Originally Posted by
aajones
You were flying in an MD-80, which has a standard approach speed of +/- 130 knots indicated. In practice, what that means is that there has to be 130 knots of wind flowing over the wings in order to provide enough lift to keep the plane in the air.
Just for clarification, this is not correct. The
stall speed (Vso - with flaps/gear down) of an aircraft is the speed at which below the wind flowing over the wings doesn't provide enough lift. The standard approach speed should be nowhere near the stall speed, in fact the approach speed should be 1.3x the stall speed on the MD-80.
MD-80 standard approach speed is 133 - 140 knots. Stall speed should be right around 100 knots, but will vary based on weight of the aircraft (i.e. the stall speed will be higher when the aircraft takes off due to the weight of the fuel on board).