User Guide

Learning To Fly with Rod Machado
105
7
modify your airplane’s descent path and alignment with the runway. During the final approach, the
airplane’s glidepath can be adjusted to make it easier for you to land on any selected runway spot.
When turning from base leg onto final approach, you have an additional opportunity to correct your
glidepath. Let’s assume that you are making a power-off approach from the base leg. After turning
base, you retarded the power and commenced a descent. Your objective is to land on a specific spot
on the runway. If you’re too low, you can cut short the turn from the base leg to final approach as
shown in Figure 17 (position A). Flying path 1 allows you to fly less distance during the descent, thus
increasing your chances of landing on the desired spot. Path 2 is longer, and path 3 is a nice square
turn onto final.
If you’re too high, you can
deliberately overshoot the turn
onto final approach, giving you
more distance to cover during
your descent as shown in Figure
17 (position B). Another option is
to S-turn on final as shown in
Figure 17 (position C). S-turns
are simply a series of alternating
turns left and right of the direct
glidepath. (They may make it
look like you’ve had one too
many mai tais!). Since the
shortest distance between any
two points is a straight line,
anything you do to fly other than
a straight line lengthens the trip.
Assuming a constant rate of
descent, taking the long way
home will allow you to lose more
altitude.
Figure 17
A
B
C
B
A
C
2
3
1