Page 14 - Index

The Difference Between Good and Bad Decisions
by Thomas P. Turner
Consider yourself in this situation: You’re receiving your Flight Review in your own airplane. You’re in the traffic pattern to a runway that is not terribly short, but your performance calculations reveal to be close to the minimum length you personally accept under the
day’s conditions. There’s a 30-foot tall line of trees on the approach end of the runway fairly close to the end of the prepared surface. You notice on the instrument approach plate that the LPV glidepath and the visual glide slope are “not coincident,” a hint of obstacles to visually avoid on short final once below Decision Altitude if you were flying the approach. You’re very familiar with and current in your aircraft, and very comfortable flying with the flight instructor conducting your review. As you make the turn onto final approach, it’s apparent that you will easily clear the trees, but that you’re too high to touch down on the first portion of the short runway. What do you do?
If you’re like most pilots with whom I fly as an instructor, you’ll apply power and begin a balked landing (go-around) climb. Return to pattern altitude, re-enter the downwind and try again.
Now consider this scenario: You’re flying into a tower-controlled airport at the end of a long flight with your family to a favorite vacation getaway. The airplane is heavy with baggage, with the center of gravity well within limits but further aft than what is usual for you. The weather is fine and you’re on downwind in a visual pattern to land. About the time you are abeam your touchdown spot, the tower controller asks you to fly a tight base to land ahead of a regional airliner that’s on a five-mile final. What do you do?
Watching many airplanes that are in a bad position for landing over the years, my impression is that most pilots will attempt to make the landing. They’ll throw out the flaps and landing gear, as ap- propriate, and bank steeply to dive at the runway. Often this results in an excessive rate of descent that threatens a damaging, hard landing. Other times, excessive speed builds in the descending turn and puts the airplane over the threshold flying far too fast, causing it to float a long way during the flare and threatening to make the aircraft go off the far end of the runway.
Another Scenario
While performing your Before Takeoff checklist, you notice that switching to the left magneto on your left engine provides a roughly 50 rpm drop from the “Both” switch position, but selecting the right magneto causes the rpm to drop 225 rpm and for the engine to run roughly, with the tachometer needle
12 • TWIN & TURBINE
October 2018