INTERNATIONAL
The Region of Reversed Command by Ted Delanghe
Power curve diagram from the FAA Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (2016), Figure 11-14, p. 11-12.
A 18 | agairupdate.com
“I’ve seen better landings where everyone’s been killed.” That was an aside from one of my earliest instructors, and it happened on a day that wasn’t my finest as a student pilot. If there was something that could be done wrong, I was doing it. Airspeed. Power. Altitude. Heading. Slipping and skidding. All felt like they were in a blender, and it wasn’t making a nutritious power drink either. The “…everyone’s been killed…” part came when I was demonstrating – and not aware of it at the time – that a low, dragged-in approach well below the glideslope just wasn’t setting me up for a greaser of a landing. Much the opposite as I kept adding power (at least I was aware of the fact that our airspeed was way too low), almost to no avail, while the runway was disappearing below the
nose, which kept getting higher and higher on the horizon. I clearly remember curling my toes as we mushed over the runway threshold, to a resounding “thump!” as my poor aircraft absorbed what to my mind at the time was just a little less than a full-blown crash. And it was all the result of my being held prisoner in the infamous “behind the power curve “ lockup. I plead guilty! As with all ‘learning experiences’ there was a silver lining. My instructor let me go as far as was safe so that I learned a BIG lesson about what not to do. His philosophy was that early in the game, students need to see the error of their ways, and you don’t get there by mollycoddling them, or by flying perfect circuits through judicious ➤