Landing / approach techniques

[Final 3 Greens]

FFF/Holloway

I can't take credit for the power and point technique, as I said in the post it was BEagle's and I cut it from another posting.

The reason I cut it for Coke's info was that he inferred that he was having problems and potentially undershooting ... point and power focuses on touchdown point and I thought that it might help him.

Holloway, if your instructor teaches you another way you should stick with that as FF says..... I've heard the relative merits of the two methods argued about by pilots who have forgotten more than I've learned!

I learned P&P when undertaking some proper handling training on a jetsim. I don't know why jets are taught that way (the SOP says do it that way no doubt), but the technique certainly works.

FFF in the real world, I tend to find myself making so many small adjustments to pitch and power on short final that it is difficult to say what is driving what! All I know is (especially on the underpowered Pup 100) that airspeed, ROD and touchdown point must be managed carefully all the way down the glidepath to achieve a stabilised arrival.

Given that the Pup is low inertia/lower power, in the event of airspeed loss I'd probably instinctively put the nose down at the same time as adding power, to aid acceleration, especially with full flap where the high drag does challenge the 0-200. The subsequent "balloon" would re-establish the touchdown point very quickly, whereupon power and pitch would be adjusted once again.

But I guess after a few hundred hours you achieve what Maslow calls "unconcious competence" and the training embeds itself into operational behaviour to a high degree.

Notwithstanding that, it is important as a student to understand the model that brings a/c to threshold in a stabilised condition and to be able use it.