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How To Fly A Perfect

Short Field Landing
By Colin Cutler | 07/19/2022 | Previous | Next

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Are you landing on a short runway? Does your runway have

an obstacle at the end of it? Then you need to put your
short-field landing skills into action. Here's how you'll do it,
step-by-step.

How Short Field Landings Are Different

When you're dealing with a short runway, or a runway with an
obstacle near the end of it, you need to adjust your approach
and landing to safely touch down and stop on the runway.

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Article | Boldmethod | 06/27/2023
So what are the steps of a good short field landing? We'll
break it down into four phases: approach to landing,
clearing an obstacle, touchdown, and rollout.

Approach To Landing
To make a great short field landing, you need to be in
complete control of your airspeed and descent rate. When
you're stabilized, on speed, and on glide path, you can touch
7 Questions You Should Be Ready
down where you want, prevent your plane from floating down For On Your Checkride
the runway, and stop well before you run out of runway. List | Corey Komarec | 06/27/2023

All of this starts with your approach.

The Airplane Flying Handbook recommends that you fly a

slightly wider-than-normal traffic pattern, so that you have
plenty of time to configure your aircraft and make sure you're
stabilized on your approach. You don't necessarily need to
do this, but it's not a bad idea. The more time you give
yourself to get stabilized, the better your landing will (most
likely) be. Quiz: Are You Good To Fly In These 6
Scenarios?
There are a few more things to consider when flying your Quiz | Colin Cutler | 06/26/2023
pattern: if your POH doesn't suggest a final approach speed,
you should fly final approach with full flaps, at 1.3 Vso.

For example, if your plane has a Vso of 47 kts and your POH
doesn't list a final approach speed, you'd use, 47 X 1.3 = 61
knots. Fly 61 knots on final, and you'll have a good setup for
landing.

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Takeoffs and Landings
Article | Boldmethod | 11/13/2017

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Getting comfortable with flying a stabilized approach in this

configuration can be one of the most challenging parts of a
short field landing. That's because when you're configured How To Make A Perfect Soft Field
for landing on your final approach, you're on the back side of Landing
Article | Boldmethod | 06/24/2023
the power curve. That means you use power to adjust
your glide path, and pitch to adjust your airspeed.

It can take a few tries to get this down. A good way to

practice is to fly a pattern all the way down to short final, go
around, then try it again. After a few trips around the pattern,
you'll feel like a pitch/power pro.

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Clearing An Obstacle On Final

If you have an obstacle at the approach end of the runway,
you'll want to fly a slightly steeper-than-normal approach as
well. By flying a slightly steeper angle, you can safely clear
the obstacle, and not use up too much runway before you
touch down. The steeper your glide path, the more runway
you have available to touch down.

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But flying a steeper approach has its disadvantages. Since

you're flying a steeper descent angle, and you have a high-
than-normal descent rate, you really need to judge flare.
You'll need to pitch up more in the flare to overcome the
descent angle, and to arrest your descent rate for a smooth
touchdown.

Timing the flare on a short field landing really comes down to

practice. Flare too late, and you'll land hard. Flare too early,
and you can stall early and develop a large sink rate. Neither
scenario is good, and the best way to avoid either one is to
practice, and then practice some more.

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The more stable your final approach path, the more likely you
are to make a good landing.

Touchdown
Next up is the moment when all your hard work comes
together: touchdown. As you approach the runway, you want
to slowly start reducing your throttle to idle.

Keep in mind this differs significantly based on the airplane

you fly. If you're flying a lighter airplane with light wing
loading, you'll want to start reducing the throttle as you
approach the runway threshold. If you're flying a plane with
higher wing loading, you'll want to keep the power in a little
longer, so you don't get too slow or come up short of your
landing point.

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As you approach your touchdown point, keep reducing

power and start flaring. Your goal is to touch down on your
point at the minimum controllable airspeed, which is just
above stall speed. By touching down at stall speed, you have
the lowest possible ground speed, and you're setting yourself
up for the shortest possible ground roll.

