Go with a lot of the above, especially looking to the end of the runway. Try a longer downwind than usual so you have longer to set the plane up on finals (if that's poss where u fly?)
I had to be tricked into landing by my instructor -"Don't let the plane land," he said, so I tried and tried and tried, with power off, greased it every time!! Then I clicked,and laughed out loud. Works every time, pull back, pull back, pull back.

Kabz,

Good to hear that you are enjoying gliding - quiet, isn't it? The absence of engine doesn't half focus the mind on getting landings right ;-)

I'm sure that going solo in a glider will set you up really well when you go back to powered aircraft.

Enjoy and have fun, that's what it's all about.

I found landings pretty tough at first, I was fine with one instructor but with the other I just couldn`t nail it because he always seemed to be too keen to 'help out' on the landing. The solution was to stop flying with him completely. The next week I was off on my own :)
Another tip that has helped immeasurably was to not have a death-grip on the yoke. My instructor had me wiggle my fingers on the approach to relax the grip I had and my landings immediately improved because I wasn`t overcorrecting as much and making a hash of it
Good luck and don`t give up

cheers

Thanks Schooner. That might really help. I think *my* death grip was detected in the gliding lesson. Relaxing a lot really helped. I'm just starting to look forward to getting back in a power plane. Maybe in a couple of months. Not sure about whether to switch instructors or not though...

...Death grip on the controls

This is a problem that we have all faced

Unfortunately the death grip scenario
normally occurs when we least need it

i.e. When accurate control inputs are required

Especially problematic during

1. a Flight test or
2. a Real Emergency

The question is how to get rid of it

..... Its practice ...

so that we convince ourselves that we CAN cope

You have proved you CAN cope its just
a matter of some re-programming

ie. Positive self-talk and practice

DON'T GIVE UP

I saw a tip in a helicopter flying book ( The Art and Science of Flying Helicopters, by Shawn Coyle ) where he suggests holding the cyclic with the ring, middle finger and thumb and using the little and index fingers to hold a pencil in place over the other two fingers.

Because of the pain caused, the stude learns to relax. I'm not sure how it would work in fixed-wing, because of the differences, but it might be worth a look.

Many moons ago, my old instructor (Thanks Woody, Norfolk Gliding Club) suspected that I held the stick in a rather tight grip. His words to me I have taken everywhere (and on every aircraft type from C152 to A320)

"Hold the stick as if you were Princess Ann holding a tramps Di*k"

It works a treat.

Also your trimmer is your best friend....use it!

Tailwinds.

:)

Thanks folks.

I soloed yesterday, after 16 glider flights, with 2hours logged time in gliders.

Today I just basked a little, and flew a couple flights with an instructor. We did some spins and stuff. (Rudder unecessary to spin or recover a Blanik L-23, heheh)

Hey Kabz,

Well done! :)

No stopping you now.

SD

------------------
Hoping and praying should never be confused with planning...

Ground effect exercises helped me no end with my finesse. Especially x wind.

Fly the machine down the centreline as best as possible with a bit of power, and try and stay in ground effect. Look at the end, not out the side.

You get used to the slushy controls, the closeness of the ground, and if there is a really longish runway, you can kiss the wheels a few times.

Made a lot of difference for me, as my flare was too high, and I was trying too much.

Gliding, now that looks like great fun. Must get to that one day.

Blue Skies

kabz

You've had some good advice from the forum, so all I want to add is that I tended to land "firmly" and it was one of the worst aspects of my flying.

However, I stuck at it and am now over 200 hrs... better landings started to come at about 75 hrs and with them a sense of being in control, which in turn lead to good landings from about 80 hrs.

I don't always do greasers these days, but most are and all of them are exactly where I want them.

So stick at your flying and don't give up - you'll probably end up being brilliant at landing in a couple of years!

Thanks F3G, but a couple of hours in a glider pretty much got me to where I thought I should be. i.e. Soloed. I think the better visibility (big canopy) really helped.

There is some good web material on landings as well. I just flare at an estimated 2 secs above the ground. This can be practiced by looking at the perspective change on a book/desk etc, if you move your head and down.

From there, it is just a question of tweaking the stick back until you run out of travel, though I generally land before this point in the glider and just pull the airbrakes full out.

Mate I fly with a guy who has 18,000 hours and he instructs and he still cant kick drift off!

Take a break for a few weeks or / and cahnge your instructor.

Good luck

Yup, that's about what I did !!

4 week break, to fly/solo a glider, and I'm back in an a/c with a whirly thing on the front this pm (citabria).

I'll see how it goes, but getting the glider rating than starting to concentrate on the power rating looks like the path I'll take.