Dear Shaggy Sheep
so you call me a troll...I say your statements on aviation show a shallow mind and limited experience. If you were a surgeon, you would use a bone saw for a hang nail. If you were a carpenter you would use a rasp instead of fine sandpaper.
Your views as a pilot are so amazingly misguided I would call the FAA and have them give you a checkride after watching your landings...of course you aren' t in FAA land are you? You seem to be in the land of overlapping airports and lack of progress since the airspeed corp went out of business.
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RTN.
If you have seen your students land long at a non vasi airport it is a lack of fundamentals in teaching the art of flying. No one says VASI is a replacement for picking a spot on the runway and touchingdown upon it. I've seen plenty of airports with less than 2500 feet of runway equipped with VASI or AVASI or PAPI or PLASI. I've seen people stay on the GS just fine and touchdown in the first third of the runway.
YOU and your folks seem to have lost the idea of controlling speed precisely and energy management. I've seen people fly like you are describing...and it is a poor excuse for actively controlling flight path at proper speed using stick rudder and throttle. (flaps too).
To those who have followed this thread with interest I offer this.
WHY does VASI exist at airport without instrument approaches and with runways as short or shorter than 2500' ?
How would these pseudo experts from across the pond land at an airport at night? How would they deal with descending into a ''black hole''?
I've said over and over that a pilot should be able to do many types of landings and related approaches. There are some mountainous airports that require unique approaches, some that even indicate that VASI should not be used until very close to the runway. But these pseudo experts will not have it. They can't even see that at an uncontrolled airport someone way above VASI might not be seen by another plane on VASI behind it...and it might lead to a collision.
And if you ever plan to fly instruments, you have been getting the sight picture for breakout for the visual portion of the landing.
Yes, ladies and gentlement of the thread, the pseudo experts, those that fancy themselves flying hawker hurricanes instead of C172's are just asking for problems.
So, dear original poster...have many tools in your aviation pocket and have the wisdom to use them properly.
AS an instructor, many years ago someone wanted a checkout in a Piper Turbo Lance (yes boys and girls). They had learned to fly using the pseudo experts method. It was time for the first landing after flying the pattern (a circuit is something electrical!).
So I gave a bit of advice, a bit of apower setting to start with and let the fun happen.
The pilot was getting low (on the vasi...hahahah)and Imentioned it to him. He said (and I'm not kidding)...the power setting you gave me didn't work.
I was stunned and suggested he had better add power. After we landed (or arrived) I mentioned that he could have varied the size of the pattern(turn base earlier), added power, delayed flap extension, or been alert to changing winds.
He insisted that only one power setting should be set and not varried. Again I said, well, then you could turn base sooner, or later to compensate.
HE COULD NOT UNDERSTAND that as a pilot, you can use many techniques to make things work out...Power /throttle would have been the easiest as we were flying in a busy traffic pattern.
I encourage you to learn many ways to controlyour plane...but when power is available, your control will be more exact than anything else.
I wish you good luck original poster.
And, remember the airplane was invented on our side of the pond!