When transitioning between Earth and sky and back again, we fly at the lower end of the controlled-flight regime—as Goldilocks might say, “Not too fast, not too slow, but just right.” Pilots departing generally spend less time in the bottom range of their aircraft’s airspeed envelope than during arrivals and approaches. Departing, we accelerate into the takeoff roll, lift off and, still accelerating, climb. Arrivals are the opposite. We descend and slow to approach speed, enter the pattern, and decelerate even more when sliding down the final.
By the time we cross the runway threshold, we’re deliberately slowing to just short of losing control, a condition that can and has precipitated stalling at a higher-than-desired altitude above the runway, but without the excess speed that can bring on one form of loss-of-control event. It’s in that few minutes when we’re low, slow and maneuvering that a significant percentage of loss-of-control accidents begin. With practice, we nail the landing, though, thanks to the instruments. It’s what the airspeed (ASI) or angle-of-attack (AoA) indicators show us that counts. That’s what happens when we do everything right. It’s not all that hard.
