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Low turn to final

Veetail88

Well Known Member
Got a little low and made my turn to final a bit late Saturday, but it made for a neat picture. Captured from Virb over the shoulder cam.

1zn9b92.jpg
 
yep, good picture but low

an instructor once told me, "when you're in the pattern always be able to make the runway if the engine fails". flaps in full when the runway is made. that makes sense to me for RV type planes.
 
Yep, I know I was too low. Misjudged a bit, but I had plenty of speed. If my motor quit right then I'd not have made the runway to be sure. Fortunately it didn't though and with a little shot of power it was all better.

Yes, it was a capture from video. I reduced the photo size to post it, but the full res 1200x1900 original is quite a bit crisper! While it's a pretty picture to look at, at the moment it went by in a flash as my mind was a bit busy with the task at hand and I barely noticed it.
 
Yep, I know I was too low. Misjudged a bit, but I had plenty of speed. If my motor quit right then I'd not have made the runway to be sure. Fortunately it didn't though and with a little shot of power it was all better.

Don't beat yourself up about it - anyone that has ever flown a precision instrument approach has been in a position where they wouldn't make the runway if the (single) engine quit - or they were carrying WAY too much energy! ;)
 
Like yesterday, Paul. ILS to 400 feet. Controller asked me if I could hold 140 knots. Did. No problem really.

Interesting day including a smear of clear ice.

The "must make field if power fails" mantra has a fallacy doesn't it? If you live by that, you can't log any cross country time because you will be out of range of an airport.
 
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