They say any landing you can walk away from is a good one; and any you can use the aircraft again is a great one! We have all had our beautiful ‘greaser’ landings, and we have all porked a few, too. So whats the tips to keep your number of take-off and landings the same?
Why is it important to make a good landing?
Being able to make a great landing is the hallmark of a professional pilot; whether you fly recreationally for fun, privately for travel or business, commercially or as an airline pilot in Regular passenger transport operations, every pilot wants to finish their flight on a positive note.
It can be frustrating that often the things that pilots get judged on the most are often out of our control (tail or head winds affecting in flight times, in flight turbulence, airport delays and of course, the landing), so leaving customers satisfied with a great landing is the best way of having them walk away feeling satisfied. There is a running joke that goes something like ‘All a pilot needs to do is;
- Sound good on the radio
- Look good in the uniform
- Land the plane smoothly
Lets be honest here, we can definitely improve our chances of a smooth landing by using the correct techniques our instructors and check captains show us, but if I am honest we all know there is a small component of ‘luck’ sometimes when it comes to dealing with things like gusts, wind-shear and crosswinds.
If you have the hands and feet for it, you can quickly adapt and apply the correct control inputs to minimise the effect of these environmental variations to make the touch down as smooth as possible. But sometimes, it all happens a bit quickly and that leaves us a bit red faced, especially when farewelling passengers from the cockpit door.
If you work in the airlines, a smooth landing is critical to business operations; too many hard landings and you will get dissatisfied customers and yes, it will be noted on your employment file. As a tourist or scenic operator, this can have a direct impact on both your and the companies reputation, and quickly effect the bottom line of the companies profitability.
Furthermore, if you are an aeromedical pilot, a smooth landing is often a requirement for patient transfer; you may have a spinal injury or other fragile patient like a neo-natal case, where a heavy landing could seriously damage or permanently disable them!
How to perfect a landing – Ken’s top 7 tips
There are a few great tips you can remember to make sure your next landing is a greaser. Keep these in the back of your mind, and perhaps write them down so you can have a quick refresh during the cruise before you make your next approach and landing
1. Energy management
Energy management is important to set up a good landing. Remember, the landing doesn’t start on short final; the landing actually starts WAY back on your crosswind leg of the circuit, or on 10 mile final! You need to position the aircraft through key ‘gates’ in space and time, with the correct energy level. This means thinking ahead about your descent point, and the time taken to slow and configure the aircraft.
Whilst the distances get longer for faster, and heavier aircraft, a simple rule of thumb works brilliantly; a three degree profile requires 3 nautical miles for every 1000ft of height to loose, and using 5nm to slow down and configure the aircraft works well and should be conservative for anything under 200,000lbs MTOW. Obviously light aircraft such as Cessnas you can slow down on a dime, and won’t need to be so conservative, and faster aircraft such as biz jets may require even more. Its important to know your aircraft, flight manual and procedures and then use your standard operating procedures or SOPS.
2. Flying the correct profile
Flying the correct profile is almost always going to improve your landings. In aviation we typically fly a 3 degree or 5% profile all the way down to the ground; this is what our instrument approaches are built off, and this is what our T-VASIS, PAPI and ILS Glideslope information is going to tell us. Obviously some approaches are going to be steeper due to obstacle requirements, and the general line of thinking is the steeper the approach, the more difficult the flare and landing; think back to your initial training to your glide approach, EFATO and PFL lessons – to maintain the appropriate glide speed for best L/D.
We had to select an attitude roughly equivalent to the cruise attitude – this provided the best range and hence best ability to safely land. But what was the profile? I can tell you know, its usually a bit steeper than the normal approach – because we usually keep a small amount of power on during the approach.
A typical glide approach for a GA aircraft with a glide ratio of around 1:10 to 1:15 (that is about 2nm per 1000ft) is around 6.6 – 10%, or in other words a 4 to 6 degrees glidepath – or around 50% steeper than a standard approach. During these glide approaches you may have been taught to use a ‘two-stage’ flare – one to check to the standard 3 degree approach picture, and then the second being your standard flare cue to arrest the rate of descent and land as you normally would.
3. Flying the correct approach speed
This might sound like a no brainer but its the criteria that gets busted the most. If your pressed on a tight approach, say you haven’t planned the descent properly, ATC has mucked you around or you are doing a non-standard circling approach and you have set an incorrect power setting, you can find yourself too fast or too slow.
Typically, approach speeds are 1.3 times the stall speed of the aircraft, but the authoritative answer is the pilots handbook and operating notes, which will be taught to you by your instructor and assessed by your simulator instructor or line check captains.
Too fast and you will float in ground effect, awkwardly try to positively put the wheels down (perhaps too firmly?) with an incorrect timing sequence (worst case with the nose wheel first or in a flat attitude as a result of your speed resulting in a lower angle of attack). Its just awkward and no one likes that feeling, as you approach your pre determined go around ‘gate’; – whether that be distance go to markings, a pre set timing (eg 3 seconds) or physical feature (such as the taxi way one third of the way down the runway).
