Hone Your Short-Field Skills

It's important to set a target and establish a stabilized approach when making a short-field landing.

Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at 01:16 PM ET

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Transylvania County Airport (formerly 22W, now 3NR3) requires landing 'right on the spot.' [Illustration: Clare Nicholas]

Key Takeaways:

Short-field landings require exceptional precision, often due to real-world obstacles not fully captured in airport data, demanding an exact touchdown and a strong readiness to go around if the approach is unstable.
The core technique for short-field landings involves a "power approach," where power is used to control the glide path, maintaining a constant airspeed (e.g., 1.3 times stall speed) with maximum drag for a stabilized descent.
Utilizing tools like an Angle of Attack (AOA) indicator enhances safety and precision by providing real-time lift information, and practical training integrated into real-world flying experiences helps solidify these critical skills.

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For a couple of reasons, we didn’t want to land at the main airport (KAVL) at Asheville, North Carolina.

First, we had looked ahead on airnav.com and saw that the fuel prices there for 100LL tacked at least an extra dollar per gallon onto what we could procure elsewhere in the area. Second, I had landed at Asheville before, and I always liked a new challenge. Third, well, I was not getting much love from the controller on Asheville Approach when I asked for VFR flight following through the area—cementing my idea of finding elsewhere to land.