Landing

Landing an airplane is one of my biggest thrills. Truthfully, almost anyone can takeoff, but landing requires skill and coordination. First of all, you are coming from the clear blue skies (hopefully) into an area where planes tend to congregate. Some pilots fly the pattern with good communication on the radio, and some airplanes have no operating radio and/or no operating pilot (ie, rules are for everyone else). Most often you have been descending into the airport traffic pattern (usually 1000 AGL, or Above Ground Level). The feel of the descent is akin to gliding a bicycle downhill when you were a kid. It feels wonderful. Everything on the ground gets bigger and bigger. On downwind (parallel to the runway at pattern altitude), I can easily check for planes departing, or others in the pattern to land. I slowly bring the power back further and then lower the gear. On our airplane, I lower the gear manually with a big lever called a Johnson Bar. I love this since it feels like real flying and the only way it'll fail is if I don't keep my right arm in shape. No electrical motors or fuses to fail. The plane slows down with the gear lowered which helps me to lose more altitude. As I continue to slow, I start to lose altitude and check my descent. I'm a little high today so I'll crank in a few pumps of flaps. My plane has a manual hydraulic lever to deploy the flaps. I love the feel it gives me. I feel even more one with the airplane. So I turn my base leg which is perpendicular to the runway and check for planes again. If I need more flaps, I'll add it now. The plane is trimmed, which I adjusted on downwind so that the plane will hold the airspeed that I chose to approach at. In my Mooney, that is usually 85mph. Now I'm about to turn Final and line up with the runway. One more check on my airspeed and altitude. And my wife calls out and confirms that the gear is down (that would ruin an otherwise wonderful flight). We're over the numbers now (pilot talk for over the beginning of the runway). As I continue to descend I start a rollout which reduces my descent rate. The Mooney does not want to land (it loves flying). If you are going even a few mph too fast, it will float down the runway and refuse to land. Mooneys will not land until they are ready to do so and also will not takeoff until they are ready to do so. Today I am right on the airspeed and she starts to settle gracefully to the runway. Unlike most other airplanes that need a fair amount of nose up to land on the main gear, the Mooney wants just a little nose up (almost a flat attitude), and settles to the runway. Today I did a greaser (which is a nice accomplishment since Mooneys have no give in their gear). We slow down and turn off at taxiway Charlie. Another beautiful flight.