Makesheepnervus said:
...At 50 ft. I would smoothly bring power to idle with the goal of having just a squirt left by the time the mains were about 6 inches off, while doing this I would allow the A/C to naturaly pitch up due to the reduction of power while running the trim to keep the controls light. Finally, if I still hadn't touched down I would completely close the throttles and hold the pitch attittude while assuring that I had zero side drift, at this point the A/C would usually roll on nicely....Having said that, sometimes it is better to just be lucky rather than good!
The above is a good technique. I flew it for 3 years. Before the "Canoe", I flew the B-737 and MD-80 before my 30 day off bid came through
The Canoe reminded me of the -80 in some subtle ways. Mainly, in the fact that in my opinion, the stabilizer enters ground effect right about the time you are ready for touchdown and it throws the whole timing and pitch feel issue off, leading to occasional firm touchdowns. You don't need trailing link gear to land it smoothly, just consistant techniqe, and in my opinion, not too fast of a touchdown (versus most folks who prefer a faster touchdown on this plane)
I flew it at 65-73 percent N1, ref plus 5 unless corrected for winds / gusts, stabilized, yada yada. Then at 30 feet, I would smoothly "chop" the thrust to idle - at the same time, I would "very subtly" apply nose down pressure to account for the natural nose up moment at idle thrust - the net result is the same pitch attitude that you had before. Then at about 15 feet, I'd begin a very mild round-out, and right at about 5 feet, the Westwind's tail enters ground effect and the nose will lower about a degree or so and you get a "thump" touchdown - unless you give a "good tug" on the yoke, to keep the pitch attitude as it was in the final round out. This last (tug on tyhe yoke as the nose dips) seems to be the key, but the rest supports a consistant approach to the final part. I swear, if you get all that down, you will consistantly roll the landings on without being too fast or too slow at touchdown. Right as you feel the mains spin up, crack the reversers to idle deploy, and smoothly fly the nosewheel on. At that point go to 55 percent reverse and keep it there to about 70 knots while you smoothly activate breaking - let it roll a bit and keep the brakes cool. You'll save TONS of break wear on this technique, get smoother landings, and the roll-outs are baby butt smooth without having to use all the runway while still having smoking breaks and expensive break wear. I never used trim in the roundout of flare.
The big caveat to the Canoe is that if you flare it too much, it will bite. The straight wing will allow you to keep it airborne inadvertantly longer, and gives a sharper stall than a swept wing. From what I've seen there is more risk of this at light weight. At some point, you will just have to accept a firm touchdown if you flare for too long (just fly it onto the runway) versus an aggrevated full stall landing at who knows what height.
I will admit I had to work at good landings in the Canoe more than other jets (with an exception for the MD-80 - that one was even more interesting).
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