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5 Answers

Landing Trouble…

Asked by: 3932 views
Student Pilot

I'm learning on my own Cardinal 177 RG and have 20 landings… My sight picture feels great…I keep the numbers in place…but when I cut the power over the threshold I feel like I'm sinking, panic,  and then over-flare…ballooning up, etc… I read (on this site) about the transition from looking at the numbers to looking down the runway and will try next time (lesson 6).  I was hoping to be doing better landings at this point and am worried that the longer it takes me to get this down the harder it will be for me to relax and do better landings.. I'm sure allot of this is mental… My CFI says it may take as many as 50 landings to start "getting it"... and he's probably right… I feel great in stalls (power on and off) steep turns, climbs, descents, and radio work… I'm flying out of a class B and training in a class D while working the radios and that's working great.. I miss a few things but not too many… This landing thing is freaking me out as I know this is how my family will measure my abilities (they'll never be with me when stalling or steep turns…).  

I welcome ANY advise… and thanks!

Jeff

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5 Answers



  1. Shea Koenig on Sep 30, 2014

    Hey Jeff
    I haven’t been doing this too long but from my experience so far I’ve noticed a few things that may help. Unless the landing is a short field landing the pilot shouldn’t be too concerned where the actual touch down spot is going to be. If any landing I do is within the first 1000ft of a 4000ft runway I know I will have plenty of space to slow to a stop or flick flaps to TO and do a touch and go. If the landing starts after the 1000ft mark I just make it a full stop, and if it looks like it won’t touch down until after I’ve flown over more than half my runway I go around. That being said I level the plane out 3 to 4ft over the runway and let it settle into ground effect as I reduce power to idle. Once the airplane stops maintaining 3-4ft off runway and starts settling lower, I start a nice gentle flair. This usually results in a nice squeaky landing and a general positive feeling deep down inside. But just know we all have bad days even the big guys. So don’t get discouraged, and have fun!!!! Don’t stress too much and fly the airplane like you are politely telling it what to do.

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  2. Russ Roslewski on Sep 30, 2014

    Jeff, what you’re describing is the textbook description of looking at the runway too close to the nose of the airplane. Literally the textbook description – Airplane Flying Handbook, page 8-4, second column, last full paragraph above the picture – “If the pilot attempts to focus on a reference that is too close or looks directly down, the reference will become blurred, and the reaction will either be too abrupt or too late.” Tendency to overcontrol, round out high… etc.

    In my experience in can take a bit of work to get a student to force himself to look further down the runway. It seems unnatural – the ground seems like it’s rushing to meet you, instinctually you think you should stare at it. But that’s exactly the wrong move to make.

    Look further down the runway as you start to round out. For some people, that’s all it takes, and it’s a true “ah-ha!” moment.

    Also, you have flown 5 times and have 20 landings – you’re being unrealistic with yourself if you expect things to be perfect already. Give yourself a break, this flying thing is tricky!

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  3. Mark Kolber on Oct 01, 2014

    I’ll echo Russ’ comment as well as your own:

    I read (on this site) about the transition from looking at the numbers to looking down the runway and will try next time (lesson 6).

    Assuming everything is good until the flare, that’s usually the culprit since it is that view that gives us the best overall picture of our height and position. And it’s much harder to do that it sounds since there is a tendency for us to look the hardest at what concerns us most, in this case where we are going to touch down. It’s a problem even non-pilots have – motorcyclists have a similar issue of needing to look at where they want to go, not at what they want to avoid hitting.

    Keep working on it and try to make it the focus of your lesson 6!

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  4. Mitchell L Williams on Oct 01, 2014

    I like to think of the elevator like a ratchet wrench during level-off and flare. Pull the yoke back one very small click (there is no click but pretend with me) and hold it there. The airplane should start to balloon then start to sink again. Wait for the sink then pull back one more very small click. Use this click method to keep you from pushing the nose over, or otherwise jacking with the elevator. Once you have committed that click (very small movement back) hold it until the plane starts to sink again.
    If you balloon to much, then add a little power to reduce the sink rate, but continue hold the elevator at the previous click. As you get slower and slower add small clicks back until it won’t fly anymore.

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  5. Jeff LeFebvre on Oct 02, 2014

    Thank you SO much! Will try these techniques on my next lesson…

    Jeff

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