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4 Answers

When do you pull the throttle during landing?

Asked by: 8289 views General Aviation, Student Pilot

I am a student pilot, who wanted to know the following. During landing, when should I pull my throttle to IDLE? I do well on my PAPI glidescope, as soon as I cross the number on the runway, I yank my throttle back and the nose will drop, to counteract, the reaction I pull the on the yoke and the the plane will swing all over the place, thus a go-around or a hard landing-- I welcome your opinions or references.

I am well familiar with the rounds outs and flairs.

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4 Answers



  1. Derek Schwalenberg on Nov 08, 2012

    Pull the throttle back more slowly and the effects will be less pronounced requiring less aggressive maneuvering and reducing the chances of go-arounds or hard landings.

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  2. Wes Beard on Nov 09, 2012

    I echo Derek’s advice. The slower you can pull the power back the better you are going to be. The idea is to be 50 feet above the runway as you cross the threshold. At this point, try to pull the throttle back so that you are idle just before touchdown.

    Also, as you have already experienced, when pulling back the power you must pull on the yoke to maintain that sight picture to land in.

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  3. Nathan Parker on Nov 09, 2012

    I pull the throttle to idle well before the runway. Short final at the latest, unless I’ve screwed up.

    Smooth is always better than abrupt, no matter what we’re talking about in an airplane. Even the word “yank” gives me shivers. Still, your reflexes to fix a sight picture that is rapidly changing should be instantaneous. If pulling the throttle idle makes your nose swing in any direction, then you aren’t reacting fast enough. Plus, you should know that the nose is going to drop as you pull the power to idle and your back pressure on the yoke should be increased as the throttle is being reduced.

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  4. Tom on Nov 10, 2012

    You will know when you need to pull the power all the way out, but as long as you are on final, one hand on the throttle to control decsnt rate and one hand on the yoke to control pitch for your airpseed. In a textbook worl you can set the power and get the pitch set and bring all the way down, but in reality it needs changes, but small changes, if your desceneding too much, addd 100 200 RPM, and adjust the pitch to get your target speed.But as stated before you should not be making any drastic “yanks”.

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