PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - How many hours student pilot generally have when going first solo?
Old 10th May 2012, 06:08
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scavenger
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
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now eyes on the end of the runway
and

During the hold off ensure you look towards the end of the runway - not just ahead of the aeroplane. Amazing that many instructors don't use this technique to solve the final stage of the landing.
Instructors probably don't use this technique because its wrong, unless the end of the runway is 50 - 100 m away. Consider:

You are trapped on the roof of a house that's on fire and you want to jump to the ground. Would you look 1000 m in front of you to judge when to brace your body for impact? You would, but only if you wanted two broken legs.

You would look straight down and this works because you have little or no forward speed.

On an approach in a training aeroplane, you do have forward speed - lets assume 70 KIAS. If you looked straight down to judge your height the ground would lack texture and be blurry. It is therefore inappropriate to look straight down.

But looking at the end of the runway is overkill. If you start by looking at the horizon the ground will appear to be stationary. If you draw your gaze back towards you, you will reach a point where the ground first appears to begin rushing towards you. It is just prior to this point that you want and you will find its about 50 - 100 m ahead.

Not that i put much stock in anything CASA says, but PUB 45 and its successor (Flight Instructors Manual p45) both say similar things.

I know one very experienced instructor who teaches to look about a cricket pitch in front - but then, his assessment technique sometimes revolves around whether the student is a white man, who speaks english and likes cricket...

At night, there is no texture anywhere, so the best spot to look is at the end, where the lights are. Using this technique by day is just lazy instructing.
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