THE VINTAGE INSTRUCTOR Go Around To flar e, or not to flar e? DOUG STEWART NAFI MASTER INSTRUCTOR
The storm had been intense, tracking up the stationary front along the East Coast, but now it was being chased out into the North Atlantic by a strong high that was building into New England. With the high pressure came blue skies that are normally saved for the desert southwest, and visibilities that are rarely matched here in Massachusetts, especially now, in the summer. But the isobars were jam-packed together, and the wind was howling. The winds were gusting more than 35 knots, coming across the runway at a 70- to 85-degree angle. It was not the kind of day to be landing here unless you had your crosswind landing techniques mastered. In the pattern, an instructor was teaching those techniques to a student. We prefer to teach a sideslip approach in crosswind conditions to fledgling students. That way they do not have to deal with the transition from a crab to a slip as they also try to figure out how and when to commence their flare. To add to the mix, a row of pine trees lines the approach to the north of the extended centerline of Runway 29—the runway in use this day. In the winter, in similar
weather conditions, one could easily see the way the wind was caused (I didn’t say cussed, although it often was) to rotor as it blew over these trees. The powder snow that had been dumped in the trees during the storm could be seen as it first blew up, and then rolled rapidly down, in the vortices that the trees created. But it was summer now, and if a pilot was not well versed in reading the terrain, it was easy to get lured into a low approach to the runway. To some pilots the 2,600 feet of runway seemed very short, and thus they could be fooled into trying a low approach in an attempt to “put it on the numbers.” This type of approach rarely worked because the lowlevel wind shear created severe turbulence on a low approach. The best approach in these conditions was a high slipping approach, with an aim point about 500 feet down the runway. This way a pilot could stay out of most of the turbulence, and although the slip could lead a pilot to think that the crosswind capabilities had been exceeded, it was rare that this would continue all the way to the runway. As an aircraft got
To add to the mix, a row of pine trees lines the approach to the north of the extended centerline of Runway 29—