Fly downwind at 1100ft using about 72% at Pattern Speed.
Carry out pre-landing checks.
When the threshold is 45 deg behind, throttle back to 69%, select mid-drag airbrake and begin descending turn at 30 deg AoB.
At about 900ft, check feet off brakes, 3 greens and speed at Approach Speed +10 kts.
At about 700ft, throttle back to about 66% and reduce to Approach Speed.
At 300 ft, select high-drag airbrake and begin tapering back to Threshold Speed.
If overshooting, select 80%, level wings, airbrake in, landing gear up and climb at Pattern Speed. Start climbing 30 deg AoB turn to downwind at 600 ft.
With only 66% on the approach, even with high drag airbrake on the final part of the approach the engine response time wasn't brilliant. An airbrakeless approach was even more tricky unless the speed was really well nailed.
Use of airbrake improves engine response as the higher drag means higher thrust and the engines will be in a more responsive regime. The min drag speed is indeed reduced, which means that you will be further from the 'wrong side of the drag curve' on the approach - but few at CFS could actually prove that min drag speed was at the intersection of the zero lift and lift dependent drag curves... Neither could they prove the theoretical 1.32 relationship between min drag speed and min power speed - just a lot of waffling and waving of 4 coloured pens usually. Few could remember differentiation from their schoolboy applied maths days.
Last edited by BEagle; 8th Jan 2007 at 13:17.