<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<--->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
         <<  Lancair Builders' Mail List  >>
         <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<--->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Mark -

Sounds to me that you might want to focus more on your short/soft field
landing technique rather than simply stall speed.

One often overlooked item in making a short field landing is descent rate.
If you fly a flat approach at a given airspeed and check your actual
landing roll you will find that if you increase the descent rate (which
will naturally steepen the angle of your approach) your landing roll will
shorten.

Why ? Because when you make the flair you'll be converting a lot of the
plane's potential kinetic energy to lift so you don't go "boom" on the
touchdown. Naturally to make good short field landings precise airspeed
control is a must, 1.3 times the Vso is the standard target.

Try it sometime. I couldn't find any documentation anywhere to substantiate
this but I do know that the POH for my Baron specifies a decent rate of 800
fpm as part of the associated conditions to achieve book performance in the
landing.

Happy Landings,

Ted Stanley

LML website:   http://www.olsusa.com/Users/Mkaye/maillist.html
LML Builders' Bookstore:   http://www.buildersbooks.com/lancair

Please send your photos and drawings to marvkaye@olsusa.com.