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Learning to Land

On approach for runway 34, CYBW

One of the hardest thing in flying is learning to land.  When I was struggling with the landing, my instructor made me feel better by letting me know this, and saying that she didn’t really “learn” how to land until she was doing her commercial license.  Of course she knew how to to it, but by that she meant that she didn’t really feel fully comfortable until then.

This put a few things into perspective, how long it will take until not only will it feel natural but you will not be so terrified and dry-mouthed every time you do it.  Since my first solo flight, I have really started paying attention how to possibly make the best landing happen consistently.  I haven’t been flying in the circuit much lately, so each flight I only get to do one of these landings so I try to make it as good as possible.

The landing sequence. This plane is about to flare.
The landing sequence. This plane is about to flare.

One of the things that is very apparent is the amount of right rudder needed.  As you cut power to idle, and flare, you are operating the aircraft at very low power settings. Asymmetric thrust will cause the aircraft to want to yaw to the left: recall that the aircraft has left-turning tendencies which cause left yaw. This is actually what I noticed very clearly on my first solo flight, thinking it was the wind that was causing my nose to yaw to the left on landing, my instructor quickly corrected me that it was not using enough right rudder.

Four things will cause left -turning tendency. These are:

1. Torque reaction from engine and propeller

2.  Slipstream causing a corkscrewing effect of air hitting the tail on the right, yawing the aircraft to the left.

3.  Gyroscopic action of the propeller, the propeller is a gyroscope and tries to “spin” the aircraft the opposite way.

4.  Asymmetrical loading of the propeller at high nose attitudes.

On landing, asymmetric thrust causes the left yaw.  When you touch the ground, be prepared to add even more right rudder. The engine torque will cause the left wheel to carry slightly more weight than the right, increasing it’s drag and causing even more yaw to the left.

So how can you strive to make each landing perfect? I’ve made a list of steps that I think are very important to note:

1.  Check winds. When flying in the downwind leg, when on final, or whenever you get a chance note the windsock so you know what winds you will be experiencing on the ground and on your final approach. Will you have a crosswind?

2.    Approach at a constant airspeed for your configuration (whether using flaps or not), do not “chase” the airspeed: that is, do not focus your attention on the airspeed indicator and try to correct deviations by switching attitudes.  Establish your airspeed well in advance on final, note how the horizon looks when you have reached the proper airspeed, and keep it there. Once you have your airplane in the right attitude, keep it there.

3.   Pick a spot on the runway. When you stare at this spot, this is where you will flare. It also allows you to break down your desired touchdown spot and keep you from focusing on the entire runway.

4.  Flare 5-9 meters (15 to 30 feet) from the ground.  Over time, you will “sense” where this point is. I learned that to recognize this point is to when the movement of the ground suddenly becomes very apparent, the whole landing area seems to expand, and the point where the ground seems to be coming up so rapidly that something must be done about it.

5.  Once you flare, wait for the sink.  You are trying to bleed off airspeed.  Once you feel the sink, pull back more, just don’t pull back more before you feel the sink. This will cause the aircraft to balloon – gain lift – and the high nose attitude can cause you to stall when still too high above the ground resulting in a hard landing.   You need to cover up the runway with the nose of the aircraft to get the proper high nose landing attitude.  It will feel uncomfortable at first – it did for me.  This will allow you to avoid touching down with your nose gear, or having a ‘flat’ (three wheel) landing, which increases the risk of wheelbarrow. Pull back slightly each time you feel a sink, this will allow you to check your rate of descent until all flying speed is lost and you can touch the runway as lightly as possible.

6. Get in the habit of keeping your hand on the throttle throughout the landing. If something happens, for example if the landing is not going well and you need to overshoot or if there is something else wrong and you require application of power, the time to get this power if your hand was not on the throttle is too long.

There are four different kinds of landings:

  1. Normal landing
  2. Cross-wind landing; where wind inputs will be needed
  3. Short field landing, and
  4. Soft field landing.

We learn each landing and we practice all of them until they present no difficulty.

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Short field landing

Short field landing and takeoff procedure explained

At a certain point, your lessons will be about precision flying after you know the basics.  Now my lessons are about more precise flying, not only just about making it down to the ground safely.  Recently I was practicing to aim to land at a particular spot on the runway, using different flap configurations and no flaps.  This was to get used to being precise and prepare for the short field landing technique.

