The Normal Operating Speeds

Chapter 4A opens with a summary table of the speeds every normal procedure in it uses. Three of them are a single number at every mass; the rest change with what the aeroplane weighs, and one of them disagrees with the checklist that appears thirty pages later.

At a glance

• v_R, flaps T/O, 940 kg (2072 lb)56 KIAS
• v_R, flaps T/O, 1000 kg (2205 lb)58 KIAS
• v_R, flaps T/O, 1100 kg (2425 lb)61 KIAS
• v_R, flaps T/O, 1200 kg (2646 lb)65 KIAS
• v_R, flaps T/O, 1280 kg (2822 lb) and above67 KIAS
• v₅₀, flaps T/O, 940 kg62 KIAS
• v₅₀, flaps T/O, 1280 kg and above72 KIAS
• Take-off climb (v_Y), flaps T/O72 KIAS at every mass
• Cruise climb, flaps UP88 KIAS at every mass
• Minimum go-around speed, flaps T/O72 KIAS at every mass

What the chapter covers

What this chapter holds is a set of checklists, and descriptions of how the aeroplane is operated normally. One system is deliberately absent: normal operating procedures for the GFC 700 autopilot are not in this manual at all. They live in the Garmin G1000 Cockpit Reference Guide and the G1000 Pilot's Guide for the type — or, where MÄM 40-868 is installed, in the corresponding G1000 NXi guides.

NOTE — For all airspeed tables in Chapter 4A, linear variation applies between weights.

Rotation and initial climb

Rotation speed, flaps T/O

• 940 kg (2072 lb): 56 KIAS

• 1000 kg (2205 lb): 58 KIAS

• 1100 kg (2425 lb): 61 KIAS

• 1200 kg (2646 lb): 65 KIAS

• 1280 kg (2822 lb) and above: 67 KIAS

Initial climb speed v₅₀, flaps T/O

• 940 kg: 62 KIAS

• 1000 kg: 65 KIAS

• 1100 kg: 67 KIAS

• 1200 kg: 70 KIAS

• 1280 kg and above: 72 KIAS

Eleven knots separate the lightest rotation speed from the heaviest, and ten knots separate the two ends of the initial climb table. Neither is a number to carry as a single figure.

The three constants

Three of the summary speeds do not vary with mass at all. The take-off climb speed — the best rate-of-climb speed v_Y with flaps at T/O — is 72 KIAS at every tabulated mass. The cruise climb speed with flaps up is 88 KIAS at every mass. And the minimum speed during a go-around, flaps T/O, is 72 KIAS at every mass.

That makes 72 and 88 the two numbers to have by heart, and it makes the go-around speed identical to the take-off climb speed — the same 72 KIAS, in the same configuration.

The approach speed, and a disagreement

The summary table gives the approach speed for a normal landing with flaps LDG as 66 KIAS at 940 kg, 72 KIAS at 1000 kg, 76 KIAS at 1100 kg, 76 KIAS at 1200 kg and 77 KIAS at 1280 kg and above.

Those figures do not all match the Before Landing table printed later in the same chapter. The two agree at 940 kg, 1200 kg and 1280 kg, and disagree by four knots at 1000 kg and at 1100 kg. This is a disagreement in the manual itself, not a misreading, and neither table is marked as superseding the other. Fly the checklist you are actually working from, and know that the summary and the checklist differ at those two masses.

How the aeroplane is flown

The chapter is plain about how it expects the aeroplane to be flown: feet on the pedals. Rudder and ailerons are to be used together, deliberately, to keep the aeroplane coordinated in every phase and every configuration.

Check yourself

• What is the rotation speed at 1100 kg with flaps T/O?

• Which three summary speeds are the same at every mass, and what are they?

• How is the minimum go-around speed related to the take-off climb speed?

• What do you do for a mass that falls between two columns?

• At which two masses does the summary approach-speed table disagree with the Before Landing table, and by how much?

Study aid — always fly your aircraft's current AFM/POH.