Flying Goat

I think I once solved some similar problem by using slew mode to move the airplane around a bit.

I think that to capture a glideslope both NAV units must be tuned to the ILS frequency. Having only one tuned could explain the discrepancy.

Yep, they are, even on airstrips :

Of course ! I had one very "Aerosucre" moment once, taking off at MRTW but from some high altitude airport. After I somehow managed to lift-off and was having trouble maintaining a positive climb without shedding the little speed I had, one of the wheels of the main landing gear softly bumped on the roof of an unfortunate house located a few hundred meters down from the runway. Not enough to damage or slow down the plane but well enough to have some very annoyed neighbors, and probably some investigation :)

Indeed. I've adapted a checklist from a nice video where the guys used a "spiral" check : once the APU is up, start from top-left, power galleys, go down to the electrical system then down to the fuel management, then right to hydraulics and again to warnings, up to air conditioning and up again to packs, then left to the middle column to oxygen and down to the last warning and engine gauges checks. Very visual and easy to follow. Then after starting engines it is a matter of closing the electrical buses, checking the lights are all off and the fuel lines/packs tripoff are set for takeoff, and then you can concentrate on flying the beast (I can heartily recommend doing an overweight take-off once in a while). Very nice plane.

I've flown the 727-200F for over one hundred hours, and while I use the automated flight engineer during flight, I do all the checklist work myself up to take-off, and after landing. It keeps me busy on the ground but doesn't distract me during flight. Feels very good this way, and is actually faster than using the automatic checklist tool.

If it's the same as the -200, you must turn them on from the left-side circuit breaker panel. Very confusing at first.

I'm an old-school tech guy who enjoys flying VFR or VOR and go sightseeing, so I mostly fly GA (or warbirds). The only exception is the FSS B727-200F that I still fly VOR to VOR, but at FL350 and M0.8. The need to monitor stations and the lack of autothrottle keeps me busy during long flights, and doing a decently complex STAR according to the charts always makes for a nice busy challenge when you need to manually manages changes in FL and speed, plus sometimes up to 3 VOR frequencies switches within the last 50NM and then the ILS. I kind of treat it like a giant GA plane actually.

The FSS B727-200F is very nice if you're in the mood for something old-school.

Yeah that's a solid option to get started. As a non-regular airliner flyer it is good enough for me (or at least it was good enough to realize I didn't want to spend money in that direction).

Thank you for the comprehensive answer. My question was actually about the T-37 but your explanation still stands as it encounters the same landing challenge as the T-38 (though at a slower speed). I finally found some USAF manual for the aircraft and indeed you were right, the airbrake is supposed to be extended during landing. Should make things easier in the future, though it was a good training to try without :)

I'm not sure we're supposed to use the airbrake for touchdown, the bundled manual is silent about landing procedure and I haven't found another online. From real-life videos the plane does take forever to slow down from 100 to 50kts though (or you can cheat and retract the flaps during the flare and have it drop on the runway for good).

Thank you for the recommendation, it is indeed a wonderful little plane that is very fun to fly and very tricky to land (better have a 9000ft runway available).

As a guy who mostly flies GA with old school VOR/eyeballs nav, the Aerostar is perfect. Outstanding visibility, great performance, and a pleasure to hand fly. It did seem underwhelming at first because of how stable and well-behaved it is but I found it hits a very sweet spot : easy to fly but easy to misfly too, basic systems that are modeled in depth and that are nice to learn, great view all around for sightseeing but high performances that allows 500+NM cross country. Never had any sound issue. Also one of the nicest plane to fly aerobatics.

A couple rules of thumb I try to apply (I'm not a real-life pilot) : - The longer the final the easier it is to correct. Turn into final early and far away. Prepare early, make sure the lights, mixture, initial flaps, etc. are all ready in advance so you can spend the last minute or more only dealing with the landing proper. - Instruments are good to get you to the final. Within a mile or two of the threshold your gaze should stay on the runway. - Don't cut the throttle at once. Be deliberate when reducing power in the flare. Fly the plane until the end. - If at anytime, even inches over the runway, you feel something is wrong, abort and go around. - Practice flying circuits on long runways with light guidance. Learn you aircraft parameters, which regime works best for which phase. Plus flying circuits is fun :) - Be honest with yourself. Review your performance. What went well ? what went wrong ? How can you improve ? Then do another circuit and see if you can do better.