That Sinking Feeling

This morning, I read a couple of articles in the recent AOPA Flight Training magazines that are great articles for student pilots but also good reminders for those of us that are licensed. The first one was titled “Boing: No more bounces, skips, or balloons.” Basically it discussed the learned perception that pilots acquire to understand energy management during final, flare, and touchdown. But there was one sentence that brought the entire article together for me. Budd Davidson, the author, states:

“Right at that point, when that sinking feeling sets in – both physically and psychologically – is the time to soften the landing with power.”

Ironically, I remember a landing I made in my friend Patrick’s Warrior on a flight up to McClellan Airfield in Sacramento, CA. It was an absolutely beautiful ride up to MCC (outside of trying to dip below some bumpy cumulus clouds around 3500 ft near Mt. Diablo). As we arrived into MCC, the airport was dead…I mean no planes moving at all in or around the airfield. And Sacramento airspace is interesting because there are 6 airports within a ten-mile radius…so there was movement at those but not at MCC.

We approached from the south and flew the downwind leg at pattern altitude and turned base and final for runway 16. As I started my final approach, I seemed a bit high but the aircraft started to settle into the approach nicely.  I probably crossed the threshold at easily 100 ft above the runway, but it didn’t matter…the runway is 10,600 x 200 ft and there was no one there. The 10,600 ft length  wasn’t my problem, it was the 200ft width. Every time I’ve had to make a landing on a runway of 150ft or more in width, my initial landings aren’t the best (not bad…but not great). My first landing at Gary in Chicago was a bit rough and the landing at MCC was no different. 

As I descended, my sight picture adjusted to view my height above the runway by using my peripheral vision and seeing the runway boundaries. Well this works well on thin runways but on wide runway;, it really feels like the plane is just floating towards the ground and my quarterback clock tends to react quicker than what my vision tells me. So that said, my clock told me I needed to start flaring and so I did…but a couple of secs later I felt that sinking feeling. And it’s funny because Patrick even chuckled when he heard my muttered “Oh damn.” 

I had reached that point of sinking and knew that I was close to the ground, but in my mind I thought I was too close to add power. We landed by essentially losing lift about 3-4 feet off the ground and dropped that distance to contact the ground. So the landing wasn’t too bad but I felt bad for making such a landing in his aircraft. 

Given Budd Davidson’s suggestion and the suggestion of Patrick (at the time) and my father in the past, it would have been good to add a “smidge” of power to get a bit more control of the energy at that stage of flight. So now I know when I feel that sinking feeling.. I’m going to add a smidge. Thanks guys!

Check out “A Little Pilot Pimpage” from our flight to MCC.