Comment

Comment by John Marzulli on December 8, 2014 at 4:02pm

For use PNWers, this was a blizzard!

As far as "no flaps"/"soft field", that helps keep more air flowing to the elevator so you can keep the nose up longer.

The extra speed also helps keep rudder authority.

Comment by Ari Hulkkonen on December 8, 2014 at 10:05am

I was about to call that a morning frost too :)

However, what's the soft field technique and why not to deploy flaps for the landing? To keep the nose wheel up?

How about take off?

I've noticed that in really soft snow conditions the best way to take off is to deploy full flaps as you might not be able to pick up enough speed or to get the nose up due to the drag. Flaps increase lift and decrease the weight on the main gear. The plane will take off at a level attitude. The same applies for floats too (heavy and flat calm water).

If the field is rough and bumpy then I also prefer to take off with no flaps but land at lowest possible airspeed, which in my case is with flaps #2. Secondly, in case of a rough field (e.g. hard packed snow with bumps) you've gotta see where you're going and if holding the nose way up you cannot really see anything..

Just my thoughts, thanks for sharing the video :) 

Comment by Bob McDonald on December 8, 2014 at 7:54am

That's not snow... here it's called a Heavy Frost :>)

Comment by Bryan Walstrom on December 7, 2014 at 2:41pm

Well done! Thanks for sharing!