Short and soft fields: the risks the ACS adds
The four maximum-performance takeoffs and landings meet windshear and distraction at their most vulnerable point: just above the stall, just above the surface, with the pilot's attention wanted somewhere else.
13 min read · Flight maneuvers
After this lesson you can
- Say why windshear is more dangerous during a short-field or soft-field takeoff and landing than during a normal one.
- Name the moment in each of the four maneuvers when attention is most likely to leave the airplane, and what the handbook says to do about it.
- Connect the speed instability of slow flight to the soft-field lift-off and the short-field approach.
The operations module teaches the technique for short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings. This lesson does not repeat it. It takes the two risks the ACS attaches to all four maneuvers, windshear and distraction, and shows why they matter more here than on a normal runway.
The reason is the same in all four: every maximum-performance maneuver spends more time closer to the stall and closer to the ground than the normal version, and the Airplane Flying Handbook says of the short-field approach that this low-speed type of power-on approach is closely related to the performance of flight near minimum controllable airspeeds. Everything the slow flight lesson said about mushy controls and speed instability applies, with the surface a few feet away.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.Windshear and the four maneuvers
- 2.Where the attention goes, maneuver by maneuver
- 3.The two risks are the same risk
These 3 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.