Welcome to the OC

My first visit to Orange County also happened to be my first time at the controls of a Boeing 737-talk about being thrown in headfirst! My instructor captain and I had plenty of time to talk about what was going to happen since we were flying from New York, a five-hour flight. I had done both the arrival and convoluted departure in the simulator during my initial training a few weeks prior, so I wasn't lacking confidence that I could plant the 737 on the 5,700-foot main runway there.

The arrival from the east takes you over scenic Palm Springs, and the trick is to get down and/or slow down. The controllers dictate your speed and altitude, but getting down and slowing down should always be at the forefront of your thoughts. After crossing over the final ridge of mountains east of the airport, you'll get your descent, but the 737 doesn't go down and slow down simultaneously. Sure, you can throw out the flight spoilers but that shakes the airplane for an uncomfortable ride. You can also drop the gear, but that causes a tremendous amount of drag that may get you down too early and burn more fuel than is necessary once leveled off. I like to be at 210 knots or less when given the clearance to descend after crossing the hills. That means I can use up to 10 degrees of flaps to help me get down without having to use the gear or speedbrake.

With the airport in sight, you have to resist the feeling that "everything's fine" with your descent. The runway is about half the length of the typical runway that we use, so it looks like you're much farther out than you are. Keep track of your distance from the airport via DME or GPS and recite the three-to-one descent rule (1,000 feet for every three miles from the airport) for guidance. Most of the missed approaches that occur at SNA are because the airplane was too high or too fast and couldn't get down. And with the short runway, touching down fast or long is not an option.

Once on target speed and altitude, it's just a matter of planting the airplane somewhere in the touchdown zone without trying to finesse a greaser of a landing. Just get it down and stopped. If you make a good landing, consider it a bonus.

Departing SNA on the oft-used Runway 19R is a unique maneuver, mostly because of the noise-abatement procedure. The short-field takeoff portion is much like you would do in a basic trainer. You use more flaps than usual in order to heft the airplane off the runway sooner. You also taxi into position so as to have every inch of available runway. You also add nearly full power before releasing the brakes. As the end of the runway rushes towards you, resist the temptation to haul back on the yoke as you could over-rotate and strike the tail.

Once off the ground from Runway 19R, we climb our 737 steeply to 800 feet where the non-flying pilot pulls off quite a bit of power to reduce noise. The amount of power reduction depends on temperature and weight, but it is enough to transform a hot-rod jet into a slug-like trainer in terms of performance.

In response, the pilot flying reduces the angle of attack to maintain airspeed at the reduced power setting. Meanwhile, the airplane makes a slight left turn and coasts over the noise-sensitive area climbing at a comparably paltry 1,000 feet per minute. Once over the ocean beyond the noise-hating neighbors, you can push the power back in and climb normally on the departure.

Pilots dislike the procedure because of the illogical requirement to power back on a max-effort departure. Nervous passengers also dislike the SNA departure because of the steep initial climb followed by a drastic loss of power and the unfamiliar G forces that the maneuver creates. Often, captains will warn passengers of the unusual maneuvers to come during the welcome-aboard announcement. From a pilot's standpoint, a thorough preflight briefing of the procedure and notation of cutback power settings will make the departure a smooth one with no surprises and no fines from the noise police.

Pete Bedell is a Boeing 737 first officer for a major airline and co-owner of a Cessna 172 and Beechcraft Baron.