Quote:
Originally Posted by dradernh
I saw C5s doing touch-and-goes at Travis south of Sacramento back in the mid-80s and had the same reaction. It was especially pronounced if you looked away and then looked back; then it was impossible not have the feeling for just a moment that it was certainly going to drop out of the sky.
|
That's because it had a HUGE amount of flaps/slats out on final.
The "wag" you used for cross-checking the final approach airspeed was gross-weight plus 75.
i.e. if you weighed 500,000 lbs, you'd add 50 plus 75 to get an approach speed of about 125 knots.
If you were *really* lightweight (say the jet, no cargo and "only" 20,000 lbs of gas), you'r approach speed could be as low as 115 knots. By comparison, a Cessena's approach speed is about 60-70 knots and a heavyweight 737's approach speed with wind correction can be 150-170 knots.
R.
__________________
Current: M2C, Miata RF-GT, RDX & Element // R1200GS & VRSCF
Previous: M3, Focus ZX3-S2, Superchaged Solara, Samurai, Integra, Pinto & RX-4 // VRSCR, R6S, FZ1 & FZ600