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Soft-Field Landing

Questions from the Cockpit: Decoding Cessna Performance Charts for Grass Runway Landings

By William E. Dubois · July 3, 2026 · 8 Comments

Justin, a student pilot in Florida, writes: I’ve been studying the performance charts in my Cessna 172’s POH and was surprised to see a note on the short field landing table that said to add 45% to the figures for landing on grass. Why do you need more landing distance on a soft field? Shouldn’t the surface friction slow the plane down more than on pavement?

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