PFL advice
Doing final practice for my GFT, I have done a couple of PFLs which went beautifully, but yesterday had a really horrible one. It was entirely my fault that we were badly setup; I went too wide, my excuse is that we were fannying around overhead for ages doing 360's waiting for clearance to start. Turning to base we were obviously low, I would certainly have abandoned it then had I been alone or with an examiner (would that have been a fail ?). However, the instructor said we could make it, I was gliding a hair under 70Kn, and was distinctly doubtful as we turned final, then the instructor said 'what about flaps?', I said I don't want flaps, I don't need that drag. He said you won't make it without flaps, between us we then mucked about with the flaps, and between us ended up with >20degrees, started sinking fast, and then had to do a last second full power to overshoot otherwise we would have taken-out the approach lights. Altogether a really unsettling experience.
So, after all that, my question is, if gliding at optimum glide speed, with absolutely no spare height, I guess putting in some flap and then lifting the nose to reduce speed might have stretched it by a few yards ? But in practice would I not have been better to keep it clean and stay at best clean glide speed? It seems rather late in my training to be asking such fundamental questions!!!
Last edited by double_barrel; 18th Nov 2019 at 08:01.