Chicken 6, you said, "Who lands at 5'? Not me...The science of landing 'properly' is to pull to and through the stall at
the same instant that your wheels touch (either all three at once for a tailwheel, or just the
mains in a C172). I like to hear the stall warning start at the same time as the rumbling from the
wheels. This requires stalling at about 1", not 1'."
If you approach in a warrior at 65 kts and land just as the stall warner blares, you touch down at about 54kts and still could have flown the hold off until the speed reduced to around 46kts, maybee even lower due to ground effect. Of course, this takes considerable effort and there are many of us who allow the aircraft to touch down somewhere anound 55 kts. This is particularly the case in less than ideal conditions, ie gusting crosswind or short runway. I had the oppourtunity to do some intense landing practise on a warrior over a period of months and really honed my landings until I could reliably grease the main wheels on well into the stall warner sound. One thing I learnt that instructors don;t always say is that rate at which you have to oull back on the control column as the hold off progresses, increases due to the reduced airspeed and thus control effectivness. Ideally I noticed that the columm should not stop moving rearwards from the start of the flare at 20feet or so (depending on configuration and descent rate) until the end of the hold off at touchdwon. I have flown with some pilots who don't seem to make any effort to hold off, mearly cutting the power and arresting the rate of descent and allowing a touchdown at a higher airspeed.
Just a few thoughts on the matter, hope not too waffly!
Skips