To: (Separate email addresses with commas)
From: (Your email address)
Message: (Optional)
Send
Cancel

Thanks!

Close

6 Things You Need To Remember During Soft Field Landings

So you think you're ready to land on grass? Landing on a soft-surfaced runway can be a ton of fun, but requires a few different steps compared to a conventional hard-surfaced landing. Here are a few tips to help you out.

1) The difference between a normal and soft field landing really comes into play once you cross the runway threshold. That's because as you get close to touchdown, you want to hold the aircraft 1-2 feet off the runway in ground effect.

Boldmethod

2) By holding your plane off the runway, you dissipate your forward speed, and allow your wheels to touch down at a slower speed. This is important for a very good reason: it reduces the nose-over force on your aircraft when it touches down.

3) As you enter ground effect, you can use a small amount of power to level off and make sure you touchdown as slow as possible (though power isn't necessary).

4) Low-wing aircraft will have more pronounced ground effect because the wing is closer to the ground, and it may not take as much power manipulation than it will to keep a high-wing aircraft in ground effect.

5) After your main wheels touch down gently, you want to slowly remove power, if you had any in, and hold the nose wheel off the runway. Since your main gear are much stronger than the nose wheel, you want to keep the nose off the soft/rough surface until your plane has slowed down to a safer speed.

Boldmethod

6) On many soft field landings, because of the soft surface, you don't need to use brakes at all. If you're too aggressive on the brakes, your nose wheel tends to touchdown earlier and harder than you want.

If you want to learn more, read our full article on soft field landings.

We've changed our comments section. Find out more here.
Swayne Martin

Swayne Martin

Swayne is an editor at Boldmethod, certified flight instructor, and a First Officer on the Boeing 757/767 for a Major US Carrier. He graduated as an aviation major from the University of North Dakota in 2018, holds a PIC Type Rating for Cessna Citation Jets (CE-525), is a former pilot for Mokulele Airlines, and flew Embraer 145s at the beginning of his airline career. Swayne is an author of articles, quizzes and lists on Boldmethod every week. You can reach Swayne at swayne@boldmethod.com, and follow his flying adventures on his YouTube Channel.

Images Courtesy:

Recommended Stories

Latest Stories

    Load More
    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share via Email