2025 Richard Collins Writing Prize Runner-Up: Tailstrikes and Tiedowns
As I banked into my final approach, my heart sank. I had fully cut power and had flaps at twenty, but I was still far too high. Because I had let my airspeed get so low, I hadn’t lost enough altitude on downwind. I knew I should go-around, but panic gripped me. I did the worst thing possible and tried to lose altitude by steepening my approach.