How do I land better?

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boeingman29562
Airman First Class
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Joined: 11 Sep 2015, 21:37
Location: KRDU

Re: How do I land better?

Post by boeingman29562 »

I know this is a late reply, but I figured I would chime in. I fly a Cherokee in real life, and here are the speeds we use. When about a mile from final, keep the speed at about 80-85. Once you are on short final, you can keep it at 65-70. Once over the runway, decrease the throttle to idle, and then comes the hard part :) Once about two feet above the runway, try to hold it at the same altitude. Keep pulling back as the speed bleeds off, and eventually the plane will settle softly into the runway. This tactic is only for days with light winds however. If it is windy, you want to have a somewhat firm touchdown, and then turn the aileron into the wind. The smooth landings won't happen the first time as you very well know, but with practice you will be making smooth landings in no time. Hope that helps!

-Josh McCorquodale

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CessnaSkypilotN7365W
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Joined: 01 Mar 2017, 17:53
Location: X59, Valkaria, Fla
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Re: How do I land better?

Post by CessnaSkypilotN7365W »

sprebound wrote:Teaching someone how to land is tricky business, the only thing I can offer is a procedure, the actual art is something that you will be able to figure out by practicing it and developing a feel for it. Floating down the runway is a by-product of having too much airspeed on final. Most of my time is in Warrior III's which is very similar to the 180 with the exception of the powerplant and the wing, maybe some other minute differences. What I teach is to fly the pattern 90/80/70 which means 90kts on downwind, 80kts on base, 70kts on final. When I'm abeam the touchdown point, bring the power back to 1700rpm and pitch for 90kts until you turn base. Fly across the runway threshold at 65-70kts and then bring the power to idle. Descend to about 5' above the runway and then keep adding back pressure (while holding your altitude above the runway) until the stall horn goes off. By then, you should be in a nose-high attitude and descending those final few feet onto the runway surface landing on the mains. It takes practice and even after 1000hrs, I don't believe I've had a perfect landing yet, though I'd like to think I've had plenty of good ones. I would highly suggest anyone on here who wants to take flying seriously to download this for free from the FAA: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policie ... 083-3B.pdf
for future reference the url is now, as of 31OCT17, https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policie ... ndbook.pdf

RW

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