Looking for Landing Tips

[MeadowLion]

Hello folks, I picked up the A2A C182 for FSX about a week ago. I love the thing, it’s a much more immersive experience. Before that I was mostly flying to stock FSX C172.

One thing I seem to suck at so far is landing the thing. So I’m looking for tips from those of you who fly it a lot to improve my landings. I’ve had a few decent landings, but most of them seem to float a lot more than I want, and I tend to land long.

In the default FSX 172 I can descend on an approach pretty gently keeping the nose slightly up and control my descent rate with the throttle right up to the flare.

The issue I have with the A2A 182 is that even with the engine on idle and even too slow at 60ish KIAS if I nose up at all I start to climb. Anything slower and I’m stalling. So I end up having to do the whole approach nose down and then trying to time a flare at the end.

Is that just the way it is and I need to just practice and get the feel of when to flare, or is there something I could do to help the plane descend without having to keep my nose down? I am looking at the checklists and following them as best I can, just have a lot of room to improve myself.

Any tips or recommendations for good landings in the 182 are appreciated. Thanks.

[ratty]

If you're floating, you're fast, regardless of how it feels. I would recommend taking some time to stooge around at a couple of thousand feet and get used to flying slowly with flaps down.The book says stall with full flaps is around 40 knots.

[Oracle427]

The flare is executed by shifting your eyes to look down at the far end of the runway as you reach about a wingspan above the ground.

By this point you should be starting to raise the nose slightly to start slowing down the descent. This is a gradual raising of the nose that results in the airplane leveling off just a foot or two off the runway surface. Keep looking at the far end of the runway as you do this. The picture you see should be just about the same as when you were sitting on the ground just as you started your takeoff.

Now once at the correct height and stop flying, just keep the airplane flying so that it doesn't descent or climb by only pulling back on the yoke. Do not relax the yoke forward at any point. You can pull back a little and wait if the plane starts to climb a little bit, but don't push forward ever. If you balloon up a fair amount, continue to hold the stick wherever it is and give a quick nudge of throttle (in and back to idle) to ease the descent so you don't stall high.

If you balloon really high, just throw in full power and go around.

Otherwise don't play with the throttle at all here, just leave it at idle. Your speed "over the fence" on very short final is normally going to be 65KIAS with full flaps. Don't play attention to the speed after that as you are now getting into ground effect, over the runway and you should be focused on landing.

Once the plane settles back down to the correct position from a balloon, resume keeping it flying and continue looking at that far end of the runway until it settles down into the runway with the nose up.

It takes practice and lots of it!

Floating in a Cessna is a thing, it's what all pilots that fly Cessnas learn to deal with. The planes will happily float down the runway as they burn off any excess speed or carry any excess power such as by leaving even the tiniest amount of throttle in.

[XoXoVisKi]

The flare is executed by shifting your eyes to look down at the far end of the runway as you reach about a wingspan above the ground.

By this point you should be starting to raise the nose slightly to start slowing down the descent. This is a gradual raising of the nose that results in the airplane leveling off just a foot or two off the runway surface. Keep looking at the far end of the runway as you do this. The picture you see should be just about the same as when you were sitting on the ground just as you started your takeoff.

Now once at the correct height and stop flying, just keep the airplane flying so that it doesn't descent or climb by only pulling back on the yoke. Do not relax the yoke forward at any point. You can pull back a little and wait if the plane starts to climb a little bit, but don't push forward ever. If you balloon up a fair amount, continue to hold the stick wherever it is and give a quick nudge of throttle (in and back to idle) to ease the descent so you don't stall high.

If you balloon really high, just throw in full power and go around.

Otherwise don't play with the throttle at all here, just leave it at idle. Your speed "over the fence" on very short final is normally going to be 65KIAS with full flaps. Don't play attention to the speed after that as you are now getting into ground effect, over the runway and you should be focused on landing.

Once the plane settles back down to the correct position from a balloon, resume keeping it flying and continue looking at that far end of the runway until it settles down into the runway with the nose up.

It takes practice and lots of it!

Floating in a Cessna is a thing, it's what all pilots that fly Cessnas learn to deal with. The planes will happily float down the runway as they burn off any excess speed or carry any excess power such as by leaving even the tiniest amount of throttle in.

Cool Cool Cool

[Beckanator]

You may have found it out well by now. I too was having problems 'sticking it.' I've found full flaps and just above stall speed and she flares beautifully. I was on final approach and too fast compared to the forgiving other craft I've flown. Since getting her slow it's nice to watch a sweet landing in playback analysis.

Have fun!

[MarcE]

I wouldn't use Flaps 30 unless you're really heavy or the runway is really short. Flaps 20 and hold her just a foot above the runway until she stalls. When getting close to the ground there is a point when the runway and the surrounding area suddenly appears to become stretched. It's just a visual thing but that's the point you flare. And then keep flaring, not like in a 737 where you would just reduce the decent rate. Hold her off, hold her off until she sits down. Hearing the stall horn is perfectly normal in a small GA plane. It's difficult in the sim as we don't feel the ground effect, but A2A have simulated it. And with some practise you'll eventually manage it.

[rightseat]

I would also recommend you only use 2 notches of flaps. I never use full flaps in my Hawk XP (30 degrees) unless I need to clear an obstacle and stop quickly.

[foxtrot]

The C182 definitely flies and lands differently than an C172. It's not unusual for new 182 pilots to struggle with the landing, even though they may have acquired the skill to land the 172 with relative ease.

It may be best to focus first on just landing the plane rather than hitting a specific spot. Once the landing itself becomes predictable, then one might shift attention to hitting-the-mark.

A key to gaining initial competence is simplicity. So, let me ask you a few questions to gauge where you're at (here's the first one):

1. I assume that you've dialed in full RPMs for the traffic pattern. But, what are your indicated MP and RPM before you put in flaps?