Hi!Just completed my first flight myself from London Gatwick to Plymouth, but the landing went horribly wrong - it's a very short runway at Plymouth! Are there any tips/tricks at landing the J41? It's very floaty and difficult to get the speed off quick enough!Regards,Tom Wright

Tom,Landing the JS41 requires plenty of planning. Fly the numbers all the way down. If you let yourself get either high or fast, go around.

Exactly what Kurt says. You are floating because you are too fast. The proper speed over the numbers will allow you to do a normal flare and touchdown with ease. Use the speed bugs.

Ok thanks guys. I guess it's a combination of it being a naturally slippery airframe, and me being used to flying jets which have a higher approach speed!Regards,Tom Wright

Ok thanks guys. I guess it's a combination of it being a naturally slippery airframe, and me being used to flying jets which have a higher approach speed!Regards,Tom Wright

This may help some too - http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=268784

Thanks for the help guys. This afternoon i've been practicing shooting approaches at Plymouth which only has a 1160m runway, and was greasing it on after a few tries just by nailing the correct approach speed!Regards,Tom

The runway at Plymouth is about as short as I would feel comfortable with as far as landing the JS4100 is concerned. The version of this airport included in VFR Airfields Volume 1 has a few trees reasonably close to the end of the main runway, so it is take offs that feel decidedly dodgy!

The runway at Plymouth is about as short as I would feel comfortable with as far as landing the JS4100 is concerned. The version of this airport included in VFR Airfields Volume 1 has a few trees reasonably close to the end of the main runway, so it is take offs that feel decidedly dodgy!

Yes Plymouth is very short. According to some stats i've read it's actually shorter than the required field length for a J41, which I find surprising because Dash 8-300, Q400 and ATR42 all run regular services to that airport and are all much bigger aircraft than the Jetstream.Newquay-St Mawgan is a much safer bet though! Used to be an RAF base so the runway is huge!Regards,Tom Wright

Also make sure to cross reference you landing weight in the speed card book for landing Vref :(

The Dash-8 series was designed for STOL operations, but I am not sure the same can be said of the Jetstream 4100. I have no idea with respect to the ATR-42, but the fact that it has a high wing like the Dash-8 would suggest that it too was specifically designed to operate from short runways.

With little or no headwinds, should we be landing at right at vRef or is it more like airlines, vRef+5 by default?

Al, I will let the airspeed bleed down to Vref over the lights so I guess the flare is starting at Vref or a little less.

Al, I will let the airspeed bleed down to Vref over the lights so I guess the flare is starting at Vref or a little less.

So at which point do you idle the power? I've found that hardly any power is required on approach at all, and in order to bring the speed down to VREF as you pass over the threshold you have to bring the power off quite early.Regards,Tom Wright

Thanks guys! I tried this consensus last night into my hometown regional airport and it worked quite well. I had been dropping the IAS to vREF further back on the approach which was messing with my flare and landing. Now, after flying most of the G/S at the Flaps-25 REF (about 32% torque), at about 200' AGL (somewhere over the threshold lights) I slowly brought the power back to idle (maybe 3 to 5 seconds) and it landed very nicely. I got a 100% landing rating on both FSPassengers and FS Flight Keeper. Verticle Speed recorded @ touchdown was 169ft/min. My best so far! :(