Short and Soft

This particular lesson was very brief- only 0.8 hours long. It consisted of four takeoffs and landings to a full stop- two of which were done by my instructor for the purpose of demonstration. I learned short and soft field takeoffs and landings.

Short field takeoff and landing

For a short field takeoff, you start by adding in 10 degrees of flaps. Then you taxi to the very end of the runway (pretending the runway is very short, when in fact, its 7000 feet long). Once you get lined up, you apply the brakes and full power. Now, suprisingly, even with full power, the brakes are good enough to keep the airplane from moving. You check the engine gauges (because in a real life situation, if you didn't notice a problem until halfway through takeoff, a short runway won't allow you to abort), and then you release the brakes, lift off at the normal 55 knots, and then climb a Vx which is a steep angle climb out. Once you clear the imaginary 50 foot obstacle, you can then execute a normal climb at Vy, which is best rate of climb.

Short field landings are slightly more difficult than regular landings- you must go five knots less than usual on approach. You have to clear an imaginary 50-foot obstacle at the threshold of the runway, and then touch down within two hundred feet of a certain point on the runway (usually about 1000 feet down, picked out by my instructor). Then you must stop in the least amount of distance possible using aerodynamic braking (full back elevator).


Soft field takeoff and landing

Soft field takeoff had me kind of nervous at first- so many things can go wrong here. First, keep in mind, we are pretending the runway is made of grass and dirt and not concrete. The primary objective is to keep as much weight off the nosewheel as possible, so it doesn't dig into the ground and cause the propeller to hit. You start out with full back elevator during taxi (in essence, riding a wheelie) and slowly taxi onto the runway WITHOUT touching the brakes. Using brakes on grass might cause the plane to dig into the ground. Then once you are lined up, apply full power, and basically ride a wheelie all the way down the runway (being careful not to scrape the tail). Now, the plane will become airborne before it has enough speed to climb, so as soon as the plane lifts up, you apply forward pressure and level off with the runway, wait for your speed to accumulate best normal lift-off speed, and then climb out. Sound scary? Yes it does. Its not that bad though. Here is a video of someone doing a soft field takeoff (notice how he hovers right over the runway until his speed builds up):



A soft field landing is basically the same as a regular landing with two minor differences: 1, you have to bump it a little bit of power in the flare, and 2, once you land, you must keep the nosewheel above the ground, basically riding a wheelie until you stop, and keep holding full back elevator to keep the weight off the nosewheel.

One interesting thing did happen to me today- during my climb out after my soft field takeoff, I notice a very large flock of birds flying right across my flight path. I immediatly nosed over to pass under them. I even noticed the birds before my instructor did. Had I not seen them, I would have ran right into the flock. It was a very interesting experience, to say the least. Reminds me to keep my eyes outside the plane as much as possible.