Short-Field Approach and Landing (ASEL, AMEL)

• Airspeed: manufacturer's published approach speed, or in its absence not more than 1.3 VSO, ±5 knots with the gust factor applied (CA.IV.F.S7)
• Touchdown: proper pitch attitude within 100 feet beyond or on the specified point, threshold markings, or runway numbers — no side drift, minimum float, longitudinal axis aligned with and over the centerline (CA.IV.F.S10)

100 feet. Private allowed 200. This is the tightest landing box on the commercial checkride, and it is why float discipline matters more than flare technique.

Because the tolerance is a float tolerance. Excess airspeed on final becomes float in the round out, and float eats the 100-foot window before the wheels ever touch. The AFH puts it as a diagnostic: a lack of floating during the flare, with sufficient control to touch down properly, is verification that the approach speed was correct (AFH ch. 9). Too fast and you float past the box; too slow and you cannot flare and you land hard.

The AFM/POH short-field procedure, which generally means a final approach started from an altitude of at least 500 feet higher than the touchdown area, with full flaps at an appropriate point during the final approach (AFH ch. 9). When safety and conditions permit, use a wider-than-normal pattern with a longer final, which gives you room to stabilize the descent angle after the airplane is configured and trimmed.

For many light airplanes the practical technique is to fly a stabilized final at the flap setting preceding full flaps; then, when the field is made, extend full flaps and lower the nose to hold airspeed and keep the aiming point stationary in the windscreen.

Short of it. The aiming point is where the airplane would strike the ground with no round out; the actual touchdown is farther down the runway because you arrest the descent in the flare (AFH ch. 9). At a 100-foot tolerance you need to know your own airplane's round-out-plus-float distance as a number and offset the aiming point by it. Confirm the aiming point is right the same way as on any stabilized approach: it does not move in the windscreen, and the runway shape stays a constant trapezoid.

• Obstacle clearance excessive, touchdown drifting well beyond the aiming point: reduce power while lowering pitch to steepen the path and increase the descent rate
• Descent angle will not clear the obstacle: increase power while raising pitch to shallow the path

With the caution that at high angle of attack and low airspeed, increasing pitch increases the rate of descent (AFH ch. 9). And a slightly steeper angle over an obstacle puts the touchdown closer to the obstacle, which gives you more runway to stop in.

Touch down at the minimum controllable airspeed, in approximately the pitch attitude that would produce a power-off stall as the throttle closes (AFH ch. 9). Do not close the throttle abruptly — a rapid closure produces an immediate increase in descent rate and a hard landing. A small amount of power also keeps airflow over the elevator, giving you the authority to flare; at low airspeed with a windmilling propeller blocking that airflow, the flare can get difficult.

Use the manufacturer's recommended configuration and braking procedures (CA.IV.F.S11). The AFH sequence (ch. 9):

• Hold the positive pitch attitude as long as the elevators remain effective (if the manufacturer recommends it) for aerodynamic braking — for most airplanes aerodynamic drag is the single biggest factor in slowing the airplane through the first quarter of its speed decay
• Immediately on nosewheel touchdown, apply maximum braking
• Brakes become more effective as airspeed and lift decrease; hold the yoke full back while smoothly applying brakes, because the airplane leans forward under heavy braking
• Best braking is at the incipient skid — a little more pressure would lock the wheels. If they lock, braking effectiveness drops dramatically and you can flat-spot the tires

Execute a timely go-around if the approach cannot be made within the tolerances specified or for any other condition that may result in an unsafe approach or landing. The AFH says the same thing in technique language: when there is doubt regarding the outcome of the approach, go around, evaluate, and decide whether to try again or divert (AFH ch. 9). Unlike Task IV.M, a go-around here is not itself a failure.

Almost never — and the reasoning is the point of the risk element. A short-field landing already assumes you need every foot available, and a LAHSO clearance hands you a shorter available landing distance than the runway shows. As PIC you have final authority to accept or decline any LAHSO clearance (PHAK ch. 14), so the honest answer is to decline unless the available landing distance still clears your POH short-field number with margin.

If you do accept:

• Know the available landing distance before you answer
• No portion of the aircraft may extend beyond the hold markings
• LAHSO is issued only with a ceiling of at least 1,000 feet and 3 statute miles visibility
• Brief the go-around, because a rejected landing off a LAHSO clearance climbs into the traffic the restriction existed for

See Task IV.B for the full LAHSO card.

From the AFH (ch. 9):

• A final approach that necessitates an overly steep approach and high sink rate
• Unstable approach; undue delay in initiating glide path corrections
• Too low an airspeed on final, so you cannot flare and land hard
• Too high an airspeed, resulting in float
• Prematurely reducing power to idle in the round out
• Touchdown with excessive airspeed
• Excessive or unnecessary braking
• Failure to maintain directional control
• Failure to recognize and abort a poor approach

Three things:

1. The speed window halves. +10/−5 becomes ±5 (CA.IV.F.S7). At private you could fly the top of the window and absorb the float; at commercial the fast end of the old window is now a bust before you ever flare.
2. The distance box halves. 200 feet becomes 100 (CA.IV.F.S10) — roughly two runway stripes and the gap between them. That is float, not aim: pick the aiming point that produces your known float, then protect the speed.
3. "Minimum float" is now explicit in the standard. The private standard also said it, but at 100 feet it stops being an adjective and becomes the measurement.

Everything else — stabilized approach, full flaps at the right moment, max braking after the nose is down — you already know. The commercial version is the same maneuver flown with half the slop.

You are managing total mechanical energy — altitude plus airspeed (AFH ch. 4) — so that it reaches very nearly zero exactly at the touchdown point. Everything about the maneuver serves that:

• Full flaps raise the drag so the energy bleeds faster on a steeper path
• 1.3 VSO minimizes the kinetic energy you arrive with
• Touchdown at minimum controllable airspeed so the brakes have less to dissipate
• The 500-foot-plus final keeps the whole profile stabilized rather than corrected

The failure mode is arriving with a surplus. Excess speed is kinetic energy that must be spent somewhere, and the only places it can go are float (past the box) or brakes and tires (down the runway you did not have).