Day Twenty-Eight – Short Field Operations

Today, my instructor and I worked on short field take offs and landings. In many ways, short field operations are similar to soft-field operations. The approaches seem to be a bit steeper, as you are trying to touch down as close to the threshold as possible, with as little speed as possible and brake as hard as possible. The biggest challenge is trying to do it all at once. Especially on touch-down when one arm is pulling back on the control column as far as it will go, the other arm is reaching down to lower the flap handle and your legs are stretched out in front of you jamming on the brakes. I’m thinking that if this flying thing doesn’t work out, I might just take up the accordion.