I might also add, if you are running a straight-in approach, don't use the rudder till you are just about into the flare. Let the aircraft crab on the approach and only use the rudder to correct the crab when the GPWS states "Fifty" or so.

 

Of course if doing a circling visual, use rudder a little but only to maintain co-ordinated turn (Ball in centre as such), not to actually de-crab the aircraft. Flying de-crabbed is actually side-slipping, which will change lots of things about how the aircraft flies and where it is headed relative to the airflow. You only want to do that so you can point the wheels in the direction of travel a second or so before they touch the ground.

 

I'd also suggest practicing on the straight-in's first. A 5+ mile straight in final approach from a stabilized position and fully configured and within 20kts above your Vref target speed is a good starting place to practice. Once you get used to how the runway is meant to look like and what kind of control manipulations you need to put and keep it there, then you can start experimenting with new options, like disconnecting when not yet configured and seeing how the new things change the control manipulations you need (ie lowering landing gear = drag = push thrust up as it happens, Lowering flap = more lift + drag = push nose down slightly and a tiny bit of power as it happens).

 

Spend more time looking at the runway than the instruments.

Spend more time looking at your Airspeed Indicator than the other instruments.

Hey Luke,

 

The first step in landing a plane is coming to the understanding that landings by hand are the way landings are done. "Manual landing" is a term I'd like to take out back with a shotgun, particularly after answering all the questions from friends and family about this Asiana accident (mostly all related to aircraft being able to land themselves, which is seldom used, or the pilot being reliant on the ILS for reference). Sorry for the side rant, but it's my personal mission to kill this trend in the sim realm.

 

In order to be able to land well, you must be able to actually fly the plane. I'm not talking about telling the autopilot to fly the plane for you; rather, I'm talking about actually getting the yoke in your hand and being able to feel how the plane responds to you. You will not get this in the last 100' of flight, and there's a lot more to it than understanding that the ailerons (along with the rudder) turn you, and the elevator and thrust makes you climb and descend.

 

Instead of doing the old "revenue service flight" (from point to point), put yourself in the PMDG livery, give yourself a good 10,000 pounds of fuel, a normal passenger load, and fly the pattern. Take off, climb out, level off at 2000' above the field elevation, turn around, fly parallel to the runway, continue past the other end of the runway (by about 5-10nm), and then turn back inbound to land. Make sure to turn weather off, and fly all of that by hand.

 

Here's the catch:

Even if you plant the aircraft into the ground at the end of all of that, you will have gained that hand feel that is so important in all landings. One thing that you will want to do is assign as trim up and trim down command on your yoke. If you have two buttons (ideally two where one is above the other), set them to the trim up/trim down commands in FSX. This way, you can keep the plane in trim so that you're not battling the aircraft's want to climb/descend based on your flaps and airspeed.

 

Things to think about:

-It is not your aim to make it look pretty - especially on your first attempts.

-DO NOT tune the ILS frequency. Use the approach path indicator lights to gauge how high you are. Trying to chase the ILS indications isn't going to help you at all in landing the plane. You need to be concentrating on keeping the aircraft stable, and seeing how your inputs make the plane react, not chasing after needles.

-Pay attention to your reference speeds. You want to be at about VREF+5 (in the no-wind situation I mentioned earlier.)

-Watch the autopilot fly a coupled approach to an autoland, and pay very close attention to what it is doing. It'll do just about everything you need to do to land the plane yourself. Watch what the picture out the window looks like.

 

The problem with this simism of flying coupled approaches and autolands all the time is that you don't get the hand time. Nobody expects a six year old to grab a pencil and paper and have pretty handwriting. Actually, we expect that the six year old will have rather terrible handwriting. Only through actual hand practice does this skill improve. So, pick up the pencil and do a little handwriting of your own.

 

To be honest, we're having this same discussion in the real world as well:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3kREPMzMLk

 

I agree completely with Kyle. The AP was originally designed to give pilots a break on long flights and has evolved since then. I hand fly to the top and back down each flight. That is how you learn, get to know your aircraft. I would like to know how many hours each RW Pilot actually has his hands on the stick over a period of time. It is Ok for the older guys but some of the young new pilots IMO it can be dangerous. 

 

Thanks,

Ron