Some of the most difficult planes to land reliably are gliders. Why? Because they don't want to land! Vanilla isn't a glider in the traditional sense, but with its massive aspect ratio wing, it flies like one!

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Vanilla presented two unique problems during ATOL development. First is lack of ailerons. This means slower roll control during landing. It was important to set the landing pattern in a way that requires the least amount of corrections near the runway. Second is landing with the engine shut off. This is done to prevent the very large prop from striking the runway on touchdown. But this also means that Vanilla must carry extra speed into the landing. Just enough to maintain good control but not so much that it fails to touchdown properly.

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This is a fantastic flying airplane. Many thanks to the team at Platform Aerospace for letting us be part of making that landing oh so sweet!