in real world aircraft!I am starting to do my landings in my training now.Flight Sim makes it far too easy to land IMHO than compared to the real world.Hard work, but I'm enjoying every minute of it!

Hi Ken!Congrats on starting your first landings!! We have all, literally, sink into the ground the first few hours, but you will soon get it, don't worry!Bruno Francescoli :-waveStudent Pilot.KOPF PA28-161.

Ken, A couple of things to remember about landings.1. Have faith in the fact that you will land. We have yet to leave one up there.2. Takeoffs are optional. Landings are mandatory, at least one required per takeoff.3. The following items are of no use whatsoever in landings... Altitude above you. Runway behind you. Approach plates in the car. The airspeed you don't have.Landings may seem difficult, just wait until you get to critical attitude recovery. Hehehehe.Keep at it, you, if anyone, can conquer it."If God would have wanted man to fly, He'd have given him more money"

You're not kidding. Flight Sim doesn't simulate the near-ground weather nearly accurately enough, and there's something wrong with the rudder feel too (not enough angular momentum in yaw?). Not to mention that no PC peripheral has the grunt to reproduce the control forces. Also remember that the landing flare is a high-alpha maneuver, which no PC sim yet does completely right.But getting the circuit absolutely right changes things from then on. I've got about 4 hours of solo circuits at this point (26 total), and I have to say that the first session where I went out and did a decent circuit the first time, and the instructor just left me to it, feels more significant than first solo (not that that wasn't a good feeling too).It seems my sense of balance is about three times as acute as it was, just as a result of the plane handling. It's changed my driving as well (regular car passengers have commented), and riding a bicycle feels completely different; my posture has even changed. NOT something you will ever get from the simulator!

>Flight Sim makes it far too easy to land IMHO than compared to the real world.Exactly! Thats why I hate seeing in all the Screenshot forums (not just here) about the FS pilots only being like "Perfect landing!","I've never had a bad landing, ever!", or "I do it so good in FS I must be an ace at it in real life!" and the like... :)Gotta love it :-coolEx-Master of Mediocre Landings,Jason :-wave :-lol

I love landings so much I frequently make several on the same approach.Richard

Ken,Maybe this is purely based which environment you are used to.There were number of commercial pilots on these forums claiming that it is in fact easier to land in real life than in the MSFS.I land in both 'worlds' but don't have opinion which one is easier.Michael J.http://www.reality-xp.com/community/nr/rsc/rxp-higher.jpg

Well, maybe I'll change my mind once I get the hang of it...I've only done 4 so far in real life ;-)

From the position of a commercial pilot that may be true because it's a general fact that the bigger the plane, the easier it is to physically fly - allthough of course they get a LOT more complicated with a LOT more things to remember and to do in the right order, the actual stick and rudder stuff is easier in a 737 than a 172.Richard

Ken,I am about halfway done my PPL! Got 6 solo hrs. It took me about 3 hrs to master the round out & flare. I can handle light crosswind landings. Last week I did crosswind circuits with the instructor with the crosswind blowing 90* from the right at 10kts gusting to 15kts. It was Like I've never landed a plane before! Each landing felt like a controlled crash! The approach was easy. at about 200ft AGL thats when the plane went crazy from the surface winds howling around trees and buildings etc...

Hmm. I always found the r/w landings to be easier, since you have a better all around view and actual feel. In Cessnas I always thought it was easier. Same for flying a pattern around the airport, etcAlso, the difference between FS and real sims - One BIG example is good ol' Kai Tak. I always had a diffcult time in FS, but is "real" sims, it seemed much easier. Even WITH winds. :)

Got a landing workout yesterday... did 8 landings with my new instructor, all of them were excellent except number 4 which I kind of dropped in... :-doh

Ken,It took me "awhile" to learn how to land too.While hands-on practice is obviously neccessary, it also greatly helps if you have a few key concepts in mind. These were passed on to me by one of the most experienced instructors at my flight club.1) Judging when to start flaring - Walk over to the nearest table and stand next to it, look down on the surface. Now slowly squat down until your eyes are at table level. As you sink down, pay attention to the sight picture and how the table top seems to "flatten out", as the angle between your eyes and the table reduces. Watch for that same effect next time you are flying, when the runway starts to "flatten out", you know it is time to round-out to a level attitude.2) Round-out to flare. - In most light aircraft, the flare will end up having the nose of the aircraft on the horizon, similar to the climb attitude. As the airspeed reduces, more back pressure is needed to maintain that nose-on-horizon attitude. You should be able to feel the sink rate and match the back-pressure inputs to the increasing sink rate.3) The aircraft is not going to stop "instantly" when you touch down. You need to keep flying/piloting the plane until it slows to taxi speed. 4) Similar to #3, when you round-out and flare, keep looking ahead of the aircraft, at the runway with the goal of flying the plane down the rwy as long as you can, with the nose on the horizon. This keeps your mind occupied on maintaining the plane over the center of the rwy, and to keep flying it.Mike