Paul Michael Brown wrote:
About 129-134 is common. 8.1 degrees AOA. For carrier landings,
it's 800 feet per minute all the way to touchdown (3.5 degree glide
slope). For field landings, it's about the same 700-800 FPM and a
3.0 degree glide slope. Most senior guys flare to land to save
center barrel life and FLE.

What is the "center barrel" and the "FLE? and why does flaring save
them?


The center barrel of the F/A-18 is the main fuselage section around the
engines to which the wings and main landing gear are attached. It appears
to be the limiting component for airframe fatugue life in the F/A-18.

FLE is Fatigue Life Expended, which I understand to be a measure of how much
wear the airframe has accumulated and thus how many likely safe flying hours
the plane has left.

Flaring reduces the descent rate on landing, which decreases the amount of
energy the airplane (including the center barrel section in the F/A-18) has
to absorb when it hits the runway. That should reduce fatigue and conserve
FLE.

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right, when
wrong to be put right." - Senator Carl Schurz, 1872