One of the skills you will need to master and a skill most needed when flying in the bush, is the art of short-field operations with light aircraft. Landing an aircraft on a paved 5,000 foot runway with a single-engined GA aircraft is an overly easy thing to do and those pilots that stick with this scenario that never learn to land on less, will be asking for trouble one day. It is not just the length of the runway that will cause a pilot problems, but it is the altitude of the runway and the type of surface (grass or gravel). If it is grass, then how tall is the grass and is the grass wet or soggy, what is your outside temperature, and what is the height of any obstacles that may exist at either end of the runway? Some of these factors cannot be duplicated in Flight Simulator (as of yet), but much of it can.
Where many real-world pilots get into trouble is with their lack of understanding of true altitude vs density altitude, as having a high density altitude not only effects the amount of speed required to maintain lift, it also effects your engine power equally. I personally live at a rather high altitude (Reno, NV) where the Reno-Tahoe International airport is 4,400 feet above sea level, but on a hot summer's day the density altitude can easily exceed 7,000+ feet (effective). Up until a few years ago, the South Lake Tahoe Airport (6,300 feet ASL) was served by United Airlines and their 737s, but far too often, the density altitude could and would exceed 10,000 feet, making a landing or takeoff there all but impossible.
The professional bush pilot is fully aware of true altitude and density altitude, plus he or she has an equal understanding of the effects of deep-wet grass on their aircraft's ability to accelerate. There will be other times when a bush pilot will find it necessary to take off with the wind rather than against it due to some unusual circumstances, like a runway that is angled downhill or there is a tall obstacle (200 foot trees or a mountain) at one end or the other—and these are just a few of the conditions a bush pilot would expect when flying the back-country.
For this tutorial on short field takeoff and landing techniques in Flight Simulator, we're going to be using Steven Grant's FS2000 Maule M-7 235 Orion (taildragger). Another pair of excellent aircraft I highly recommend are Brian Gladden's Zenith 801 STOL for FS2002 (AVSIM Library) and the FS2002 Piper SuperCub (with skis) from the French Altiports website. To give ourselves some feeling of authenticity, we will be using the FS2002 airstrip at Delta Junction, Alaska. This is an airport of considerable length (2,800 feet), but considering its makeup (grass surface and tall fir trees surrounding), it is a good airport to learn the art of flying in and out of short fields. Remember it is always a good idea to practice where you have a margin of safety before you attempt the really short fields.
In this article I'm going to discuss optional techniques a bush pilot can use to clear a tall object at the end of a runway during landing or taking off; we're talking of objects that obviously need to be cleared with a reasonable margin of safety.
Often a bush pilot will be landing in areas that are unimproved (open grassy meadow or field) rather than an established airport, so being able to judge an area for landing to have sufficient room for takeoff is very important. This is where knowing your aircraft becomes very important, because it has happened more than once that a bush pilot has made it safely into landing on a small open meadow, only to realize, too late of course, that they have insufficient room for a successful takeoff!
Most aircraft will require roughly twice the distance for takeoff (to clear a 50' tall obstacle) as is required for landing (over a 50' object), so picking your landing point is very important.
Landing: If you have read the book by Wolfgang Langewiesche called "Stick & Rudder," then you are fully aware of the basics of powered flight, which states that the stick controls your speed and your throttle setting controls your altitude. This basic law of powered flight is very noticeable when flying the backside of the power-curve, which is a necessary procedure or skill you need to perfect for making a safe short field landing. Another method of losing altitude, without gaining any significant amount of speed, would be by using the side-slip, but that seems to be very difficult to duplicate in the airfiles for any of the aircraft designed for Flight Simulator at this time. I have been able to perform a side-slip, but recovery is a bit unrealistic in Flight Simulator with the majority of FS aircraft I've attempted it with. So for now, we will keep this tutorial limited to flying the back-side of the power curve, as our preferred method of short field approach and landing.
