PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Aiming for the numbers
View Single Post
Old 6th Jan 2020, 13:03
  #9 (permalink)  
Jan Olieslagers
 
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Ansião (PT)
Posts: 2,785
Received 7 Likes on 7 Posts
Isn't the basic principle (sic! Mr. TOO!) to use all available runway, because one never knows what happens next? Of course it is more important on take-off than on landing, but still it is what I expect from everybody. If I were to see a plane hovering over a good part of the runway instead of landing as short as possible, I'd be at red alert immediately.

Then again it will depend on the type or category of plane. My 450 kg ultralight can be pushed into the grass at short notice, if I hear someone in distress coming in behind me. Even if a Caravan is meant to be a bushplane, it might appreciate more considerate handling.

And to contradict myself, here is a little story of how I looked like a bit of a fool: flying this modest 80 HP 450 kg two-seater, I was, as stated, trained to always use every inch of runway available. On those runways carrying numbers, it was and is always a fun exercise to touch down before them! Then one day our federation had managed an invitation to use the long hard runway at EBFN Koksijde Airbase, to train power-fail landings with the engine really switched off, from downwind. On arrival I didn't think beyond the length of my nose, as we say here, and landed spot on the big numbers on that big runway - which left me with close on 2 km of taxiing... I did consider taking off again but that would have been even more ridiculous, I thought. I'll remember this story in a couple of months, when we have a similar practice week-end at EBBE Beauvechain - blessed be our military!
Jan Olieslagers is offline