Ground Instruction
Getting ahead and staying ahead is a winning game in flying as well as football. Start with a prepared operational plan for the flight, where you are going, what you will say and do to get there and alternate plans to your alternate plans. Get your ducks in a row before you start the engine meter. Have everything ready to go, before you go. The will of the pilot commands the airplane and its flight.
Before we get into the plane we pre-plan the runway and departure required for most economical flight. The entire landing process is talked and walked through in both left and right pattern. The prelanding checklist is completed prior to the numbers. At the numbers the simulation continues as we walk the pattern. C.H. power to 1500, trim down 3 turns. Hold heading and altitude while speed slows to 60 kts. Ideally we now have 1000' AGL, 1500 rpm, and 60 knots as we reach the 'key' position. The 'key position is the corner of the traffic pattern where the turn from downwind to base is made. The yoke pressures for the first 10 degrees of flap and up trim are simulated to hold 60 knots as well as the 90-degree base turn at a 30-degree bank. 10 more degrees of flap and up one trim, hold 60 kts and turn final. Full flaps, up the third trim and hold sixty knots until the go around just prior to our simulated ground level altitude. After the complete walk through we are ready to practice at altitude.
Making good landings uses all the skills we have learned in airwork, ground reference, taxiing, radio procedures and area familiarity. The single most important skill is airspeed control. With good airspeed control we can control the second most important skill, the flare to touchdown. With numbers one and two in hand and ability to do the Dutch roll we can control important skill number three, keeping the airplane on the runway.
Forgetting How to Land
Everyone 'forgets' how to land at one time or another. Try to recall the one possible change that could have saved the landing: Think go-around.
Here are some thoughts:
1. A good pattern is the first ingredient of a good landing.
2. A stabilized approach is more possible from a good pattern.
3. The idea that you can't make a poor landing from a good approach is just that…an idea.
4. There is only one appropriate approach speed for a given weight.
5. Trim for the appropriate approach speed.
6. When the runway is made, a little throttle will help you flare, sometimes.
7. A smooth round out is the proper prelude to the flare.
8. Looking for the far end of the runway and covering it with the aircraft nose makes the flare.
9. Don't make the plane land. Let it land itself.
10. The most likely pilot failing will be lack of patience.
Landing Lessons
After completing the four basics, trim, flaps, stalls, airspeeds and ground reference I begin a combination of radio procedures into neighboring airports and actual landing practice.
My first 'landing' lesson is preceded by simulated landings at altitude with both left and right patterns, use of flaps and a go-around. We do these until the process of prelanding checklist, power reductions, trim, flap application on downwind, base and final are accomplished with some degree of anticipation by the student. Special attention is given to flap removal during the go-around.
The student then uses the pre-planned airport arrival radio calls until airport downwind or two-mile calls at which point the radio and traffic responsibility is totally assumed by the instructor. The student is expected to concentrate on the landing pattern procedures as practiced in the air, including the go-around. No actual landings are planned. Rather, each approach will be followed by successively lower altitude go-arounds. Go-arounds begin at 200' and are cut in half down to 25' in both left and right patterns. I feel it is an instructional deficiency not to have students do as much right pattern work as left pattern work.
The second lesson will consist of landings and at least one go-around in both left and right traffic to a different airport. Student will handle all the departure en route and initial arrival radio before handing it over to the instructor. The first landing is to a full stop in order to familiarize the student with ground and taxi procedures. All subsequent landings are 'with the option' as approved by ATC. The landings are taught as 'normal with flaps as the conditions and patterns dictate. No flap landings are usually taught in conjunction with slips. Some form of emergency is included in every lesson.
My third lesson usually is directed toward uncontrolled airport procedures. Again, the student does all the departure and arrival radio work with the instructor taking over in the pattern after the first landing. First landing is with a full-stop taxi back. Pattern directions may be limited by local rules. I initially teach standard 45-degree entries preceded by overhead arrivals using the 45-degree outbound/course reversal to the inbound 45.
My fourth landing lesson takes us into a Class C with a visit to both TRACON and the FSS. (Not since 9/11). This particular airport has a 600' pattern altitude which gives the student an opportunity to get into the sequence of landing procedures more landings for a given time. 600' patterns make things happen faster. An engine failure emergency is usually included.