You will chew up runway, be hard on the brakes, and hard on the engines for reverse thrust if you have it. Worst case you run off the end of the runway, or result in a hot brakes scenario. Best case you go around and make a safer approach, but often I have seen my students land somewhere in between, feeling a bit embaressed.
Too slow and you risk stalling the aircraft on approach, or stalling in the flare when you gently check the rate of descent and raise the attitude. You ‘run out’ of energy and she continues her trajectory toward the ground, resulting in ‘dropping onto the runway’. This can result in some serious G landings and has written off a number of aircraft, and peoples backs. This is similar to ‘chopping the throttle’ before flaring on a blown wing aircraft at heavier weights, it will literally just drop out of the sky onto the runway and your landing will suck!
Just stick to SOP, keep it standard and fly the correct procedure for the type of landing you are trying to achieve. Know your numbers, and use your work-cycle to quickly correct any deviations.
4. Flying the correct power setting
Again, this might sound like a no brainer but remember back to day 1 of flight school: Power plus Attitude equals performance!
If you are on the correct profile on approach to land (correct aimport and aspect), then it literally means that power = airspeed. When we fly finals, we ‘lock’ our aim point to a particular location (either the piano keys, 500ft or 1000ft markers depending on the size of your aircraft) and say that attitude controls aimpoint. Therefore, we are only left with power (and configuration i.e. flaps) to control airspeed.
Making sure we fly an appropriate power setting for the configuration of our aircraft, weight and profile will ensure our airspeed will not deviate. The last thing you want to be doing is chopping or bashing throttles, so try to set a ‘best guess’ and then let it settle. If you are still too fast, take a positive correction and wait to see the trend – don’t performance fly and chase instrumentation indications: set the attitude and power from first principle.
As an example, I get my students to set somewhere around 1500 RPM in the Cessna when they turn base, and then as they configure and slow on finals it generally doesn’t need to be touched unless they need to correct profile for incorrect timing or angle of bank around the base turn onto final. Flying a flap less approach changes this; it might sound counter intuitive but I typically get them to fly a wider circuit to give them more ‘time’ on final so the power setting is a bit higher initially, around 1800 RPM.
If you are flying a short field or max effort approach, as you slow on final you may be ‘on the backside of the drag curve’ with full flap and so need a higher power setting as you come down short final to sustain a slower approach speed.
5. Understand illusions
Illusions are caused by the different shapes and sizes of runways, as well as different lighting conditions. For example, if you are flying to a runway which is much narrower, or longer than you are used to – put simply the runway is going to look smaller. This gives you the illusion of thinking you are high, when in actual fact your closer to the ground – the tendency is a late or weak flare, and a heavy landing as a result. Pre-loading yourself with the knowledge that you may need to flare a tad earlier will help you make a better landing.
At my first approach (in a Cessna) to an international airport, I think I flared at 50 feet! This was because the runway was just so big and wide, I lost all appreciation for how high I actually still was above the runway. I cruised down the runway awkwardly trying to ‘milk the flare’ and use a bit of power to save the approach as I stepped down to eventually land. Awkward!
I knew I only needed just over 1000ft to land (and I had 7000ft) so I pressed, but a more professional pilot would have simply recognised a violation of their pre determined go around criteria and gone around for a second, safer attempt. Remember you always want to have the aircraft in a known state and configuration; making stuff up like waffling or milking down a high flare puts the aircraft into an unknown state – this increases the risk you are going to plonk it on, run off the end of the runway or even stall the aircraft.
6. ‘Raise your Gaze’ in the flare
My final tip is the clincher. I use the keyword ‘Raise the Gaze’ with my students, which prompts them to shift their gaze from the aimpoint, right out to a far away feature beyond the end of the runway. They then attempt to continue flying the aircraft ‘Straight and level’ along the runway 1cm in the air (much the same as leading into a fully configured stall as you do out in the training area) as they very gradually increase back pressure and close the throttles to gently get the mains to kiss down first, and then they can lower the nose wheel down.
Of course in a cross wind scenario, we lower the into wind (or low wing) main wheel onto the runway first. Raising the Gaze is the best way to get a great landing, and of course realise that max effort / short field approaches, approaches onto wet runways, or approaches for some types like large jet aircraft may require a firm, positive touchdown to ensure adequate friction patch for the mains to begin auto braking and establish directional control before reverse thrust engages; you don’t always want a ‘greaser’.
7. Use a standard work cycle
Use a standard workcyle to manage your workload on approach. Personally, I use and teach the work cycle ‘Aimpoint – Aspect – Airspeed – Centre line’. First I check the aim-point to make sure I am point at the correct spot; I want my intended landing position about a third to a half of the way up the windscreen (this position will depend on your height and the design pilot eye position for the aircraft, so test and adjust as necessary – usually its about an inch or so below the standard position of the horizon for straight and level cruise).
