How To Land Essay, Research Paper

Landing Made Easy

If you want to land a Cessna 150 at Sonoma SkyPark airport, this is the manual for you. This manual will show you how to land safely and easily.

Materials:

The basic materials in the process of landing are the airplane and the airport. In order to unsure success the airplane and the airport should be up to FAA standards. For this manual we will assume that the airport and airplane are both up to FAA standards and in good working order. There are some things that you should know about the airport you want to land at.

 What is the runway(s) in use?

 Does it have a control tower?

 What is the radio frequency?

 What is the elevation / pattern elevation?

Sonoma Sky Park?s information is:

 runway 26

 non-controlled

 122.8

 20 ft / 1000 ft

Operating Procedure:

1) To find out which runway is in use, you should listen to the radio. If there are other airplanes landing at the airport they should be talking on the radio and saying what they are doing. If you don?t hear anybody you may have to ask if anybody knows the runway in use, or you may have to fly over the airport a figure out by yourself which runway would be the proper landing runway, factoring in the wind.

2) After you find out what runway you should land at you should tell everyone what you want to do using the radio. Basically you just say whom you are, where you are now, and what you want to do.

i.e.- Sonoma SkyPark traffic this is Cessna 2952J

Entering left downwind runway 26

Sonoma SkyPark

3) Now that you know what you want to do and you told anybody that was listening to the radio what you want to do, the next step is doing it. The traffic pattern is set up to make the airplanes flow through the process of landing and taking off in a smooth safe process.

4) To enter the pattern the 45 is used. The 45 is the path that is 45* using the downwind as a zero. The 45 then transitions in to the downwind, which is perpendicular with the runway. The next leg is a 90* turn to the left and it is called Base. Then the next leg is Final, which is after another 90* turn to the left. After final you should be on the runway. But if you were going too fast or just messed up the leg after the runway is upwind. Upwind and final are really continuations of the runway. With another 90* turn to the left you go from upwind to cross wind. Crosswind then runs into downwind.

5) During downwind in a Cessna 150 the speed of the aircraft should be about 90 mph and the altitude should be about 1000 ft. On down wind while the aircraft?s wing is perpendicular with the end of the runway the carburetor heat should be turned on and speed dropped to 80 mph. 10* flaps should also be used.

6) Next on the base leg another radio call should be made. The speed should drop by using 20* flaps and your altitude should be about 750 ft.

7) On the final leg you should start out at about 500 ft and then go all the way to the runway (0ft). The speed should be about 70 mph and before touchdown full flaps should be used. Before touchdown these things should be considered:

* Line up good with the centerline

* Touch down with both wheels at the same time

* Nose wheel touches down last

*Touch down with slowest speed possible

Things to Remember:

Be sure to be within a distance to the runway so that it would be possible to land at any point in the landing process.

Be aware of crosswinds. Crosswinds are winds that go across the runway and make it very hard to land.

Be aware of other aircraft and be constantly scanning for them, in and out of the pattern.

Bibliography

Justin Merritt