Here in this series of screenshots, I am approaching the field just above the trees, at a high angle of attack, with full flaps, and a high power setting to maintain level flight or a very controlled slow descent. In the graphic marked #1 and #2, you can see that I have the nose up so that my speed is at a very controlled 50 knots, while only needing 2,000 to 2,050 rpm to maintain my 200-300 fpm rate of descent. In this example I simply flew the aircraft directly (much like a Navy Aviator landing on an aircraft carrier) to the minimum landing markers, which are about 400 feet from the tree line we cross over. If I had wished to land as near the tree line as possible, then I would have, just as we cleared the trees, reduced the engine power and nosed the aircraft over (pushed the stick forward) and would have descended very steeply. Before reaching the ground I would then increase power while pulling the nose back up (to control my speed), where we would return to level flight, but very near the ground. Then by gently reducing power, the aircraft would settle down onto the surface. Using this technique would have allowed us to land and come to a complete stop, well short of those minimum runway markers at Delta Junction. Because of the short drop in altitude (to get over the trees), my speed would not have increased significantly during my steep nose-over.
Takeoff: In any aircraft owner's manual, there will be the published the distance required (at sea level and standard temperature of 59º F) for takeoff on a hard-surface runway. This standard takeoff is following your setting your trim, setting 10º to 15º of flaps (usually the first or second notch, if you have manually operated flaps), release your brakes, apply full throttle, and once you've exceeded minimum single engine stall speed you rotate and maintain a specific climb speed for maximum rate of climb.
If you follow the standard takeoff procedure, on many of the types of fields you can expect to be operating out of in the bush, you may notice some unusual noises, just after you takeoff, That noise you probably noticed is caused by the sound created as your wings are being torn off by the trees as you fly through them. In other words, oftentimes you must use a different procedure to successfully and safely take off from many of the airstrips in the world.
One of the most useful procedures is to use the power-flap jump to altitude procedure to decrease your distance to altitude run. Often you can reduce this distance (standard takeoff procedure vs modified takeoff procedure) by as much as 40 to 50 percent.
Most times, Flight Simulator or the 3rd party add-ons do duplicate most aspects of an aircraft's flight characteristics quite well, but occasionally some things don't translate well. One of those items that doesn't transfer well is the fact that most bush type aircraft have manual flaps, operated by a single hand lever typically located between the seats. All aircraft in Flight Simulator have electric flaps, so you can't apply full flaps in a single and sudden motion like you can in most light aircraft. Here today we're going to apply flaps in the best way that we can, due to the limitations of our having a software programmed simulator working on a PC. We just have to accept that some real-world aircraft functions cannot be accurately simulated, so we will simply work around this current limitation.
In a real aircraft (with manual flaps) we would hold the brakes, apply full power, and then release the brakes once we had achieved full static rpm. We then hold the aircraft on the takeoff surface until we had reached near our best speed for maximum rate of climb, pull the stick or yoke back and apply full flaps, all in one single motion. By pulling back the stick or yoke until we were climbing at a 45º angle or better, this combined with the sudden application of full flaps will cause the aircraft to almost seemly jump 100 to 150 feet above the ground in a few seconds. This effect is because of our greater takeoff speed and the sudden increase in lift (because of the application of full flaps) that will jump our aircraft up and over those tall obstacles. This technique will work on most single-engined light aircraft, but I don't think I would recommend it for you heavy (Boeing or Airbus) pilots out there, though if you have experienced a jetliner takeoff where the noise abatement laws are in effect, you know that this technique can work there also!
In FS2002, you should hold the brakes until you've got maximum takeoff rpm. At the moment you release the brakes, you should then strike the "F8" key for maximum flaps, then hold the aircraft down on the terrain surface until you've reached 10 to 15 knots greater speed than your stall speed. Once you've reached this speed (65 kots on this Maule), pull your yoke back until you've achieved a 45 to 60 degree climb, than almost immediately after takeoff, strike your "F5" key (to fully retract your flaps) while you begin pushing the aircraft's nose back down toward level flight. Once you've mastered this technique, you will be able to maintain the altitude jump of 100 to 150 feet and you will safely accelerate up to your cruise speed, smoothly and efficiently. When you've got the aircraft stable, at a constant altitude and accelerating, you can begin your normal climb to your flight altitude.
As I've mentioned, using this technique will reduce your takeoff roll and climb to 100 feet AGL distance by as much as 40% to 50%, as compared to using the normal or standard takeoff procedure—a much needed skill for the successful bush pilot. Download Steven Grant's beautiful little Maule or Brian Gladden's neat Zenith 801 and go find a nice grass field to practice with. Learning to effectively apply this technique will open up all kinds of possibilities of places to travel to and land for you. Enjoy!
— Steve (Bear) Cartwright
*Photos provided by Kevin Griffin, Simulations Product Unit Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation.
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