SOFT FIELD TAKEOFF

Whether you’re departing from grass or gravel, here’s how to do it.

Essentially, our objective is to get the wheels off the ground asap, by transferring the weight from the wheels to the wings.

By lifting off early we eliminate surface drag (grass, sand, mud, snow, etc.) and lighten the load on our landing gear.

THE TAKEOFF ROLL

When taxiing into position, keep moving! Do not let the aircraft come to a stop so as to not risk getting our wheels stuck into soft surface.

Maintain full back pressure on the yoke, keeping as much weight off the nose wheel as possible.

Ensure the airplane is already configured for takeoff (flaps according to POH).

Once lined up, smoothly add full power while keeping full back pressure on the yoke. This reduces the weight on the nose and allows you to liftoff asap.

During the takeoff roll, our nose wheel will lift off first. As it lifts off, slightly reduce the back pressure on the yoke. We don’t want a tail strike, do we?

Maintain the same nose-high attitude throughout the takeoff roll and the aircraft will fly itself off of the runway.

THE LIFTOFF

As we lift off, we enter ground effect. Ground effect is detrimental to us in being able to lift off at such a slow speed — one at which the airplane isn’t ready to continue climbing yet!

We are now airborne, in ground effect. Here we must accelerate to a safe speed — Vx or Vy — before continuing our climb out.

Watch out for excessive or a lack of back pressure! We don’t want to climb out of ground effect too early! Nor do we want to put the nose wheel back down on rough ground.

Once a safe speed is captured, pitch respectively to maintain that speed while climbing out.

THE INITIAL CLIMB

During initial climb, maintain Vx or Vy depending if there are any obstacles ahead.

When we’ve established positive climb, clean up the flaps and gear.

What makes this manoeuvre challenging is that as we raise our nose we are at a speed slow enough that we are barely flying, but we must keep it there until we’ve built up enough airspeed.

BEWARE OF FOUR COMMON MISTAKES!

• INSUFFICIENT BACK PRESSURE DURING TAKEOFF ROLL.
• CLIMBING TOO STEEPLY AFTER TAKEOFF.
• OVER-CONTROLLING THE YOKE WHILE ACCELERATING TO Vx/Vy.
• LETTING AIRCRAFT SETTLE BACK ONTO RUNWAY AFTER LIFTOFF.