Steep Glidepath Factors

[Dash7Ace]

I'm currently flying the Dash7 and to add my two cents, it all boils down to one's skill and judgement in the end. It may seem so, in certain operations like ours, where we do lots of bush and island hops into very short, next to nothing strips, with quite a steep descent angle, sometimes as steep as 7 degrees. bear in mind that the Dash 7 is fully certified for 7.5 degrees on the approach. From what I heard that is what Brymon used to do into London City, and I stand to be corrected on this.
Stablised by 500' is good if on a visual approach in accordance with ALAR's, otherwise by 1000' would be the normal case when in IMC. I find it better to stabilise a bit early when on a steep approach of more than 5 degrees since you have quite a bit of potential energy which is a good thing as it trades off for speed which inturn gives you more control to handle, and things don't seem to rush up on you. There again, I have seen more experienced hands simply fly it down to 300' and get stabilised by then on numerous occasions. The slower approach speeds on the Dash7 also contributes for this allowance in steep approaches for eg, at max landing weight of 42,000 lbs the Vapp at 45 flap is 86 knots, only. As long as your ROD doesn't exceed 1000' per min below 500' then I should say its normal. In response to what was asked as to whether the speeds vary greatly, well no, it shouldn't and if that is so, then its an approach going beans. If your skills are as sharp as a bushie, I would say you hardly would even touch the throttles and fish for the speed with attitude, your descent would be greater which is normal in STOL ops, the speeds should be steady and decaying smoothly. I would also reckon the glidepath would be more 'lively' since it's getting closer and you are higher than normal, so it is good practice to have the aircraft stablised early for this. Gears maybe delayed until a thousand, but get flaps in stages and condition levers to max at about 750' should do the trick nicely, with your 45 coming out by 500'. However, theory and explanations aside, when operating into bush and islands this changes and it is puerly on skill and judgement. You can have all the 'Gurus' preeching by the book stuff, but in reality it changes everyday. I stand to be corrected on all the above, so just mail away.