What exactly is Low-Level?

More groundschool today; this time Airstrip Evaluation, Air Drops and Abort Points. Imagine a small dirt strip in the middle of the African bush. No control tower, no windsock, no runway markers and no published data. You mission is to fly to the strip and evaluate whether it is suitable for landing (and of course taking-off again). So how do you do this? By doing three 'passes' over the airstrip, and if all is well, land.

First you'd fly over it at 80kts around 1000ft (MAF call this a high pass), to assess the wind, surrounding terrain and any obstacles.

Next you'd fly over again at 80kts at 50-100 feet (MAF call this a medium pass) to work out the length (using a stopwatch and your approx groundspeed), the exact altitude of the strip and look for close in obstacles.

Now if you've been paying attention so far you may have noticed that a 'medium pass' is at between 50 and 100 feet. That is EXTREMELY LOW.

And so now for the low pass, again at 80kts. This one is to take a close look at the surface condition, look for yet more obstacles, and to assess the slope of the strip. And the height? 5 to 10 feet! At 80kts!!

One more day of groundschool, and then we start doing this for real.If you'd like to see what its going to be like, take a look at the video.

Happy Landings,

Steve