Variations in soft field landings

On Wed, 25 Apr 2007 22:10:06 GMT, Matt Whiting
wrote:

Maxwell wrote:
I was taught to lift the flaps immediately upon touch down on soft field
landings. My instructors stated getting more weight on the brakes as soon as
possible, would facilitate a quicker stop than leaving the flaps down for
drag, and loosing some braking power to the extra lift.

However, during my last BFR, the instructor corrected me very sharply. He
insisted you get more drag from the flaps by leaving them down until you
slowed to taxi speed, than the benefit of more weight on the brakes.

What is the general consensus of the group? Flaps up or down, after
touchdown on a soft field landing?

You definitely should not raise the flaps on a soft field landing! Are
you sure you aren't thinking of a short field landing instead? Even
then, I wouldn't recommend it although I do know CFIs who do make this
recommendation. However, I've never heard such a recommendation for a
soft field. Trust me, braking isn't a problem on a truly soft field!

FWIW, 172S and 182T checklists both say flaps up after landing for
short field to get weight on wheels and better breaking.

I wouldn't pull the flaps on soft either, the last thing you want on a
soft field is extra weight to dig in the wheels and heavy breaking....