Is This Normal?

[Almerick07]

Recently I've been flying with other instructors getting them current, doing BFR's etc...I guess this should be in the petpeeves thread but I feel it is worthy of its own. I have been noticing a lot of instructors/high time pilots dont put the airplane down on the centerline. This drives me absolutely crazy, I personally always make sure I'm on the centerline and cannot get over how some people get 15-20' off the line. I dont say anything about it and was wondering if I should or am I just being too uptight about it? Surely someone with 1000 hours could land on the centerline right? I even had an instructor who didnt do it, it was almost like he just stopped flying the airplane and let it touch the runway where it wanted to. This is killing me, I dont know what to do when someone does this...any ideas?

 

[NoPax]

This was a pet peeve of mine also, so I found the narrowest runway I could and took them there to demonstrate landings.

You'll probably find most do fine on the narrow one, however, it is probably lazy feet causing the problem (you know concrete boots on the rudder), and a can't be bothered attitude also to fix it.

I'd definately say something - you're getting paid to instruct

 

[Gutenberg]

Say, "I bet you can't put it on the centerline" before turning final.

 

[Almerick07]

But they should put it on the centerline, tonight I flew with a 1400 hour instructor and his mains were about 15' to the left of the centerline.....WHY??? These arent 20 hour student pilots, Im talking about some pretty qualified guys here. Infact I have 20 hour student pilots who get it on the centerline better than these guys.

 

[landlover]

how about not signing them off for the bfr/ipc until they relearn how to land an airplne.

 

[landlover]

how about not signing them off for the bfr/ipc until they relearn how to land an airplne.

 

[Kream926]

But they should put it on the centerline, tonight I flew with a 1400 hour instructor and his mains were about 15' to the left of the centerline.....WHY??? These arent 20 hour student pilots, Im talking about some pretty qualified guys here. Infact I have 20 hour student pilots who get it on the centerline better than these guys.

thats cause you are probably teachin the 20 hr guys the right way...primacy comes to mind

 

[nosehair]

15' to the left of the centerline.....WHY???

...plain and simple...the DE's let them get away with it.

​

 

[Pilot Doc]

15' to the left of the centerline.....WHY???

OK ... I'll bite.

Because it doesn't matter! If you specifically ask them to land on the centerline, and they can't - that's a problem. Lack of directional control causes accidents. If they land the airplane under control and 25' from the nearest runway edge, so what. Is a 30' wide runway unsafe? No. Neither is landing off center on a 75' wide runway.

 

[Goose Egg]

Because it doesn't matter! If you specifically ask them to land on the centerline, and they can't - that's a problem. Lack of directional control causes accidents. If they land the airplane under control and 25' from the nearest runway edge, so what. Is a 30' wide runway unsafe? No. Neither is landing off center on a 75' wide runway.

I disagree. It's true that lack of directional control causes accidents, but if one lands 25' off the nearest runway edge, the margin for error is greatly reduced should directional control become compromised, i.e. wet or snowy runways, strong crosswind, poor crosswind technique, etc. Landing on centerline is absolutley essential to safe operations, in my book. Saying that a landing off centerline is ok is a bit like saying landing on the second 2/3 of the runway is ok; you can get away with it for a while, but may come back to bite you.

-Goose