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STOL approaches

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PTAirco

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2003
Messages
4,006
Location
Corona CA
I came across this a while ago. It's been exactly year since I got my Maule M4 and for most of that time I was not getting the most out of its capabilities. (Landing capabilities - it only has an O-300 so take offs are less than spectacular.)

I have played with the ideas put forward in this video before but never had such a good explanation why this is the bee's knees as far as short landing go. Most guys I know practice short field landings by approaching low and slow with lots of power and drag it in by the prop in a nose high attitude, cut the power when they reach their spot and flop it down. It works in some situations. This is totally different.

I really like this alternative approach. In essence it's merely a steep approach using minimum practical airspeed and thuis forward speed over the ground. In case of the Maule in the video, airspeed is almost off the clock. Usually this requires a trickle of power to stop the descent rate from getting too high.In my Maule and another heavier version I flew recently, this sink rate is pretty high below 55mph. Bottom of my white arc is 53mh but I can fly an approach like that at 50 and it feels safe and controllable. I am still cautious about flying it with the ASI needle pegged at zero though!

There is no need to be afraid of stalling since you're in a steep descent, not trying to hold that speed in level flight. Being on the back side of the drag curve, in a stable approach, it does not matter much if your engine were to quit; lower the nose and the airplane will go from high induced drag to its max glide speed and suddenly cover way more ground and sink less. Few pilots I know will raise the nose to avoid overshooting, most will aim for the threshold and pick up speed and still overshoot. Seen it many times. The "Stick and rudder" book touches on this subject too.

The tricky part I found is that there is really not much left to flare with. A shot of power at the right moment helps, but then you're relying on that being available when you need it. However, if you're tying for a maximum effort short landing, not something you would have to routinely do, I guess the risk is quite small. Timing this shot of power is the tricky part. I got it wrong a few times, but the worst that happens is a "firm" landing, nothing terrible. Doing a really short landing you can't afford to grease it on anyway; you want to get it on the ground and you want it to stop flying at that instance, get the flaps up and stand on the brakes.


 
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