Plane and Pilot
AUGUST 27, 2024
Back in the early days of jet airliners, pilots long experienced in more forgiving two- and four-engine, piston-powered prop planes found themselves running out of airspeed, altitude, and ideas on the final approach to landing. Several of these unstabilized approaches resulted in major aircraft damage or worse.
Aerotime
MARCH 3, 2025
But since 1971, the airline operated without a single fatality, until in 2000 a failure of part of the horizontal stabilizer on an MD-80 caused a crash that claimed 88 lives. American Eagle Flight 5342 collided with a United States Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter on final approach to Reagan Airport.
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Aerotime
JULY 19, 2024
Upon his return, he reported that both right-hand and left-hand rear stabilizers had sustained damage. With the landing gear down but without the use of the wing leading-edge slats and trailing-edge flaps, there was little the crew could do to control the stricken aircraft’s approach speed, other than through variable engine power settings.
Vintage Aviation News
JANUARY 30, 2025
A short 18 months later, on August 13, 1937, the XPB2Y-1 took to the skies for the first time, revealing plenty of room for improvement lateral instability was a major problem for the deep-hulled boat, so the single tail fin was augmented by two smaller fins on the horizontal stabilizers.
Inflight Pilot Training
MARCH 13, 2025
This leads to unstable approaches, excessive pitch changes, and increased workload in the cockpit. Why It Happens: Nervousness and lack of trust in the aircrafts stability. How to Avoid It: Memorize and use your aircrafts Vref (final approach speed). Overreacting to small deviations in altitude or heading.
Aerotime
DECEMBER 20, 2024
Having been cruising along at around 500 miles per hour (800 kph) or so, depending on aircraft type, the crew will need to reduce this to around 150 mph (240 kph) for the final approach, and even lower for the actual landing itself. At this point, the use of the aircraft’s flaps becomes critical.
Professional Pilot
AUGUST 8, 2024
Challenger 604, G-IV Contributing Writer Pilatus PC-12 on approach at ORL. Air traffic control instructions often lead to unstable approaches. The request to make a short approach or maintain a higher-than-normal speed to the final approach fix is the most common reason pilots don’t meet stable approach criteria.
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