How to land a C172 !!
As a student struggling to find time to fly consistently and having had something of an epiphany, I thought I would have the temerity to share my newfound understanding of how to land!!!
It seems to require:
1. Arrive at the threshold at the right speed and height
2. Chop the power
3. Fly it down the runway – do whatever you need to keep the nose up and just off the ground. The objective is to not quite land. As you slow, the control movement required to do that becomes more extreme.
That’s it. Looking back, I really don’t know why I struggled with this and why it took so long to become instinctive. I can try to blame my instructor who never really put it like that, I was being told for example, ‘pull back --- no! Not that much!’ or ‘pull back --- no, really pull back ---- more!’ I worried that I was not judging my height above the runway accurately – but it turns out that is not at all critical, and it meant I was looking down rather than forward. I worried that I should know how much control movement to put in at each point – but it turns out that is stupid, just do what is needed to hold it off.
Anyway, all you instructors, please be aware that there are students out there like me who need to have the bleeding obvious explained to them in the right terms!! I sometimes wonder if someone who found a skill difficult to acquire makes a better instructor…..?