Aircraft
Short-field Landings in the Falcon 8X
A practice session in the Falcon 8X demonstrates the big business jet's capabilities at airports with short runways.
The view from the Falcon 8X flight deck on departure from the short runway at Les Eplatures Airport in Switzerland. (Photo: Matt Thurber)
The view from the Falcon 8X flight deck on departure from the short runway at Les Eplatures Airport in Switzerland. (Photo: Matt Thurber)

To prepare for a unique experience—a real short-field landing in the Falcon 8X, albeit on a long runway—I started at the FlightSafety Le Bourget learning center near Paris for a practice session.

The plan was to fly two days later from Le Bourget to Vatry Airport in Chalons, France, where I would fly the 8X in the traffic pattern and try out my short-field landing skills in the real airplane. We would then fly to Les Eplatures Airport in Neuchatel, Switzerland, where a Dassault pilot would demonstrate the 8X’s short-field capability on the airport’s 3,576-foot runway.

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