. "Costs $5 a night" "Well.... We'll go for it." He pushes the
3-story high antique hangar doors open with his Ford's front bumper, drives us
to nearest motel and debates with owner who is going to drive us to nearest
restaurant. Airport manager wins, but suggests he wait while my wife changes
out of slacks into a dress. "More proper, you know."

Good food, good motel. Good God, THAT'S flying!

Quent

Good story Cap. I love it when I reduce power on downwind - in a
C-172 - and don't have to touch it again until I need to taxi to the
ramp. I still need some practice to do the Bob Hoover thing and coast
right to the parking spot.

John Deakin wrote about a long power-off approach where he almost
landed a 747 gear-up: http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/188536-1.html

- J.O.-


On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 02:17:27 GMT, "Capt.Doug"
wrote:

It was a beautiful day in land that Mickey built- 76 degrees with full sun
while the northern folks got their first freezing blast of winter. We headed
off-shore over the islands of the Caribbean. I was on the second radio
talking to old friends and catching up on news from all the islands that I
don't get to visit much anymore. Caught up with some old friends on the
air-to-air frequencies as well. The flight levels were smooth and the
visibilty was excellent.

Then it came time for top of descent. This time was going to be sweet. There
was no complicated arrival procedure and there was no traffic in front of
us. We were number one. The center controller cleared us to decend from
FL330 to 11,000' at pilot's discretion.

One of the keys to good fuel economy in a jet is to stay high as long as you
can and then descend at idle thrust. I looked at our weight, and tailwind.
As I slowly pulled the throttles back to idle, the nose slowly dropped to
maintain airspeed. I switched from Mach airspeed to indicated airspeed
around FL240. I monitored the DME's ratio to the altimeter. It was holding
constant. I leveled off at 11,000' and let the airspeed bleed off to 250
KIAS. We switched to the approach controller who cleared us down to 3000'
and direct to the outer marker. The power was still at idle, the speedbreaks
were still stowed, and the approach was looking good.

I called the field in sight from 20 miles out and was cleared for the
visual. I pulled the nose up slightly to bleed the speed down to 200 KIAS
for the airport traffic area. At 1500' the slats and flaps were extended.
Then the gear and the rest of the flaps. The old-timers taught me to carry
an extra 20 knots into the flare when doing an idle-thrust landing. That
prevents you from developing an excessive sink-rate which prevents the gear
from going through the wing.

I bled off the extra airspeed and more in the flare. The touchdown was
sweet. There was just a hint of a bunny-hop before the ground-spoilers
popped, but the runway is so bumpy that the passengers probably didn't
notice. Without moving the throttles from idle, I popped the reversers and
let it roll to the end of the runway. We rolled onto the taxiway without
using the brakes. It was a perfect idle-thrust approach from top-of-descent
to the gate.

I spent the rest of the day sitting with my crew at a bar on the beach
enjoying the little things in life. Over the bar was a television. The folks
on the television were surrounded by snow. I bet their day wasn't near as
perfect as mine.

D.

John Ousterhout wrote:

Good story Cap. I love it when I reduce power on downwind - in a
C-172 - and don't have to touch it again until I need to taxi to the
ramp. I still need some practice to do the Bob Hoover thing and coast
right to the parking spot.

John Deakin wrote about a long power-off approach where he almost
landed a 747 gear-up: http://www.avweb.com/news/columns/188536-1.html



Good Article
UltraJohn

ps my moniker is not a vain thought of myself, it's from running a bunch of
"Ultra" races ie races longer than a standard 26.2 mile marathon. I've run
about 95 of them in the last 20 years.