FIX-A-FLAT FOR YOUR FALTERING FINAL

A final approach of moderate steepness makes it easy to judge and control the glide path and touch down on your intended spot.  Flat approaches leave you vulnerable to sink or other difficulties, and extremely flat approaches are downright dangerous.  Very steep approaches, of course, are like showering with a fire hose.  Take a clue from Goldilocks.Folks who are over eager to deploy spoilers get themselves low way too early in the pattern.  They start out okay on downwind but the lower they sink the fewer options they have, all because of using too much spoiler too early.  There’s a no-brainer solution to this unnecessary problem that’s sometimes too obvious, apparently, for people who have brains.  This trick is guaranteed to work, brain or no, even after you’ve made the mess – so long as you clean it up soon enough.And the no brainer is:  the moment you sense that you might be lower than ideal, CLOSE THE SPOILERS.  (Jeeze!  That's why they call it a no-brainer.)  Maybe you were using them in the usual way but let your airspeed (PITCH ATTITUDE) wander.  Plus some other excuse.  No matter.  It’s time to stop the chain of errors NOW.  The worst thing you could do is chase the airspeed indicator while leaving your spoilers out – but we see it all too often!  Come on Goldilocks, just reset the pitch attitude where you know you need it, wait a few seconds for speed to stabilize and then reopen the spoilers to resume a sensibly moderate descent.  But not until you need them, please!