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Old 8th Feb 2018, 16:56
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Pilot DAR
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 63
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Remember you have three prop blades that could be dinged now!
Well, if they're MT blades, they could be repaired! But yeah, it's better not to ding them in the first place!

I hope that all the participants have a safe, fun time. To reduce risk, it's worth recalling that "STOL" means Short TakeOff and Landing. It does not mean silly steep climb aways after becoming airborne. Get the aircraft off the surface in the shortest distance, and claim your success. Climbing away at slower than Vx after becoming airborne does not make your takeoff any shorter, it just puts you at great risk. If the engine quits at 100 feet AGL and 35 knots, you're not going to be able to clide down from that horrible place. John R81 will confirm that the helicopters he flies cannot be safely autorotated back down from 100 feet at 35 knots, neither can a plane.

For those who wonder about this, take your trusty plane way up high, hang it off the prop at full power, stall warning just teasing. Climb one hundred more feet from your "hard deck" that way. Then smoothly close the throttle and see if you could arrest your descent (flare) so as to stop descending momentarily at your "hard deck". The result may surprise you, and be ready to accomplish a stall recovery.

I've been flying STOL modified planes for more than 30 years. Though some have been modified to operate out of alarmingly short runways, most were modified to allow the pilot to get off the surface as quickly as possible. Once safely airborne, accelerating in ground effect is the norm, then climb away normally. I teach that STOL capability is like four wheel drive, if you need it to get in, you should go somewhere else. If you're safely in the right place, it may help you get out, if conditions are not right.

Aside from my flying in Alaska (which was happily a turbine helicopter), I have rarely encountered GA runways so short that real STOL techniques were needed. Rather, its the off runway operations which benefit from this capability skill. Mostly floatplanes into lakes, and to some degree wheel planes onto non runways. In those cases, wise pilots allow themselves lots of length for the approach and climb away, then choose the landing surface very carefully, using as little as possible. If you are using the STOL capability of the aircraft, and thereafter depending upon a steep climbout other than to clear a hedge, you've put yourself in a dangerous situation. Great skill, experience, and planning should be applied to that.

But the basics of short takeoff, short and spot landings are otherwise lots of fun, and well worth the skill development.
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