The other day I learned the short field landing method. There are two kinds of short field procedures, with an obstacle (we usually use a 50 foot obstacle) and with no obstacle.  We did the landing without obstacle and next we will do with obstacle, as that is more advanced.   The non-obstacle technique assumes that the runway is clear of obstacles (such as trees or power lines) so we don’t have to worry about clearing anything on our approach or take off.

The short field landing technique is a lot of fun to learn and practice.  It is a specialty procedure that comes in handy when landing at an airport with an unknown runway length or when there are concerns about usable runway length.

We want to plan to use as little runway surface as possible to both take off and land. So on the take off, we line up “on the button” meaning as close to the runway edge as possible.

Short field takeoff

For the Cessna 172, and our particular model, and at Springbank airport, we then follow this takeoff procedure:

  1. Apply full brake
  2. Flaps 10 degrees
  3. Full power
  4. Lean the fuel mixture (check), then mixture full rich
  5. Confirm engine gauges in the green
  6. Release brakes

Once the aircraft starts to roll we steer with rudder to maintain runway centre line. Depending on the aircraft model, we lift off at the recommended speed to fly in ground effect. The particular aircraft we were in, FDAJ, this speed was 46 knots.  We pull up to fly in ground effect, and then push down on the control column to keep from climbing and keep the aircraft level. We fly in ground effect a few feet off the ground without climbing until the airspeed builds to 60 knots, at which point we pitch up and climb out at 65 knots.  We let the aircraft gain 200 feet of altitude AGL. At Springbank the above sea level altitude is 3940 ft, so we wait until our altimeter shows 4140 ft.  We then check for two positive rates on the instruments: one on the vertical speed indicator (VSI) and the altimeter – that is, the VSI is above zero which means the aircraft is in a climb, and that altimeter is increasing which also means the same. We take flaps to 0 degrees, that will establish our speed to 70 knots, and we climb out normally!

Short field Landing

Then there is the landing, which is followed by a full flap approach. In our aircraft we used 30 degrees of flaps and approached at 61 knots as recommended in the aircraft’s pilot operating handbook (POH). We wanted to plan to touch down 500-600 feet after we flared so we look for appropriate runway markers for us to judge this distance. At Springbank, runways 16 and 34 have 500 foot and 1000 foot markers, so it is easy to see our targets.

After we touch down, we apply the brakes – hard. We push the nose of the aircraft down for maximum brake effectiveness and retract the flaps to decrease the lift also to really make those brakes effective.  The first few times I landed I wasn’t aggressive enough on the brakes but eventually got to pushing down on them hard enough. The application of brakes should be so hard you actually are pushed forward and can feel your seat belt.  This is because we are trying to use the minimum runway length possible.

It was really a lot of fun to learn this procedure and I’m excited to try this next time, this time I will be on my own.

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The perfect landing

Normal landing touchdown attitude

The perfect landing technique explained

The most difficult part of learning to fly is, I think, the landing.  It is a precise series of steps that, when individually understood both aerodynamically and intellectually, result in a straight, soft landing no matter the wind conditions.  Since going solo for the first time I have been doing solo circuits, and have really been concentrating on my landing. Unbeknown to me, my landings, though soft are actually not that great.  Once I feel the aircraft sink I have a tendency to let go of the aircraft and let it sink, instead of holding off elevator pressure as long as I can.  This is one of the things that I have really noticed since I began flying solo.

Proper landing procedure

The proper landing procedure always follows a good approach. In the Cessna 172, this is approaching at 70 knots (with zero flaps) or 60 knots (with full flaps).  We can also use different degrees of flaps, such as 10, 20 or 30 depending on the 172 model.  Once we are over the runway threshold, and 2 -3 feet above the ground, we flare – using whatever works for you for knowing when to flare!  – I use the rule of when “the ground starts to come up so fast that something must be done about it.”

