Mat Waugh – March 2003

Arguably, the hardest hand eye coordination part of flying.

Accuracy and precision needed.

Bringing a speeding airplane up from or back to the earth on a precise heading at a precise location.

Takeoffs

Starts with having all your checks complete.

Rolling down the runway is no time to be completing cockpit checks or turning on missing avionics or adding flaps or……

Start on the centerline – most margin for error.

Know the wind direction and hold the appropriate controls.

Know how the plane will react – left turning tendency, nose wheel liftoff etc.

Don’t over-rotate, let the plane fly itself off the runway.

Gusty winds may require more aggression.

Be primed for an engine failure

Where will you go?

The impossible turn – when to start it?

Abort early if in doubt.

Know your expected takeoff point – ground roll

Accelerate/Stop for singles? Add takeoff and landing ground roll, gets higher the further you’ve got in the air.

Landings

All about energy management and alignment.

Good landings come from good approaches.

Welcome and go-around

Most pilots are good at salvaging bad approaches.

Go-around – make it a good approach.

Pick a point (height) for your approach to be stable (400ft?)

If the approach is not stable, go-around.

Consistent patterns – start at pattern altitude – not 100 feet high or low.

Consistent procedures – when to slow down to what speed and hang out how much flaps and when does the gear go down.

What messes us up?

Straight ins.

Extended patterns

Arrive over the threshold at the right altitude and right speed and landing is easy.

Too much speed or too much altitude – too much energy.

Which is worse? Landing fast increases the energy exponentially, while coming in high

only increases the energy linearly.

The right speed? 1.3 Vso or as recommended in your POH.

Speed varies by gross weight

Take some time with your POH and calculate some approach speeds at different weights. BEWARE of CAS and IAS difference.

EXAMPLE C172 numbers?

Right Altitude? Check the POH for 50 ft obstacle numbers and ground roll – difference is distance from touchdown point at 50ft, extrapolate from there – C172 EXAMPLES?

Good Approach? What else goes wrong?

We don’t get or stay aligned.

A stable approach includes speed, altitude AND alignment. Crab or slip.

In the flare – probably needs to be a slip, the crab to the last minute requires a lot of finesse.

Stay on the centerline – more margin for error.

New set of skills:

Uncoordinated flight

Don’t pitch down when slow

Feet to stay straight – bank to counteract drift.

Landing problems:

Nosewheel landings – just CANNOT be allowed to occur – the nosewheel can’t take it and the CG, being behind the nosewheel, wheelbarrows the plane out of control.

Hard Landings – too high a sink rate – energy has gone and the plane is still too high – add power or GO AROUND

Bounced Landings – often from hard landings, plane bounces into the air – GO AROUND

Ballooning – like a bounce but before touchdown – too high, too slow, GO AROUND

Not pointing the way you’re going – get it pointing the right way, or GO AROUND.

On short fields a go-around may not be an option at a certain point – so GO AROUND early and often.

Each bounce or balloon is another landing – don’t relax crosswind controls.

One bounce or balloon – maybe you can recover – don’t try for another one – GO AROUND

Don’t relax when the main wheel touch – keep flying the plane. Fly the plane to the tie-down – so know your control positions for taxi.

DO:

Adjust your target approach/landing airspeed for the airplane’s weight.

Pay attention to pitch attitude rather than airspeed in the flare.

Carefully watch pitch changes if coming in fast to counter gusty winds.

DON’T

Arbitrarily add five knots for mother and country.

Dive for the runway if you’re coming in high.

Try to salvage a bounce more than once. Go around after the second bounce.

DO

Pick a point at which you will go around if the approach is not stabilized by then.

Control sink rate with power and airspeed with elevator.

Start your flare with a gentle

round-out.

DON’T

Round out abruptly just before the wheels touch.

Let the aircraft touch down before it’s in the proper landing attitude.