Takeoffs and landings
Short field, soft field, crosswind technique, and the go-around.
15 min read · Airport operations and procedures
After this lesson you can
- Fly a short-field takeoff and landing using Vx and the correct flap and power sequence.
- Fly a soft-field takeoff and landing that keeps the wheel loads off the surface as long as possible.
- Apply crosswind correction on takeoff and landing with either the crab or the wing-low method.
- State the seven criteria of a stabilized approach and execute a go-around using Power, Attitude, Configuration.
The Airplane Flying Handbook reports that one out of five accidents happens during takeoff and the initial climb, and about half of those come down to pilot error. It is a short phase of every flight, and it is treated with less respect than it deserves.
Four techniques cover almost every situation a private pilot will fly: normal, short field, soft field, and crosswind correction layered on top of any of them. Each answers a different constraint. Short field minimizes distance; soft field minimizes the load on the wheels. Applying one where the other is needed is a common and avoidable error.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.Short-field takeoff and climb
- 2.Soft-field takeoff and climb
- 3.Crosswind takeoff and landing
- 4.The stabilized approach
- 5.Short-field landing
- 6.The go-around
- 7.The pattern is where the traffic is, and where attention runs out
These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the PPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.