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Landing and takeoff performances on hard vs soft surfaces

Asked by: 3163 views , ,
Aerodynamics, General Aviation

I have something that puzzle me concerning the take-off and landing performances of the Cessna 150 I'm using. For take off, it says to add 20% to the number given when using a grass runway. That makes sense as the plane will have more difficulties to reach his take off speed. But for landing, same thing. I need to add 20% to my landing distance when using grass field…. how come. I thought that the roughness of the runway would stop the plane faster than on a hard surface runway. Only explanation I see if is the field is wet. Am I missing something obvious here ? Thanks.

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1 Answers

  1. Best Answer


    Kris Kortokrax on Dec 11, 2014

    Take a look at the performance chart. There is probably a stipulation listed that bases the hard surface distance on “Maximum braking”.

    Braking will not be as effective on grass, whether dry or wet.

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