I supposed to believe you're a genius with a stick, but can't control your
mouse clicking?
Anyways, if every one of your landings is perfect, go someplace else,
and fuck off.
Let's talk about what we're doing here. The landing consists of four
phases:
1) final approach
2) flare
3) level flight (before touchdown)
4) rollout (after touchdown)
(1) final approach should be 3 degrees or whatever the VASI/PAPI says.
Someone spent a shitload of money on them, so especially at night why
not use them, at least until you get real close to the runway?
People make a big deal of a "stabilized" approach, which I suppose is nice
if you aren't a very good stick, or just learning to fly. Trust me when I tell
you that if you fly a "stabilized" 70 mph approach in your 172, all virtuous
and smug, at a busy airport you're going to be supremely unpopular with
kerosene burners flying twice your speed behind you. ATC is going to have
a cow.
A 70 mph, five mile straight in approach might be good for a student pilot,
but like training wheels you've got to ditch that shit. Learn to fly a decelerating
approach while nailing the glideslope. Every approach I fly starts at 180 mph
five miles out and ends up at 120 mph very short final. And that's the only
speed that matters - what you're flying over the numbers, because that determines
the kinetic energy you need to dissipate during the length of the runway.
Learn to fly a decelerating approach, and people at large airports will be
much happier with you. A good day for me is when ATC has to call out a
speed reduction for a biplane following a jet. Makes me smile.
(2) flare is the transition from steady descent on final, to level over the runway.
It's a lot easier to do, if you're consistent - be at the same speed, at the
same height over the runway threshold. The flare is tricky for beginner
pilots, because it requires an insane amount of precision. Most people
think they have a foot-long dick when they get an instrument rating and
can control their altitude +/- 100 feet. Well, that's not going to cut it
during a landing.
My suggestion is to start the flare a little earlier and do the transition a
little slower, until you get some more experience. Remember that Rome
wasn't built in a day, and you aren't going to learn to fly in a weekend. My
landings got better after the first 10,000.
There are two main problems pilots have with the flare
(a) they don't know how high they are
(b) they can't control the aircraft in pitch very well.
Let's talk about these two.
(a) during the flare, don't just stare at the end of the runway, because large
changes in height will result in very small changes in what you see there.
You must start glancing out the side windows as you get closer to the ground,
to visually determine your height over the pavement. The side picture changes
drastically with small changes in height.
Note that this is a function of color contrast at the runway edge, and the width
of the runway. At first, you might be an ace with a 75 foot wide runway, but you're
in for some fun the first time you try to land on a 200 foot wide runway.
I fly aircraft that you can't see forward out of in the landing attitude - very
pre-WWII - so it forces me to use my peripheral vision during the flare.
As a flight instructor, I had an annoying trick that I would act as a biological
radar altimeter and call out the height above the runway to the student.
Until the student knows how high he is, he can't possibly make the correct
inputs to flare.
(b) controlling the aircraft in pitch. The biggest problems that pilots have,
is that they get behind the aircraft and enter a pilot-induced oscillation in
pitch, with the aircraft going up and down, close to the ground. When that
happens, get the fuck out of there. Full power, freeze the stick and get some
daylight between the tires and the pavement.
A lesson I liked to use as a flight instructor, was to tell the student that I
would control the power, and I wanted him to do landings by just looking
outside, with his hands and feet on the flight controls. In fact, we wouldn't
even land - I would tell the student that I wanted him to fly ONE FOOT over
the runway, and I would use enough power to keep it there, and NOT LET
THE AIRPLANE LAND and he could spend some time learning to control
pitch without overcontrolling at that slow speed, in ground effect. One hour
of this can result in a TREMENDOUS improvement in a pilot's landings,
and at the end of it, I pull the power off, the student tries to maintain one
foot, and he gets the best landing of his career to date.
Which brings us to
(3) level flight before touchdown. Ok, you're at one foot (eventually, six
inches) over the pavement. The power is off, airspeed is decreasing,
lift is decreasing (note that you WILL NOT STALL - in your entire lifetime
you will probably never fly a FULL STALL landing which is pilot bullshit)
and your job is to STOP THE AIRCRAFT FROM LANDING. Steadily
increasing the back elevator, maintaining six inches off the runway,
and at some point the aircraft says "fuck you" and sits down. A perfect
mains-first landing (on a nosedragger). A perfect three-point landing
on a taildragger. If you can put the tailwheel on first, even better.
(4) rollout. Congratulations, you landed the motherfucker, but you are
careening down the runway at a very expensive speed. You need to be
patient and STAY OFF THE MOTHER FUCKING BRAKES and let the
aircraft slow down to taxiing speed with the power all the way off, and
hopefully the idle isn't set too high, which can really fuck you. For many
decades, I have set the idle on my Maule so low, that if you pull the throttle
all the way back the engine will quit when you are stopped. This has the
effect of generating very nice drag with the constant speed prop. I don't
recommend it though, because most people really aren't very good pilots
and aren't up for anything even slightly different.
Landing a little airplane, you don't need any brakes for any kind of normal,
certified runway, if you were anything less than Vne over the threshold.
I know Mike Busch is a God. Just ask him, he'll tell you. But he recently
blew a tire, landing the C310 that he's flown for decades. Yup, locked
up the brakes at too high a speed. The smartest guy in aviation is a
pretty slow learner.
See, if you have any speed on, your wing is developing lift and without
any weight on the tire, it's really easy to lock it up and blow the tire.
One trick that I do not recommend - but I do all the time - is to dump
the flaps immediately after touchdown. Less lift, more weight on the
tires. But please don't do it. You're going to grab the gear lever, and
raise the gear on the runway. All sorts of Air Canada pilots used to
routinely do that at the Ottawa Flying Club, and they tell me that they
are the best pilots in Canada, and I believe them, so Canadian pilots
can't do it. Ok.
Brakes on a little airplane are for runup and turning out of a strong
wind while taxiing, and that's it. Please don't try to use them at any
speed. You will lock them up and flat spot them and possibly blow
them. Don't do that.
Directional control is HUGE during rollout. Be advised that the
steering wheel is NOT your friend. Adverse yaw, dude. As you slow
down, stick over into whatever crosswind there is, every time. And
control your direction with your FEET. If you can't control the direction,
and you're headed towards the edge of the runway with full opposite
rudder and the stick is all the way over into your direction of weathervaning
into the impossibly powerful crosswind ... get on the power (at least a
burst) and get some air over the rudder, and consider going around.
Any time during a landing, if you ask yourself, Self - should I go around?
The correct answer is always YES. (homage to Jon Davis, Professor of
Mathematics at Queen's University. Compared to him, you have the IQ
of a carrot).
Anyways, hopefully this helps some of the newbies - and not-so-newbies -
and feel free to ask for a refund if this upset your delicate feelings. Try
not to be so deeply and professionally offended all the time, ok? No one
gives a shit what I think or say, and the same is true for you.
