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Approach speed

PostPosted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 12:38 am
by ChrisM
If you don't know what speed to approach at, is there a way to 'guesstimate' the right speed ???

Re: Approach speed

PostPosted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 6:18 am
by beaky
If you don't know what speed to approach at, is there a way to 'guesstimate' the right speed ???


Not sure if this applies to heavies, but for light aircraft, the recommendation( if no approach speed is specified) is to go with 1.3 Vso (stalling speed with gear and flaps down, usually the bottom of the white arc on the airspeed indicator). Makes sense, as Vso can also be described as the minimum speed for the landing configuration.
You may control how steep your approach is and how fast you descend, without changing this speed, by using power and pitch...

Re: Approach speed

PostPosted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:07 pm
by beefhole
For jets, shoot for about a three degrees nose up pitch on final (for boeings, I believe airbuses come in with their noses a little higher)

Re: Approach speed

PostPosted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 6:51 pm
by ChrisM
Thanks fella's ;D

Re: Approach speed

PostPosted: Sat Feb 12, 2005 2:09 pm
by OTTOL
1.3 Vso is used on jets as well. The problem with applying this formula to a jet is the wide variation between Vso(stall speed) at max gross landing weight and Vso at the min fuel weight (as much as a 50kias difference on some aircraft). The dynamics for a light aircraft are the same and therefore for Vso and obviously 1.3 times Vso will change with a fully loaded vs. a lightly loaded 172/Cherokee etc.. The change on a