Short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings

The candidate teaches short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings from the right seat. At the end they can explain what each technique is protecting against, teach the two as genuinely different problems, and hold a Student to a landing point rather than to a runway.

These four tasks are simulated on a normal runway and that is the teaching trap. A short-field landing onto 5,000 ft of pavement has no consequences, so a Student learns the shape of the technique and none of the discipline. The candidate's job is to supply the consequence, and the way they do it is by holding the standard as though the runway ended where they said it did.

The single most common misconception, in Students and in newly certificated instructors alike.

The candidate must be able to say the "protecting against" row without notes. Everything else in each technique follows from it, and a Student taught the procedure without the reason will apply the right technique to the wrong runway for a career.

Element 9 is graded and it is not a formality. These four tasks are the ones where a Student actually needs a number, and it is the number most often quoted from a study guide or a remembered airplane. The candidate opens the manual for the airplane they are flying, works out the distances for the actual conditions, and states them. No number from any flight manual appears in this document, per cross-cutting requirement 5.

Per US-5.6, this lesson carries one, and program/PROGRAM-STRUCTURE.md names it.

The scenario: the rejected takeoff. The candidate must teach, before the flight, the point on the runway by which the airplane must be airborne and what happens if it is not. Then, during the flight, the Simulated Student's takeoff underperforms and the abort point arrives.

The teaching content is that the decision is made on the ground and executed without reconsideration. A pilot who reevaluates an abort decision at the abort point has already used the runway they needed to stop in. That is the same structure as the go-around gate from lesson 34, at a different point in the flight, and the candidate should be able to name the similarity.

Brief that a simulated emergency is coming today. Not when.

Ground 48 minutes, flight 90 minutes. Reconciles with the declared 0.8 ground and 1.5 dual.

Four techniques in ninety minutes is tight. Prioritize the two landings if the flight runs short: they are where the errors are, and the takeoffs are more easily rebuilt at the start of lesson 36.

Instructor: FAA-S-ACS-25 at Areas IV and VII. FAA-H-8083-3C. The airplane. A marked or agreed touchdown point and a simulated obstacle position on the runway in use, agreed before the flight.

Candidate: headset, the flight manual for the airplane being flown, their written preflight ground lesson, the takeoff and landing distance data for today's actual conditions, worked from that airplane's own approved material, on paper.

Airplane: normal category, dual controls. A runway long enough that a simulated short field is simulated. This lesson is not flown onto an actually short runway.

Cockpit recording: optional. Not one of the four P7 lessons.

1. Check the performance work before anything else, and check it against the airplane and the conditions rather than against your own memory of the numbers. If it came from a study guide, that is the first finding of the day.
2. Agree the simulated obstacle and the touchdown point on the ground, in feet, at a specific place on the runway. A simulated short field that moves during the flight teaches nothing.
3. Take the brief as a Student. Ask the question that exposes the misconception: "so soft field is just a gentler short field, right?"
4. Grade the brief before the airplane.
5. Brief the abort point and hold the candidate to teaching it as a pre-made decision.
6. In part 2, expect the soft-field takeoff to be the weakest demonstration. It is the one most commercial pilots have flown least recently.
7. In part 3, land long, land flat, and drop the nosewheel. See the script.
8. Hold the touchdown point standard as though the runway ended. Element 10. Say "that one put us in the trees" and mean it, once, early, so it lands.
9. Part 4, candidate first.

Simulated Student script notes

Not in the study guide.

1. Teach the preflight ground lesson on short and soft field operations, including what each technique protects against.
2. Present the takeoff and landing distance data for today's conditions from the airplane's own approved material.
3. Demonstrate short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings from the right seat, narrating.
4. Talk the Simulated Student through all four, holding the touchdown point standard.
5. Teach the abort point and execute the abort when it arrives.
6. Take the airplane at the threshold, out loud, three-way, in the pattern.
7. Critique, self-critique, then listen.

Identical wording in the study guide.

1. The candidate delivers the preflight ground lesson on short and soft field operations, covering all seven items of the brief, and states what each technique protects against, without notes, before describing how either is flown.
2. The candidate presents takeoff and landing distance figures for today's actual conditions, worked from the approved material of the airplane being flown, and can say where in that document each figure came from.
3. The candidate flies short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings to commercial pilot tolerances from the right seat while narrating continuously, touching down at or beyond the agreed point and within the tolerance the current task specifies.
4. The candidate distinguishes the aim point from the touchdown point in the taught content and in the corrections they give.
5. The candidate corrects a soft-field landing in which the nosewheel is lowered early, naming the surface as the reason rather than the technique.
6. The candidate keeps power in through the soft-field flare and teaches why it is there.
7. The candidate teaches the abort point as a decision made before the takeoff roll, and calls the abort at that point without reconsidering it.
8. The candidate holds the Simulated Student to the touchdown point standard, naming a landing beyond it as a failure of the approach rather than of the braking.
9. The candidate takes the flight controls using the three-way exchange, out loud, in both directions, including at least once when the airplane was not offered.
10. The candidate delivers a critique naming the error, its probable cause, and the correction for at least two of the errors flown.
11. The candidate delivers a self-critique before hearing the instructor's.

