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The key point is that for GA, the term "normal" is really undefined, and at best misleading. After all, what's the "normal" runway length for GA? Normal winds? etc. A key benefit of GA is the flexibility in so many aspects of operation. What the airlines seek to do is to standardize everything to minimize risk. Different styles for different goals. Also, in jets it's common to reduce power to idle at 20 or 30 feet. In GA, throttle response is much faster, allowing for a variety of touchdown techniques. And if you're counting on a voice callout for altitude and it only resolves to one foot, your landings in an RV aren't going to be all that gentle. There's better cues to use. |
Umm
I think you might get a nasty surprise pulling the power off at 20-30 feet in quite a few jets...
If you did that in a 727, you would open the cockpit door to find the rubber jungle... In the 767, the landing can be hard enough to slow the earth?s rotation...:eek: |
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RJ 200
Never had the "opportunity" to fly the rj...though I get a kick out of some of the jumpseat briefings..."Don't worry, it going to look bad but we will be ok...":D
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[/QUOTE if you're counting on a voice callout for altitude and it only resolves to one foot, your landings in an RV aren't going to be all that gentle. There's better cues to use.[/quote]
I would hope no one would rely on this system instead of things like looking out the window, but nonetheless I have found it to be a useful addition to the all the other information I would take into account on landing. If the system resolved to inches it might get a bit verbose. So out of interest how long should we take to descend the last 12 inches? At a stately 60 knots 1 second is 100 feet of runway, so at my strip at least I won't be waiting too long. 😁 |
voice
It is kind of funny, once you get used to callouts the only time you will realize how accustomed you have become is when they aren't there...it usually ends with a firm landing!:D
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Yes, no one ever should rely on this or any other devices for landing. Not the intention of this system. Even for those who have been using it with a high-performance experimental pressurized airplanes and asked us if it can be used when there is fog on the runway. The system gives a huge aid for the situations where one is used to 50ft wide runways for most of their flying then needed to go to a 150ft runway, also night landing, and also after a long VFR flight where the eyes are tired from scanning the sky or traffic. Basically, any situation where our eyes play tricks in regard to height. Many said it helped a lot when transitioning to a higher-performance airplane. And also we got some feedback that it does give them an extra confidence and they developed their own technique to when to pull the power for perfect touchdown regardless if they came in bit faster or higher than usual. |
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In the RV, we're right over the gear. We're always at the same elevation when the mains touch. Learning the sight line took a few landings, but I think I can already guess when i'm within a foot of the runway. What would be nice is something that could call out that "last foot" accurately. Maybe a tone that beeps increasingly fast until it goes "flatline" just when a wheel touches? It would need to know the difference between touching both wheels at once, or touching one first in a crosswind. This would be a much harder challenge technically, which is probably why nobody has done it. |
For amphibs
Glassy water where you literally can not see if you are 100ft, 50ft or 5 ft
The LIDAR side of things needs a little more work yet before it is a useful / reliable tool. For the time being conventional techniques (Sink rate of less than 80 fpm) or avoiding the hazard by waiting for ripples is the smart plan. Formation approaches also work where #2 can see the reflection of the lead and call the altitude. |
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We have made a special version of the Controller just for that and currently working with a customer who did a few flights. That unit just logs everything that the LIDAR sees, we are waiting for the Logs to view and analyze. Some readings were correct and GARMIN tech guys did suggest some various settings to change within the LIDAR to improve this for amphibians. It is expected for this specific LIDAR to work correctly when there are ripples. The ripples do reflect the beams back correctly. It's the glassy water situations where the beams tend to not come back. We did not give up on this yet and we are hoping to do more testing with an upgraded version shortly. |
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