Once that is accomplished, you will feel the sink. My issue has been, that once I feel the sink I ‘give up’ and assume the aircraft is ready to land, and let it sink. This can result in a hard landing.  For me, I don’t get the hard landings but  tend to let my nose wheel touch down too soon. This can be dangerous as it can result in wheelbarrowing. The key is to hold the landing attitude as long as possible and bleed off your airspeed slowly.  So once you feel the sink, pull up until you have a very nose high attitude or high angle of attack.  This will cause the aircraft to sink slowly and incrementally. It will allow the main wheels to touch down first, and the landing will be soft.

What are your landings like? Comment below

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My First Solo Flight – Part 1: Fighting Fear

First solo initiation

The story leading up to my first solo out of Springbank!

Getting Ready

The time leading up to my first solo was a tense period.  It was something that took a very long time to accomplish, given the disjointed nature that my flight training has taken.   I spent 15 hours flying from Edmonton City Centre over 8 months (from April to December) and was close to joining the circuit – all my time was upper air and I didn’t concentrate on the landings – when I moved and  had to switch flight schools.  Luckily for me, my instructor Sarah moved to Calgary after me,  just dumb luck and great timing! so I didn’t have to switch instructors.

Airport Switch!

I had a long, 4 month break. Switching to Springbank, CYBW was a real shock.  It has a much different flavor than Edmonton City Centre – much busier, very congested, very overwhelming, and with worse weather, stronger, gustier winds and more upper air turbulence. It took only a few hours to finish the upper air exercises but it was a lot of work and I had to fight through a lot of fear.

I managed to accumulate another 15 hours before the next break.  I spent the rest of the summer abroad. I was nowhere near soloing, I was still very scared of flying.  The next fall was a tricky period, the weather was so terrible that fall that I had an 8 month break from flying when I finally took to the air in January.

Back in the circuit

It didn’t take terribly long to get back into it, I already accumulated 30 hours and everything came back quickly. We did a couple of lessons in upper air work and then we were back in the circuit. Sarah was impressed with how quickly I progressed when thrown into it after such a long break.  She said I would be soloing quickly. I didn’t feel comfortable, or ready, and didn’t particularly want to do it.  After about 4 or 5 lessons she said “wow, you’re doing really well – would you like me to jump out now?”   When asked how I was feeling, I told her that I had a good sense of the entire landing ‘package’, and I could physically link the full sequence of steps from takeoff to landing.

My next lesson, which was one month later was a pivotal one.  It was evening, the days were getting longer, the winds were getting light, it was almost my birthday, and it was the first time I we were flying circuits from runway 07. After takeoff, the receding sun shone in our eyes as we turned downwind on runway 07.  After three landings, Sarah was pretty happy. I did not see coming what happened next.

Are you trying to kill me?

After landing for the fourth time, Sarah grabbed control, pulled back and applied the brakes, and moved the plane off the runway.  I thought, “well, I guess we were done for the day but it didn’t seem like as many circuits as usual, and funny that she wouldn’t tell me.”   So when we stopped and I looked at her quizzingly, she said  “you’re going solo” I just about freaked out.

She gave me my licenses and documents to put in my kneeboard, and explained the procedure.  All the meanwhile I was protesting.  After a small discussion when she taxied to the tower apron, the spot where she was supposed to get out, I repeatedly went over and over that I’m too scared and in my mind I was NOT going alone that day!  It took awhile to convince her, because she was adamant that I was ready. It really felt like she knew something that I didn’t, and I should’ve trusted that, but I was so uncomfortable.  So she finally accepted my protests and we taxied back to the school.  WITH my tail between my legs, naturally, and I have regret it ever since. Because it didn’t get any easier and still had to get over that fear. It is something that you have to do – and your instructor knows when you are ready. You have to trust them.

Instructor Switch!

I wish that I knew what would come next, then I would’ve just pushed myself to do the solo anyway, even though I thought surely I would die.  The next flight we were in the circuit again, with very busy traffic, often times we were number six and there were helicopters and all sorts of traffic entering the pattern, and the radio was very busy.  Sarah was disappointed. She mentioned, since I was expecting it, that I wouldn’t go solo that day because of the heavy traffic.  That was my last flight with Sarah. Roughly a few weeks later, after a few weather cancellations, she left teaching and suggested an instructor she thought would be a good fit for me.

Read First Solo Flight – Part 2