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Old 3rd Sep 2009, 06:51
  #8 (permalink)  
BEagle
 
Join Date: May 1999
Location: Quite near 'An aerodrome somewhere in England'
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All this 'add 5 knots for the wife and kids' and 'add 1/3 gust' is utterly irrelevant in a light aircraft.

The 'gust factor' addition is only relevant to large aircraft (such as airliners) with high inertia which do not react to gusts as quickly as light, low inertia aircraft such as your Cub.

If you increase your approach speed as some have, quite wrongly, suggested, it will make control in the flare more difficult as you will be significantly out of trim before landing.

THE ONLY SPEEDS TO USE ARE THOSE IN THE POH!!

Some years ago, the club where I flew used a 'threshold' speed of 65 KIAS for the PA28 Warrior and insisted on an extra 5 knots with 3 or more PoB, PLUS 1/3 of the W/V if above 15 knots. So with a fresh 21 knot wind and 3 on board, people were using 77 KIAS as the 'threshold speed' and adding a further 10 knots for the approach - approaching as 87 KIAS! All this meant was that the aircraft would bounce all over the place, then, in the flare some 30 knots above the touchdown speed, they couldn't maintain finesse of control and would either thump it down on the nosewheel or land in an uncontrolled manner after ballooning.

Research showed that the approach speed is 63 KIAS at max AUW - we used 65 simply because it was easier to keep the AI needle midway between the 60 and 70 marks. Thanks to the efforts of the chaps who now run OnTrack Aviation, we rewrote the checklist deleting any reference to 'threshold' or 'reference' speeds, deleting any 'add 5 knots' or 'add 1/3 of the wind' nonsense - and never had another damaged nosewheel or heavy landing ever again.

This is even more vital in a taildragger; you do not want to be waffling about well above touchdown speed near the ground whilst the IAS decays and the aircraft goes out of trim. Just stick to the POH values and don't listen to ex-airliner drivers who import irrelevant ideas into the light aircraft world. Scan touch down point - speed - touchdown point - speed continuously during the approach and if the speed is incorrect, make a small power corrective adjustment whilst maintaining the selected touchdown point.
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