One Mile at a Time

MARCH 20, 2025

degrees Less than one second before touchdown, the plane had an indicated airspeed of 134 knots, a ground speed of 111 knots, a bank angle of 7.1 degrees to the right, and a rate of descent of 1,110 feet per minute The plane touched down at a bank angle of 7.5 The initial impact was 420 feet past the runway 23 threshold.

Descent 93

Descent Threshold Knot Flight Deck 93

AV Web

MAY 6, 2025

If the airport is your home drome, and there is a big oak tree or a Walmart on final you can measure the distance from there to the threshold on a sunny day. Then as you fly over your designated landmark and see the threshold, you will know that you have the measured distance. Approach lighting systems are a known, published length.

Runway 93

Runway Approach Threshold True Airspeed 93

Air Facts

MAY 5, 2025

This particular 172 normally cruised at 120 mph indicated airspeed, but with the ice it would barely do 90 mph and that required full throttle! This would mean our actual indicated airspeed would have been much higher that what we saw on the gauge. We were about 1/2 mile from the threshold. What had happened?

VOR 52

VOR Weather Approach Runway 52

Photographic Logbook

JULY 11, 2024

Caught in series of up and down drafts, the autopilot pitched the Warrior aggressively to maintain altitude and the indicated airspeed trended too high in each updraft. I managed the stepdown to 2,000 feet at JAKRR (named for WFC founder Jake DeGroote) by programming the autopilot for a descent to that altitude.

Ceiling 52

Ceiling Approach Weather Runway 52