PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - GA into 'real' airports!
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Old 30th Jun 2020, 14:41
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Pilot DAR
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Ontario, Canada
Age: 63
Posts: 5,625
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So this is your chance!... If you have more free use of very long runways, practice your forced landings, to a landing. Tell the tower what you'd like to do, and if they're okay with it, fly a high, close downwind, and gently, smoothly, respecting the engine, reduce the power to idle. Pick a runway marking a third to a half way down the runway, and see how good your judgement was. You're going to land out of the forced approach, your judgement of the approach will dictate where!

If you can't land power off somewhere along a 10,000 foot runway in a 172, hang your head low in shame. If you do a great job, just not where you thought, practice! Likely you'll find yourself overshooting your selected touchdown point, rather than undershooting it.

I know that "normal" airport use generally precludes the opportunity to practice forced landings, so this it your chance! Pilots seem to satisfy themselves of their skills, with a glide to a few hundred feet, then a go around - that's not good enough, practice to touchdown! Now you have the opportunity! I've done it number of times while type training pilots. In particular, I remember being very well accommodated in Bergen, Norway, where the controller told me that we had the airport to ourselves until a scheduled inbound in 40 minutes. Similarly, when we stopped in Osijek, Croatia, we had the airport to ourselves, and the controller said he was enjoying watching us!
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