Originally Posted by
dont overfil
No wonder there are so many instances of nose wheel collapse on C172 if this is being taught.
D.O.
No kidding with this sort of silliness at flying schools
First off the POH figures are for
Gross Weight, a normal landing in training happens with two people aboard and half tanks which will put the aircraft at least 300 lbs under gross. The "right" approach speed for any aircraft is the one which will allow a normal approach flight path culminating in a natural continuous pitch up to the landing attitude and a tail low touchdown after a short float; when the throttle is closed at the beginning of the flare.
The C 172 M and N model POH "speeds for normal operation" list the speed range for full flap as 55 Kt to 65 Kt and for zero flap as 60 kt to 70 kt. Trying to land this airplane lightly loaded and with full flap after a 70 kt approach is going to involve an extremely protracted float as the aircraft will have to loose 20 kts in order to touch down in the proper attitude. Excessive approach speeds do not help students, they
hurt their ability to learn how to land properly.
I teach my students to calculate the GTOW and adjust the POH speeds accordingly. For very light weights the bottom of the range is used and for max weight the top. As it works out typical training weights are usually pretty constant so a mid range POH speed, 60 kts with flaps and 65 for zero flaps are the common speeds.
If the pilot is unable to memorize a few basic speeds and flying has to be dumbed down to a one size fits all speed how are these students going to cope with emergencies ?
Finally 70 kts is 10 kts higher than the flaps down POH
Best glide speed. This will markedly reduce the glide performance. Teaching this IMO is unsafe
