Landing

[Guest]

Hard Landing, more like a crash. DM

[Guest]

Thrust, drag, lift and weight. It is a system.As you slow down, you loose lift, you increase the angle of attack to maintain lift, and that increases drag, add power to maintain altitude.Sounds like you are using pitch to maintain altitude or desired descent rate.If you know approach power for the aircraft you are flying, set the power from straight and level flight. Set your pitch using elevator trim. Once you have the nose at the angle you want for approach (say 3 degrees pitch up, or 5) then use power to maintain the altitude or descent rate you need to follow the glideslope. If you go high, or above the glideslope, reduce power, if you are descending too fast, or you are too low, add power. Don't just pull the nose back. This is a good way to stall and fall. As you pull back on the yoke, the angle of attack increases, and so does drag. Set the pitch trim, adjust the power to get the glideslope. If the speed falls of, don't add power, reduce the pitch. If the altitude falls off, adjust the power. This is not intuitive to new pilots, and appears to be opposite to what they expect."Control the Speed with pitch and the altitude with Power".If you are hand flying, (no autopilot or approach mode) pick a visual aiming point on the Runway and keep it is a constant position on the windshield. If the point (the runway numbers for instance) are moving down you are going high, reduce power. If they are moving up the windshield, you are below glideslope and need to add power. Imagine a string from your plane to the aiming point on the runway, and you are trying fly down it, to the point.As you increase flaps, you will need to adjust the trim again. As the flaps approach full in a heavy aircraft (airliner) you may need to add power to precent having to increase pitch to maintain glideslope (sound familiar). As the gear comes down, drag is increased, this will slow the aircraft, and is a normal part of the approach, to let it slow the aircraft, but not to stalling speed. You may have to add a touch of power to maintain glideslope, and then, you guessed it, adjust the pitch trim again. As you "walk the power off" on short final, you begin to pitch up a little to maintain approach trajectory. (do not take the power to idle on an airliner on short final) In the last few seconds of flight power should be lower than approach, and the pitch is increasing to hold the wheels off the runway. This is called the flare. The flare reduces the rate of descent by adding lift and drag. Too abrupt of a flare can approach critical angle of attack, and you will be on the backside of the power curve. (you will have to add a lot of power to stay in the air. The wing is stalling and the plane begins to drop. Smooth flare begins at different heights based on speed, and rate of descent for different aircraft. It is a 'feeling' you get and is the part of flying that is like trying to teach someone to lean a motorcycle. It takes practice. Remember, set the pitch (trim), adjust the power. As you get above or below your speed, you will have to adjust the pitch for speed. If you are way off on speed, you may have to adjust power and retrim. Good Luck and keep practicing.Dennis Mitchell

[Guest sfgiants13]

Well, I did a short hop and landed in Vegas. The landing was fine, except with a small bounce. But when I landed, my aircraft just shot right, and kept turning. Now I'm trying to fix that problem. I put left all the way on the joystick just to keep it even.

[Guest sfgiants13]

I fixed the right problem. It was one of those temperary faults because my computer has been on a while. I saved my approach from Vegas, and I did a pretty good landing, just with a small bounce. Before, whenever I saved a flight and tried relanding, I went right through the scenery into the ground, so I thought it was a bug, but I guess it was me.

[Guest]

To get rid of the bounce, pull the power back to to idle just before touching down and flare up a little more just as you do this to decrease the decent rate. Not too much or you will balloon up. Imagine that the flare is an air cushion. Use it to soften the impact.I knew you'd get it figured out. Dennis

[Guest sfgiants13]

I still get that little hop step. In the pics, you can see my flare and the hop. I'm in a B757-200 and going at about 140 knots. If I go any slower, half of the time I stall when going under 135 knots. Right now I've just done about 15 short finals practicing my landing at KLAS.

[Guest]

Ok, your flare looks good, I can't see your descent rate in a still shot so let's assume that it is a little too fast. Keep a little thottle in until you meet the runway. Once you go to idle in a plane this size, the descent rate increases. The small amount of thrust will provide a little lift and cause you to float a little longer. Once you have the flare, or pitch up you want, you can either leave the throttle on a little longer, but I think most will agree that the flare is not a static pitch. Just before RW contact, the flare becomes a slight constant rotation. This is just a constant back pressure on the yoke, you don't want a great increase in pitch, just a slight rotation. Think of it as if you were trying to keep the main gear off the runway as long as possible. This is more pronounced in a small plane. In a 757, you only rotate a little at the end (after your initial flare). In these last few seconds of flight, the back preassure is really just a way of decreasing your descent rate. If you are bouncing, you are still coming down too fast. At the time you make contact, you want to be flying down the runway, with a shallow descent angle. Transition your eyes from the near field to the the oppositie end of the runway until the view is obscured by the glare shield, and then use what you can see about 45 degrees off the the panel, to your left to judge your contact. Your flare angle is sweet. I think you almost there for a 'greaser'.Dennis Mitchell

[Guest sfgiants13]

I guess I'll just have to practice. Thanks for your help guys.