My fifth landing lesson is at our home field that has dual parallel runways. This flight takes place at 7 a.m. in conditions that will allow us to use all runways from both directions. By prior arrangement with the tower we ask for Gene Whitt's radio lesson. The lesson consists of ATC giving radio instructions to the student that will cover as many variations as can be crammed into 45 minutes. Instructor will not allow the student to make a mistake...instructor mistakes do occur. We will extend downwind, go-around, do a stop and go, land long and make a 180 on the runway for takeoff, overfly field and enter another downwind, simulated radio failure by ATC with light signals, (Instructor missed this one), failure to give clearance, 180s to a reciprocal landing on adjacent runway, 360s on downwind, left and right 270s to re-enter on base, sidestep landings, and more. At the end of this lesson the student will be responsible for all future radio work.
Included in this lesson will be a simulated engine failure on final at 400'. Aircraft has full flaps that make it impossible to reach the runway unless flaps are removed while constant approach speed is maintained. Done properly, a no-flap landing occurs far down the runway. Being able to perform this properly can and has saved lives. A NORDO lesson is given when we return home from any one of the lessons. Student just takes off his headset and I present ATC with the problem while I monitor the arrival over the radio. Never telling ATC where you are makes the exercise more realistic for them.
Ideally, the next lesson is a solo lesson if conditions allow. Otherwise we use the conditions to review a previous flight. For solo, I expect the student to give me three safe landings and a go-around in the first half-hour. I know, and the student knows when he is ready.
Landing Instruction
In my teaching process, post solo, I fly dual to a nearby airport and back with the student. I advise ATC at both fields that my student will be returning solo. I get out and send the student off to repeat the flight solo. I do this to a different airport for the next four consecutive lessons.
By the time this process is completed I have given my student a very large area with a number of airports for which they know the procedures and checkpoints. It is my belief that this process is a significant builder of student confidence and independence. My solo sign off includes the privilege of flying solo again to these airports. I much prefer my solo students making these flights than going around and around the pattern at the home field.
The best advice that can be given in salvaging a landing is "Go-around". There are a variety of ways that salvaging can be accomplished by experienced pilots. At the primary level these are best not ever demonstrated to neophytes. The new pilot is best advised never to move the yoke forward nor to look out the side while in the flare.
Looking out the side induces a high flare. In the flare there is no error margin for such a look. Keep your eyes over the nose and keep the end of the runway covered. Jerking the yoke forward and back at a critical point in the flare is completely contrary to good landing procedure and control. Pilots who hold a full-fist grip on the yoke are prone to jerky yoke movements and over control. One, or at most two fingers, are all that are required to flare an aircraft for landing. It is important that the student realize that during full extension of the yoke movement is both
back wards and up wards.
Contrary to your apparent opinion of a good landing, the "thump" is a very desirable and sought for landing result. That is, within limits. From ten feet it is a bit much but within the design limits of most training aircraft. In such a flare the go-around is to be preferred to the addition of power.
Twenty years ago, maybe it was thirty, the six page FAA PTS guide said that the ideal landing consisted of a gradual reduction of power in the flare. Coinciding with this reduction was a constant (logarithmic) backward movement of the yoke. The ideal landing results when power off, full back yoke, and ground contact occurred simultaneously.
I would add to this FAA directive that if you see the runway over the nose you are unlikely to make the ideal landing. The childhood toy plane 'greaser' landing is not the ideal. It will usually indicate that the aircraft is NOT through flying. You do not land an airplane when a good "thump" landing occurs. You should land like a duck, head up and feet forward. The ideal is for the airplane to "thump" down when it is ready to touchdown and through flying.
On re-reading there is much that can be added to each sentence and paragraph above. The complexity of a good landing occurring amidst all the external variables makes any ONE explanation invalid at any juncture. Maybe that's why the FAA stopped trying.
While our flight maneuvers have become more comfortable, landings remain a source of tension. As an instructor I try to economize my program by introducing the skills that will be required a few flights ahead. The best example of this is Dutch rolls. The instructional use of en route step climbs and descents to selected altitudes at every opportunity is good instructional use of time and aircraft. This skill can be practiced in a C-150 but the skill difficulty is not so obvious due to limited aircraft performance.
If the landing process is tending to overload the student remove the pressure of radio and traffic watch. Make sure that the student is reducing the workload by correct use of trim for airspeed. Have him talk through each maneuver as an aid to the anticipation required for smoothness. Be aware that much of 'getting 'behindness' in flying has to do with airspeed control which is ultimately set by the airspeed 'cruise control' called trim.
As part of teaching landings I plan a program of flying to all the neighboring airports. This minimizes the noise at my home location, which is particularly noise sensitive. I give concentrated practice on the use of checkpoints for departures and arrivals. We rehearse radio procedures both to and from as they relate to these checkpoints.
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