On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 19:29:14 GMT, john smith
wrote:

Snowbird wrote:
AFAIK, I fly a plane whose stall speed is *higher* than an Arrow's.
90 mph sounds quite high for normal final approach esp. w/ just you
in the plane, assuming your stall speed is similar to or lower than
mine.
I target final approach at 80 mph, 75 if it's just me and partial
fuel. I add 1/2 the gust factor as a rule of thumb ie 17 g 27
would add ~5 kts.
JMO, but I don't think it adds to safety to put on too much extra
speed. If it's really nasty and swirly near the ground, it just
extends the time you have to spend in ground effect bleeding off
extra speed.
Why do you feel it's necessary, or safer, to add 10 to 15 kts to
an approach speed which already sounds rather fast?

Note thaty the original poster stated airspeed in MILES PER HOUR not
knots.
90 MPH is about 75 kts, which is okay.

That's still faster than I land a Bonanza or Debonair.
and I think its considerably faster than I used to Land the Cherokee
180. And I did make the distinction between knots and MPH.

The Arrow has a healthy sink rate the requires some extra speed
initially to keep the sink rate below 500 fpm.

OK...why do you want to keep the sink rate below 500 fpm? I'm used to
seeing 800 in the Deb and can easily manage a descent up to 1100 fpm.
Actually I can come down a lot faster than that, but I can do a more
or less normal descent at 1100.

"As I recall" power off in the old Cherokee 180 was also around 800
with full flaps.

As a comparison, a power off "best glide" in a Glasair III is about
1500 fpm.

Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)