help with landings

[bigD]

People here are giving a lot of good advice, and it sounds like you're doing a good job of setting the plane up on final. To be honest, I don't think there are any sure-fire hints at that point. You'll just develop the "picture" after awhile, and it'll all be automatic from there. Give it time - you'll get it.

 

[hammer]

I just wanted to let everyone know that I flew monday and today and what a difference! Today was my best by far. I nailed my approach speed almost everytime and that made a big difference, I also focused more to the end of the runway and just kept flying the plane until it touched down. My instructor was very impressed with the way I handled the plane. Of course they were not all perfect but I did grease a couple of landings. I just wanted to thank everyone who took time to respond with advice and encouragement it really helped alot. I'll let you know when I solo.

 

[Toy Soldier]

Great Job! Keep plugging at it...

 

[BoDEAN]

The more you practice, the quicker it will come.
You will be working on perfecting landings your whole life. Just one of the fun/great challanges we do when we fly.

 

[kabz]

The biggest help I ever got was being told to break down landing into the following three parts :

1) Final approach
- get airspeed right (lookup the POH), and TRIM it
- get a really good look round, and anticipate transition height

2) Transition
- with gentle back PRESSURE
- level off at an appropriate height above the runway

3) Landing
- gently reduce power
- maintain a levelish attitude
- maintain the centreline and straighten out if necessary
- be patient, wait for the sink
- hold the nose off

Funnily enough, no one had ever broken it down like this before (I already had my private rating) and having three distinct phases made it a LOT easier to get it right every time.

I think the main point that made the above useful to me, were forcing me to look around on final to judge my transition height correctly, and to split the level-off and power to idle into two steps, which makes it easier to get the level off just right. At that point you can pull the power off and move your view to medium far ahead, ready for judging your sink and hold-off.

In practice, it all flows together really well, and my landing consistency and confidence improved a fair bit.