"Tim923" wrote in message
...
I don't have an aviation background but was just curious. It seemed
that during the approach into Melbourne, FL we were relatively quite
low to the ground/water (as compared to other airports). Do planes
fly low into Melbourne?

How did you measure you height above the water? How did you measure your
distance from the runway threshold?

Assuming you used reliable means to make those two measurements, you can
easily calculate the flight path angle remaining to the runway and compare
it to the usual glideslope used (typically 3 degrees, but it does vary a
little from one airport to another).

Until you have a documented discrepancy, it seems to me it's a bit premature
to ask whether planes typically fly low into Melbourne.

For what it's worth, the ILS glideslope at Melbourne is 2.8 degrees. At a
distance of 1 nautical mile from the runway threshold, this translates into
a height above the ground that is 21 feet lower than what one would find
using the standard 3 degree glideslope. A passenger inside an airliner
would not be able to notice this small a difference.

Of course, the ILS glideslope is relevant only when it's actually being used
for landing guidance, which is not true in every landing situation anyway.

The airplane in which you were riding may or may not have been lower than
normal. But "normal" at KMLB isn't significantly different from "normal" at
any other commercial airport.

Pete