Standard 1 is the one that predicts everything else. A candidate who leads with the procedure rather than the purpose will teach it that way.

Falling short does not block lesson 36. No proficiency gate (Decision 9). It triggers policy/REMEDIATION-VISIBILITY.md.

Verbatim in the study guide. Every trigger below is checkable in one second, on purpose.

The instructor takes the airplane when:

• The airplane is not airborne by the agreed abort point and the throttle has not been closed.
• Airspeed reaches 1.1 Vso on final without correction applied.
• The airplane is not on the runway centerline extended below 200 ft AGL.
• The airplane floats past the midpoint of the runway and no go-around has been started.
• The nose is pushed forward in the flare or in a balloon.
• Heavy braking is applied on a simulated short-field rollout rather than a go-around being flown.
• Bank exceeds 30 degrees below 500 ft AGL.
• Either pilot is unclear about who is flying the airplane.

The braking item is specific to this lesson. A Student who has landed long on a real short field does not have a braking problem, they have a landing problem, and letting the braking "work" in the simulation teaches the wrong reflex.

The go-around gate from lesson 34 applies unchanged, including all six stabilized approach criteria and the 500 ft AGL gate. It is not restated here because it does not change, and the candidate is expected to still know it without prompting.

Positive exchange of controls, both directions, every time, practiced under load in the pattern.

Verbatim in the study guide.

Read:

• FAA-S-ACS-25, tasks AI.VII.C, AI.VII.D, AI.VII.E, and AI.VII.F, in full. Write down the touchdown point tolerances.
• FAA-H-8083-3C, the takeoffs and landings chapter, the short and soft field sections.
• standards/MANEUVER-LESSON-SHAPE.md, addition 2.

Deliverable: Three things. First, write the preflight ground lesson you will teach on short and soft field operations. This is one of your seventeen P3 plans, covering a short-field or soft-field operation. Second, work out today's takeoff and landing distances from the approved material of the airplane you will fly, for the actual conditions, and bring the working. Third, write in one sentence each what the short-field technique protects against and what the soft-field technique protects against. You will say both without notes.

VS-35-1

Type: Exemplar | ACS task: AI.VII.F | Status: empty What it should show: a short-field landing touching down at the chosen point with minimal float, narrated, with the aim point and touchdown point distinguishable Reference Critique: not applicable for an Exemplar

VS-35-2

Type: Error | ACS task: AI.VII.F | Status: empty What it should show: a short-field landing floated long, touching down well past the point, followed by heavy braking as the attempted fix Reference Critique: to be written from the Instructor Debrief of the flight the Clip is taken from

VS-35-3

Type: Error | ACS task: AI.VII.D | Status: empty What it should show: a soft-field landing with the power closed in the flare and the nosewheel lowered immediately after touchdown Reference Critique: to be written from the Instructor Debrief of the flight the Clip is taken from

VS-35-4

Type: Error | ACS task: AI.VII.C | Status: empty What it should show: a soft-field takeoff rotated late and climbed straight out of ground effect Reference Critique: to be written from the Instructor Debrief of the flight the Clip is taken from

Tagged by ACS task. These serve every lesson touching AI.VII.C through AI.VII.F.

This lesson is complete and deliverable whether or not its Video Slots are filled.

Check the performance work first and grade it honestly. It is the graded habit of this lesson, it takes four minutes, and it is the one thing here a candidate will do wrong for a whole career if nobody catches it now. Ask them to point at the page.

Say "that one put us in the trees" exactly once, early, and then stop. Element 10 requires the candidate to feel the consequence the simulation removes. Said once it lands; said every circuit it becomes background noise and the standard erodes anyway.

Expect soft field to be the weaker half. Most commercial pilots have flown short field more recently, and the soft-field takeoff in particular is a coordination habit that decays. That is a practice finding rather than a knowledge finding, and it should be recorded as one.

Note explicitly whether the touchdown point standard was held or drifted. A lesson where the agreed point quietly became "somewhere near there" has taught a Student that the standard is soft, which is the exact opposite of the lesson.

Tracker Status set by the instructor, named, dated.

• ✓Traces to a story. US-5.2, US-5.4, US-5.6
• ✓Carries ACS tasks and Part 61 references
• ✓Completion standards are observable behavior, naming flying tolerance and teaching quality
• ✓Common errors listed, each with the instructor's response
• ✓Intervention threshold stated as single-observable triggers actionable in the moment
• ✓Student preparation named, in the student half
• ✓FAA references verified current, 2026-08-13
• ✓Passes the design system check
• ✓Appears in the program structure and coverage matrix, hours reconciling
• ✓Both halves exist
• ✓Video Slots named and ACS-tagged, and the lesson states it is deliverable with them empty
• ✓Vocabulary matches CONTEXT.md
• ✓No em dashes, no reproduced flight manual performance numbers, no pricing
• ✓Falling short does not block progression (Decision 9)
• ✓Runs the four-part cycle from standards/MANEUVER-LESSON-SHAPE.md
• ✓Positive exchange of controls practiced under load in the pattern, not only described
• ✓Carries an emergency scenario, per US-5.6 and the program structure