Today’s exercise involved learning how to operate from soft fields (e.g. grass strips, gravel runways, snow). I won’t go into too much detail, other than to say that the goal here is to not get stuck or bogged down. You don’t want to end up like Petroni (George Kennedy) in Arthur Halley’s “Airport”. You know what I’m talking about - classic aviation cinema…
In order to be successful, you must not stop or slow down too much when moving on soft fields, you must keep as much weight as possible off the landing gear (especially the nose gear), and you need to get off the ground as quickly as possible. Full aft control column helps keep the weight off the nose gear and flaps help you get off the ground quickly. Trouble is that you’re airborne before you have enough speed to properly and safely climb. So, once you’re off the runway you level out and fly close to the ground using ground effect (imagine a cushion of air) to help keep you aloft while you build your speed to the point where a normal climb is possible. This last part can be tricky, especially when you consider that many soft fields can also be short and have significant obstacles at the end of the runway.
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