Pre-planning

I ran into some difficulty on my last flight; a cross country from Salt Lake City to Pocatello, Idaho. I am flying in a new airplane these days. Its a twin engine Diamond airplane. Here is a picture. This was the first time that I had taken the airplane to an airport that I was unfamiliar with and had a vague knowledge of the layout of the airport. From the map on the right hand screen in the cockpit I knew that it had 2 runways and from the conversation with the tower I knew which one I would be landing on.
I looked down at the compass and saw that the runway, labeled 03, would run from the south west to the north east. When the airport came into view I lost confidence in the mental picture I had formed in my head and doubted which runway to land on. More on that later, I'm getting ahead of myself.

As my instructor and I were enroute, we planned a point on our route to start to decend to the airport. The computer in the airplane will actually ask the pilot to enter in the altitude the aircraft should be at and at what point. So I tell the computer to put the plane at 1000 feet above the runway at the airport. With that information the computer plots a point on the moving map labled as the TOD or Top of Decent. This is the point where I need to decend in order to make it to the proper altitude. Now the rate of decent depends on how fast the airplane is going. It makes sense that at a faster speed, the aircraft is going to decend at a faster rate to make it on time. So 30 miles out or so the computer tells me to decend and we are zipping along at 150 knots. A knot is about 1.3 mph. At this speed i was decending at about 700 to 1000 feet per minuet. This isn't a problem usually. But I have forgoten that I told the computer to put me at the pattern altitude right over the airport and not a few miles from it which is what I should have done. So now Im in a new airplane, a fast airplane, and I am way behind.


With other planes I have flown there is a set pattern and procedure for when and where to do things such as lower gear, flaps, pull power and other things. If these things are not in the checklist the instructor usually tells you the policy for the particular aircraft you are flying. These things were not written down and there was no discussion as to when the best time to deply these things.

So now I am on the base leg and need to make one right turn to line up with the runway and land. My airspeed is about 130 kts. 40 kts too fast! Remember, I'm still trying to decend, and pointing the nose lower to do it not sure when I should lower the gear or flaps. Lowering these things do two things. They slow the plane and alow it to decend without having to lower the nose as much. So now I'm worried about my speed, I lower the gear and flaps late, and my final leg of the flight looks more like an "S" curve than a straight line to land.

I spent tonight coming up with my own procedure for lowering the gear, and flaps. At the point of decent the plan is to pull the power back to about 50% of available power and start to slow down early. I forgot to mentiont that this airplane is made of composit fiber and is a very clean aircraft. It does not like to slow down. For a non standard pattern or straight in approach I will be at 100 kts 10 miles out. Five miles out I will put the gear down and the first notch of flaps. On a standard pattern to landing the speed will still be 100 kts 10 miles out with gear and first notch of flaps at the midfield point on downwind.

I don't feel too bad though, this was my 3rd flight in two years.