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Extreme landings pro cargo plane3/5/2023 ![]() ![]() STOL aircraft are typically equipped with vortex generators, leading-edge slats, and other high-lift devices that allow them to fly at unusually high angles of attack. And just like a Navy pilot hitting an aircraft carrier deck, don’t flare before touchdown. ![]() Then descend at the maximum rate your airplane’s landing gear and supporting structure will tolerate. Use the airplane’s pitch attitude to control airspeed and engine power for rate of descent. “I’m holding a high angle of attack very close to an aerodynamic stall, and I’m constantly working the throttle to adjust the rate of descent to hit my aiming point on the ground.”ĭescending close to the ground, there’s no roundout or flare.įly a steep approach that directs the airplane’s energy downward. “I get the airplane configured on final approach with full flaps-but it’s not a stabilized approach,” Henry said. Tucker hanging his airplane on its propeller during a “Harrier pass” and you’ve got the concept. They’re way behind the power curve and deep into what the FAA calls the region of “reverse command,” in which a pilot seeking to fly slower must add engine power to do so. Most pilot’s operating handbooks recommend an approach speed of 1.3 times the power-off stall speed, but STOL competitors tend to fly much slower than that. Steve Henry, a Nevada-based STOL competitor known for viral YouTube videos such as “Deadstick Takeoff, Flight and Landing,” helped pioneer some of these extreme techniques.Ĭonfigure your airplane for landing, then get desperately slow. Veteran pilots will have to unlearn years of ingrained habits.īut if your goal is winning a short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) contest, you’ll have to master some unconventional and borderline abusive techniques that competitors build their specialized airplanes to tolerate. ![]() Want to see competition-style STOL landings in person? AOPA’s Hangout in Tampa, Florida will feature demonstrations. ![]()
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