{"id":31375,"date":"2021-04-18T12:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/?p=31375"},"modified":"2021-03-31T17:14:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T21:14:26","slug":"textbook-soft-field-landing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philip.greenspun.com\/blog\/2021\/04\/18\/textbook-soft-field-landing\/","title":{"rendered":"Textbook soft-field landing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Happy Spring Flying Season! For those folks who use grass airports they presumably are likely to be wet and therefore will require a soft field landing<\/a>. This is part of training for a Private certificate, but few of us get the opportunity to practice as paved runways are so common in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For inspiration, consider this landing, filmed by a bystander, near St. Petersburg, Florida, in “Plane Forced to Land on Treasure Island Beach After Engine Dies”<\/a> (scroll towards bottom of the page to see the smartphone video):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Piper Archer II took off from Albert Whitted Airport in St. Petersburg and had been airborne about 15 to 20 minutes with the student in control when the engine quit, according to instructor pilot Jenna Dunay.<\/p>

Dunay took the plane’s controls but could not restart the engine, she told Spectrum News. Dunay said she decided the plane would not make it back to the airport so she decided they had to land on the beach.<\/p>

\u201cI went for a walk down the beach and all of a sudden this plane is coming directly at me. I thought, \u2018Man, that’s pretty low to be seeing the beach.\u2019 It kept getting lower, literally coming right at me,\u201d he described, saying that the plane was at least 300 yards away from him.<\/p>

Thompson, who is visiting Florida with his business partners, said he saw one of the pilots getting out of the plane.<\/p>

\u201cShe smacked down and she jumped out with bags in her hand. I thought maybe that’s what you guys do down here in Florida, but turns out it’s not common,\u201d said Thompson…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

From another TV station<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was forced to land the plane behind the Bilmar Resort in Treasure Island. The pilot said she clipped a plastic pole with one of the wings while trying to avoid people on the sand.<\/p>

\u201cI don\u2019t think I had time to be nervous,\u201d Dunay said. \u201cI just picked a part of the beach with the fewest amount of people, wide enough to where even if there were people we could avoid them.\u201d<\/p>

Dunay has been flying planes since 2017, and has been an instructor a little more than a year. She\u2019s thankful, knowing it could have ended differently.<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m glad the sand was packed down well so it made for a better landing then if it was soft sand, so could\u2019ve been worse but could\u2019ve been better,\u201d Dunay said. \u201cIt was muscle memory, didn\u2019t need to look at the checklist, just ran through every possible thing and that\u2019s all you can do.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

When glass-is-half-empty types write the headline: “Small plane crashes into pole during emergency landing on Florida beach”<\/a> (minimal damage to a 41-year-old airplane, N82746, that is worth less than a lot of new cars and hitting a pole is what’s significant about this event?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The track, from FlightAware:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A good reason to take a longer parental leave? (“Third day back at work after maternity leave”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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She\u2019s the pilot w\/ the baby. Third day back at work after maternity leave, she told me. Very happy to see her family who came out here after the emergency landing here on the beach. @10TampaBay<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/0kPJQ09jSw<\/a><\/p>— Josh Sidorowicz WTSP (@JoshWTSP) January 17, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>