I was recently tutored exhaustively on the subject, but my concentration was bent on other matters. I'll try to rehearse what I remember, if only to honour the very kind AND most able tutor:
[quote tutor from naked unaided memory]
There's three possible goals:
-) to land as smoothly as possible, regardless of landing speed and run. This would be the way to land at a very long hard runway, I think Cambridge would be a good UK example. In this case one approaches at whatever speed, and lets it bleed off while floating one or two feet over the runway. ISTR a tiny bit of power may be added at the last second before touchdown, for utter smoothness.
-) to land at exactly the chosen spot, as one would have to do at certain examinations, at least I had to. In this case approach speed is chosen slightly higher than optimal, to keep up a bit of reserve for the unavoidable bit of turbulence, and it might be necessary to "slam her in"
-) to stop as short as possible, which requires touching down with minimal kinetic (sp?) energy. To achieve this one must approach at the absolute minimal safe airspeed, and accept touchdown might be slightly beyond the threshold. This is the way to land at a (very) short field. The non-optimal touchdown point will be more than made up for by the lesser speed.
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Corrections and additions welcome!
Last edited by Jan Olieslagers; 25th Jun 2012 at 18:04.