Good Landing

[Vicar]

What do you look out for when you see a plane lands?

How or when do you consider it to be a good landing?

How do you describe a good landing?

Say if you are not there to watch a landing personally... but you want to know how well did they plane lands, what type of questions do you ask?
How do you judge from a verbal scenario?


Thanks alot guyz...

Vicar

 

[chawbein]

A good landing is not putting the struts through the top of the wing or the floor of the fuselage.

 

[ex208driver]

or having the plastic jungle in the back hanging down(oxygen masks for those who are curious)

 

[TurboS7]

A good landing is on speed, on glidepath, with a touchdown exactly at the fixed distance marker on the ruway(1000 feet from the end)Putting weight on the gear ASAP gets all the good things working, like anit-skid,spoilers etc. Anything else is hokypoke.

 

[Timebuilder]

.....and on the centerline, with the nose touching down gently, which makes for a much "quieter" landing in the Lear. Avoid the embedded centerline lights, too.

 

[lahso]

I was always told a good landing is one you can walk away from, a great landing is one that you get to use the plane again....

I think the flare is really important too, I like to make it feel like the back wheels never touched the runway. (or maybe thats a go-around)

 

[HappyFlying]

I figure I made a good landing if nothing falls off or collapses.

 

[PilotoHalcon]

A good landing you can walk away from, a great landing is where you can use the aircraft again. (being stabilized is the key obviously)
j

 

[Vik]

1) straight
2) centerline
3) slow
4) soft

for general aviation anyway.

 

[mckpickle]

When your landing in heavy wind and your fighting all the way down, then the F/O says......ahhhhhhhh were here, and you didnt feel it touch. Thats a good one. ( But try to act like you planned it!)

 

[501261]

I don't know I keep my eyes closed and hope for the best!!

 

[ksu_aviator]

Its all about perspective:

To passengers, a good landing is smooth.

To pilots, a good landing is technically perfect (centerline, flare, speeds, etc.)

To the FAA, a good landing is one that violated no regulations.

To the military, a good landing is a reuseable airplane.

To my Grandma, a good landing is one that never left the hangar.

To an A&P, a good landing is one that requires no maintanence.

To home owners, a good landing is one that didn't buzz their house.

To ARFF, a good landing is one that doesn't require hosing (sp?) down.

To the tower, a good landing is one that gets out of the way of the heavy in trail.

Well, I could go on, but you get the idea.

 

[bobbysamd]

Good landing

Aside from all the usual cliches about a good landing being preceded by a good final and a good base and a good downwind, you don't want to land a trigear airplane flat. That was a big-time no-no during my years at Riddle in the late '80s-early '90s. Landing flat was the prime cause of downgraded landings on stage checks - perhaps for good reason.

You want to round out so the airplane touches down on the mains. Of course, the faults of landing on the nosewheel include such problems as wheelbarrowing, etc.

With the exception of aircraft that have castering gear, you want to land with the longitudinal axis of the airplane lined up on the centerline and without any sideloading or crab.

Of course, if you suspect you're going to have problems as your approach progesses, you can always go around.

Hope that helps.

 

[Vicar]

I was once told that when you land and your nose drops, it's not a good landing...
But later, i was told that dropping of the nose slightly helps reduce landing roll....Is this true?


As a passenger in a plane, do you consider a good landing if the plane on landing has sudden droops?


thanks

Cheers

Vicar

 

[flywithastick]

Vicar -

Lowering the nose will allow for more effective wheel braking. Holding the nose up will add aerodynamic drag and slow the plane, thus saving brakes. It's the way I was taught. Just try not to smash the tail into the ground (trikes).

Its all about perspective:

To passengers, a good landing is smooth....

seems like ksu summed it up pretty good.

For me, it's when the upwind main just starts rolling in the grass. Let the other main ease onto the runway and hold the tail up a few moments to keep an eye on the runway. Ease the tailwheel down as it slows and go to the hanger... or throttle up and do it all again! Life is good.

 

[Typhoon1244]

What a lot of guys forget is that a "good landing" starts in the pattern and ends on a taxiway. If you float halfway down the strip to make a touchdown nobody can feel, and then have to slam on the brakes to make the next turn, banging everyone's head into the seat in front of them...that's not a good landing!

Oh, and if you put the main wheels down feather-soft, then drop the nosegear like a ton of wet manure...that's not a good landing either!

'Course that's just my opinion.

One thing is certain: you can make the greatest landing ever experienced by man, and only one in eight passengers will actually compliment you on it!

 

[Vicar]

Sorry for being ignorant here but can't help it


So if the nose drops, basically it's not good landing?

From what flywithastick said - effective wheel braking - isn't it suppose to be avoided then... remember hearing something like...wears off the breaks, reducing its shell life thus not very economic or something?

Thanks for all your replys...
Thanks alot

Vicar

 

[Jeff G]

One thing is certain: you can make the greatest landing ever experienced by man, and only one in eight passengers will actually compliment you on it!

You got that right. Not that long ago I made one of those "crowd pleasers" and not one of 162 passengers said a word. It was so good I didn't know we were down until the spoilers deployed. Only the crew noticed. But wouldn't you know it, I make an average thumper and half the plane seems to have a compliment (and not in irony, either). I'll never figure that out.

 

[flywithastick]

So if the nose drops, basically it's not good landing?

I wouldn't say that. Navy pilots pretty well slam the nose down every time, but can make perfect landings, catching that 3 wire. Depends on the plane, runway conditions, weather, AC loading and maybe your mood.

effective wheel braking - isn't it suppose to be avoided then... remember hearing something like...wears off the breaks, reducing its shell life thus not very economic or something?

Servicing brakes costs money. if you can save brake life, you save $$. my comments were from a light GA perspective. But I've seen fighters landed this way. Hold the nose high as long as possible. It's free braking.

Airliners and business type jets have spoilers and thrust reversers. So they just need to get the nosewheel down sometime before coming in with the reverse thrust, rather than flying along with the nose in the air trying to slow down. maybe someone who flies this equipment will comment.

 

[dsee8driver]

Good landing..

On a DC8 a good landing is a firm lading on the touchdown zone. A so called smooth landing on the 8 can take more runway and cause the spoilers NOT to deploy on rear wheel spinnup therefore delaying spoiler deployment untll FO wakes up and manually applies it or the nose gear touches down. Some guys, to try and smooth out the landing and land in touchdown zone, dive below the glideslope, which increases speed, (unless you spool down engines which is a no, no) which increases distance when you flare dues to extra speed. Also, unless you have some excessive crab or are very comfortable with the airplane, you keep the crab and touch down. Trying to kick the crab out at low altitude can, if not executed properly, cause a wing dip and a pod strike which can come with as little as 8 degrees of bank if on speed. If your approach is flat or fast the chances of hitting a pod greatly increases.

At Fine Air, on the Super Quiet DC8's, the reversers AND spoilers would not deploy UNTIL the nosegear came down. So trying to smooth a landing or use aerodynamic braking severely increased your landing distance.