Originally Posted by remoak
It looks to me like a desperate attempt to get back to the field at all costs, resulting in a moderately steep turn after which the aircraft had no airpseed or inertia left and just flopped onto the ground.
Concur. This bloke was very nearly a victim of the strange proclivity apparent to be flying 747 circuits in a bug-smasher.
Are students no longer taught how to fly a proper visual circuit??? Reference to ground turning-points should only be used in the
ab-initio stages IMO to assist the student in developing the sight-picture references they will use in future. What about managing and using the energy inherent in their airframe during the approach? Is that a skill no longer taught???
A couple of years ago, I was SLF on a C-402 flight from Yandicoogina - Newman, operated by a couple of loose units representing a well known WA operator. I started a timer abm the piano-keys on a very wide downwind -where I would have started my approach, but closer in- and it was
4 minutes with flap & gear out
before we turned base!!! I was interested to see what it would be because I had frequently seen aircraft disappearing out of sight from the downwind on approach... that flight concluded with the aircraft
dragged to the threshold by lots of power in what I assume they thought was a "stabilised" approach, right on the back of L/D curve. If they'd lost a mill anywhere on that approach, VMCA departure would probably have been the immediate consequence.
From what I've seen, that sort of thing appears to be the norm these days. I shudder to think how these "pilots" would manage in a real power-loss incident. They would simply have no idea of how to judge their approach, manage their energy -or get where they're going.
This guy was
lucky. No more and no less.