Help Please - Landing Process Breakdown
Join Date: Jan 2008
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No, I'm not an instructor, but I do advanced training for licensed pilots, and I've fixed a lot of broken planes. Like people, machines have natural frequencies, and the capacity to accept some forces and loads, but not others. A vital element of people and machine longevity is to understand these natural frequencies and capacities, and operate within them. Cessna nose struts are tough, but can be worn out and broken by misuse.
If you feel the machine, it'll often tell you...
If you feel the machine, it'll often tell you...
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Oxford, UK
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Hello Lozzie,
I have done a lot of time helping beginners learn to land, remembering that I had a hard time getting it. And that was in a C152, not a glider.
In your detailed checklist, you are WAY OVERLOADED with detail.
Learning to land a glider keeps it simple. and then going on to do the landings in power, why you've got the basic approach and touchdown NAILED!
As the most important thing is to LAND SAFELY, work on that first.
Later on you can work back onto the other stuff, like circuit planning, decision heights, engine management, radio yak, etc. All these details lead up to the landing. If you get the landing wrong your instructor may not be impressed.
SO, assuming you have somehow turned all the corners and are lined up on the approach, this is where SPEED becomes critical. Approach speed must also be nailed....appropriate for conditions of the day. Strong winds? you will need to safely get through the wind gradient, so a faster approach is used. The same strong headwind will be useful as your over the ground speed will be nice and slow, so gentle touchdown is possible.
Light winds require accuracy. Your instructor will tell you the best approach speed for the type of aircraft you are using.
The idea of a landing is to aim at the ground and just miss it. Otherwise you would be stuck in the ground like a spear.
At what point to begin the roundout - also called the flare. THIS MUST BE DONE GENTLY, NOT ALL AT ONCE.
So in the training K13 glider, I recommend beginning the roundout at the height of the average elephant. Look well ahead, don't look down.
Raise the nose a bit and wait. Raise the nose a bit and wait. and do it again and again until you are flying just above the daisies in LEVEL flight, with the wheel just above the ground. Wait some more, and as the aircraft gets slower, it will gently no longer be flying and gently touch the ground.
The FLIGHT IS NOT OVER until you stop moving, so remember to keep straight with the rudder and keep the wings level.
That's all there is to it! Works for any aircraft.
I have done a lot of time helping beginners learn to land, remembering that I had a hard time getting it. And that was in a C152, not a glider.
In your detailed checklist, you are WAY OVERLOADED with detail.
Learning to land a glider keeps it simple. and then going on to do the landings in power, why you've got the basic approach and touchdown NAILED!
As the most important thing is to LAND SAFELY, work on that first.
Later on you can work back onto the other stuff, like circuit planning, decision heights, engine management, radio yak, etc. All these details lead up to the landing. If you get the landing wrong your instructor may not be impressed.
SO, assuming you have somehow turned all the corners and are lined up on the approach, this is where SPEED becomes critical. Approach speed must also be nailed....appropriate for conditions of the day. Strong winds? you will need to safely get through the wind gradient, so a faster approach is used. The same strong headwind will be useful as your over the ground speed will be nice and slow, so gentle touchdown is possible.
Light winds require accuracy. Your instructor will tell you the best approach speed for the type of aircraft you are using.
The idea of a landing is to aim at the ground and just miss it. Otherwise you would be stuck in the ground like a spear.
At what point to begin the roundout - also called the flare. THIS MUST BE DONE GENTLY, NOT ALL AT ONCE.
So in the training K13 glider, I recommend beginning the roundout at the height of the average elephant. Look well ahead, don't look down.
Raise the nose a bit and wait. Raise the nose a bit and wait. and do it again and again until you are flying just above the daisies in LEVEL flight, with the wheel just above the ground. Wait some more, and as the aircraft gets slower, it will gently no longer be flying and gently touch the ground.
The FLIGHT IS NOT OVER until you stop moving, so remember to keep straight with the rudder and keep the wings level.
That's all there is to it! Works for any aircraft.
Join Date: Apr 2012
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If you are very new to flying a MINIMAL amount of rote recall is useful, if it helps you keep your eyes outside the cockpit and allows you to get the feel of the aircraft. The 'recipe' approach is certainly over-doing it but remembering, for example, the appropriate downwind checklist is a good idea and keeps your eyes in the right place.
The other thing that many instructors stress, and which newcomers find hard to master, is the apparently simple "glance". For example, at about 300' I raise the flaps in my bug smasher and simultaneously glance at three critical and conveniently positioned P&T gauges on the panel. Similarly, on final, and while practising gaining the intuition mentioned by others, just glance at the ASI. The trick is 'sensor integration' from a wide range of sources, only some of which are on the aircraft panel.
As you fly more, the glancing habit expands and becomes second nature. For example, if you get an instrument rating, you typically find yourself intuitively doing a bit of glancing at e.g. the DG in circuit turns, just to confirm your visual picture. Use whatever information you have, be flexible and don't fixate.
The other thing that many instructors stress, and which newcomers find hard to master, is the apparently simple "glance". For example, at about 300' I raise the flaps in my bug smasher and simultaneously glance at three critical and conveniently positioned P&T gauges on the panel. Similarly, on final, and while practising gaining the intuition mentioned by others, just glance at the ASI. The trick is 'sensor integration' from a wide range of sources, only some of which are on the aircraft panel.
As you fly more, the glancing habit expands and becomes second nature. For example, if you get an instrument rating, you typically find yourself intuitively doing a bit of glancing at e.g. the DG in circuit turns, just to confirm your visual picture. Use whatever information you have, be flexible and don't fixate.
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Sorry to say it, but some here are IMHO talking WAY past this guys experience level - all this stuff about "feeling" the aircraft is great, but in my experience there are very few low experience pilots that will be able to do it. At this stage I would say that doing things by rote works well so LEARN all the bits about "I do this here, next I do this". Feeling what the aircraft is doing is easy when you can do it, but most people cannot learn this sort of flying straight off. Things such as teaching people with the instruments covered helps, but they still need the basics such as level from a climb, allow the aircraft to accelerate and then reduce power.