Next I check the aspect; this could simply mean ‘eye balling it’ to make sure the runway looks like its at the correct aspect (or the way the runway ‘slopes inward’), checking the TVASIS or PAPI lights or Glide slope indication, or during an instrument approach cross checking my profile by altitude and distance to run. Next I check the airspeed and its trend, and if needed adjust the throttles, and finally I check centre line to make sure my bum is on the extended runway centreline.
How to perfect a landing – Jorgos Tips
In the flying game, there’s nothing judged more than the landing. Sure, you may have single handedly put out the engine fire, organised an emergency diversion, flown the approach to minima one engine out no comms, but the slight bounce and squeal of the tyres means your passenger’s comment to the news cameras will only be about “the crash landing”.
Most pilots think the landing starts at the flare, but let’s go back a bit to the beginning of the Final leg. No wait – let’s go back to the Pre-Start checks. Consistency in landings means that all variables are countered for. As such, ensure that your seating position allows full and free movement of the flight controls (including rudder), and that your height allows a suitable viewpoint – the same for every flight.
You need to be able to judge your attitude accurately in order to fly accurately. Memorise the seat adjustment settings, and if you need a cushion, then always use that same cushion.
Now, back to Final Leg. For consistency, you want to fly the same glide slope, at the same speed and configuration, down the centreline, every time. So you do what you have to do when on Downwind or Base leg, in order to get your aircraft at 500 feet AGL in that state, probably around a mile from the threshold. It’s very helpful if there’s a distinct object on the ground that you can aim to fly over – (an immovable bright red barn would be better than a small moveable goat).
Do all the usual things (including Trim, Lookout, Radio and Checks), and continually assess your Aimpoint, Aspect and Airspeed as you slide down the slope.
Fix each of the AAA workcycle as frequently as possible. Take another glance at the Windsock do that you can better assess any Crosswind or Turbulence effects. And Trim. Consider going around. What? Already? Yes, you should be prepared to go around at any point in the circuit, especially on final leg, and maybe even after the wheels touch. When the time comes that you need to climb away, then you won’t need to think about the steps – you’ve already thought about it. Besides – how hard is it really? Increase the power (normally full power in trainers), balance with rudder, raise and hold the nose just above the horizon to the climb attitude, and safely raise the flaps in increments. And Trim.
Consider a personal list of when you will Go Around. For example: Runway not vacated by 200 feet Airspeed falls below Threshold Speed Airspeed more than 10kts too fast Stall Warning Crosswind outside limits New emergency (other than engine issues) Too high Too low Any other reason you feel unhappy Hopefully your approach will see you regularly ‘appear’ above the threshold at the same energy state (height and speed) most times, and the aircraft will behave similarly to your control inputs to begin the flare and arrest the descent, whilst using your feet to point the nose down the centreline.
At some point you will reduce the power, and the aircraft continues the lose speed, and the controls get heavier and you need to pull back a little harder to slowly raise the nose.
Problem is, you won’t be able to see the runway very well, so you tend to look just to the side of the engine cowling. It’s a strange picture, but you have no options, and you will soon get used to it. On a normal landing you aren’t trying to hit the ground, but fly slower with the nose higher, just a few inches above the ground. (A similar technique in a nosewheel aircraft, and a Tailwheel aircraft).
This means your main wheels will contact first in a low energy state, with your attitude similar to that of a climb. The process of flaring and the hold off is quite similar to stalling an aircraft (albeit from an inch or so above the runway!) – which is why we learn to deliberately stall aircraft out in the training area before flying lessons on landing. This means your nose wheel will never impact first. It’s got to come down sometime though, so relax the back pressure a little and it will soon fall – giving you better rudder control.
What if I flare too high, or bounce? Initially, Go Around! Simultaneously apply full power, raise the nose and balance with rudder. If required, retract the flaps in stages – This should all be instinctual to protect yourself from over speeding the aircraft, whilst constantly keeping a good lookout and situational awareness should an Engine Failure after Take-off occur.
When your experience increases you can learn how to correct for these errors with some flying lessons and massage it down (provided you have enough runway!) – but powering up and flying away is almost always a safer option. The natural reaction is to push the nose back down – but this is dangerous at low altitude and low speed, and is likely to lead to a very hard nose first impact. Generally – just go around. This is why the Military train with Flight Helmets from day one!
Consistency is key, so nail those speeds and heights, think wind, trim, and try not to hit the runway…
Conclusion
Hopefully you can take on board these tips on how to pull off the perfect landing, and never get another complaint from a passenger, check captain or copilot ever again. And remember, if you did pork the landing – it was definitely because of that last minute gust of crosswind and was nothing to do with your piloting abilities 😉
What are some of the best (or worst) landings you have ever done? Don’t be shy!
Nice