Rollout
Once you touchdown, you want to use maximum
aerodynamic braking. After you touch down, slowly start
pulling back on the yoke, being careful not to lift back off. As
you increase your aerodynamic braking, you keep more
weight on your main gear. That, in turn, makes your brakes
more effective, because you can apply more brake pressure
before your wheels lock up.

Be gentle as you apply the brakes, then start increasing

braking pressure to slow down. It's easy to lock up your
wheels when your ground speed is still high, and you're
wings are producing a lot of lift. Keep pressure on the brakes
until you know you're slow enough to make your taxi turnoff,
then gently start to let up on the brakes. Smooth application
of your brakes is the key to a good landing rollout.

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Common Problems With Short Field Landings

Short field landings can take some practice before you're
comfortable with them. Here are some common problem
areas you'll want to think about before you head out and
start practicing:

Too much airspeed on final, which causes floating down

the runway
Excessive descent rate on final, which can lead to a hard
touchdown
An unstabilized approach, where you oscillate between
slow and fast descent rates, flying above and below glide
path
Over-braking on rollout, and locking up your wheels
(nobody likes flat spots on the tires!)
Setting the nosewheel down hard, instead of controlling
its touchdown (remember, your nosewheel isn't nearly as
strong as your mains)

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Like 48 Share

3 commentsSort by Newest

Add a comment...

Rick Basiliere
Not difficult in the least.
Make your "normal"
landings short field. The
world and Murphy can ask
no more of you.
Remember on the braking
stuff...check your POH, I'll
bet dollars to doughnuts
you can easily (?) get into
a runway you can't fly out
of. Check take off vs
landing data. Way too
many people (CFIs
included) make landings
1/3 to 1/2 way down the
runway, hence you
attempting a shortfield
landing is a joke. Again,
read the POH. It gives a
specific number, not a
range!!, of the speed to fly
the approach and power
OFF at 50' to get the short
field numbers that are in
the POH IMHO. Across
the threshold the engine
should be - very quiet...
Like · Reply · 44w

Giuseppe Casalino
("......That means you use
power to adjust your glide
path, and pitch to adjust
your airspeed")
That is the biggest
problem: try to fly the
aircraft correctly when the
situation is challenging
and the common instinct
(which doesn’t need to be
taught/learned at all) has
easy play in overcoming
the best practice to the
correct use of the
controls.
Please, don’t wait to be
on the back side of the
power curve to
experiment with the real
nature of the aircraft, it will
be almost impossible to
fight against the common
instinct, to which we have
indulged in much less
challenging situations,
putting u… See more
Like · Reply · 48w

Warren Webb Jr.

Consider what is
done at the
highest level of
safety - Part 121.
On autoland
approaches, the
autopilot will use
the pitch to hold
level flight
approaching the
glideslope, lower
the pitch to
intercept the
glideslope, adjust
the pitch to stay
on glideslope, and
raise the pitch to
flare and land.
Why? Lift is the
force that
opposes weight
and controls
altitude and rate
of descent. At all
times, power must
be adjusted to
maintain desired
speed and
coordination is
essential.

All of that is
controlled so
perfectly by the
computers on the
airliners, there's
probably never
anything but the
tinies… See more
Like · Reply · 48w

Warren Webb Jr.

According to the PHAK pg
11-11, when you are on
the back side of the power
curve, the drag increases
and more power is
needed to maintain
speed. It doesn't say
power controls altitude -
only that drag increases
below Max L/D and more
power is needed.

When the power is

reduced on short final
("As you approach the
runway, you want to
slowly start reducing your
throttle to idle"), the line of
flight should not change
but continue in a straight
line to the aiming point,
exactly as shown above in
two diagrams. How is it
possible for the line of
flight to stay straight if the
power is reduced? The
only possible explanation
is that the pilot
CONTROLS THE
ALTITUDE AND LINE OF
FLIGHT WITH PITCH.
And in reality, that is what
has been happening
during the entire
approach.
Like · Reply · 1 · 49w

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Colin Cutler
Colin is a Boldmethod co-founder and lifelong pilot. He's been a flight instructor at the
University of North Dakota, an airline pilot on the CRJ-200, and has directed the
development of numerous commercial and military training systems. You can reach
him at colin@boldmethod.com.

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