Landings, Great Landings and No Landings
Let's face it, no matter how you slice it, landing is perceived as one of the most important part of any flight. For one thing, you need it in order to complete a flight! Once you are airborne, a safe landing is not just handy, it is pretty well mandatory to ensure you live to tell the tale and take another flight. Safety aside, landing is seen by passengers as the most vivid and visible testimony to a pilot's skills. How many times, have you seen passengers on board an airliner clap after landing during bad weather? In short, you've got to grease those landings, or just carry lifeless cargo in the back!
Great Landings - Be in Control - Key: Speed
There are probably hundreds of tips for great landings, covering everything from pre-landing checks and preparations, entering and flying a correct pattern, attitude, power settings, etc. etc. However, here is a very simple key: SPEED!
When it comes to landings, speed is everything. If you are flying the wrong speed (and often that means too fast), then no matter what you do, your landing will be challenging at best. The right speed at all stages of landings will allow you to 'be in control' and fly the airplane as opposed to 'be overwhelmed' and confused by this skill laden maneuver.
Here is a speed trick: When in pattern (circuit for those who still use this term), typically use the following guidelines for speed:
For example if your airplane's stall speed with clean configuration is 50 Knots, your speed in each of the legs should be:
There are many other tips such as keeping the same visual attitude with the runway all the way down the final, flaring in one consistent and smooth fashion, and basically keeping all landings the same in order to get consistency in your landings. I will not repeat them here. But I will give you one last advice:
No Landing - It may be the best advice you'll get
Even though student pilots practice overshoots and go-around during their training, it is noteworthy that very few approaches are followed by a pilot initiated go-around. It is perhaps psychological or a 'face' issue. Whatever it is, most pilots 'commit' themselves to the landing, especially if there are passengers on board and most especially if the weather has not been great. The rationale is that the sooner we get the airplane on the ground, the safer we are! NOTHING CAN BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!
Be absolutely committed to 'not land' during every landing procedure unless you are sure that you are executing a good approach and are in total 'control' of the situation. Do not feel pressured by passenger expectation or weather conditions, etc. If you feel that you are either too fast, too slow, too high, too low or for any other reason, you are not set up to execute a great landing, and you are unable to get back into total control by simple adjustments, simply pull up and go around. That is the best course of action and is one which is the safest and most prudent in any situation -- emergency or normal.
I had first-hand experience with this one. Once was in 1983 when we were going from Montreal to a private field near Peterborough, Ontario at the residence of Dave Hadden who had a private field in his estate. I was flying a Grumman Tiger AA-5 and as a young, inexperienced VFR pilot, Dave tried to explain to me how I could find his field by pointing to VOR radials. To make a long story short, I had a very hard time finding his airfield and was about to give up and divert to Peterborough when I finally spotted it. By this time, my sister was anxious in the back seat and given the bumpy ride, she was pleading with me to land. I set up to land the plane, but the field was a short gravel runway set up high on a ridge with a slight slope. It was also windy and the only way to land would give me a slight cross-wind from the back! Needless to say that the first attempt felt wrong! I was fast ... fast ... fast! I knew it was wrong and I pulled up. The second attempt was better, but I was still going to touch down more than one-third away from the threshold and was drifting to the left due to gusting cross-wind and was a bit fast. I pulled up again! My sister was visibly anxious. I asked her to bear with me and remain quiet so I can get us on the ground safely! The third attempt was excellent. I was setup right and it all felt good. Touch down was a grease and I stopped well short of the end of the runway. Dave greeted us and commended me on making it in just '3 attemps'! I felt so much better and felt proud of my judgment.
The second time was a recent experience at Clark air-base in the Philippines. After a long day of flying around and landing at Omni from Calapan, my son and I went out for some practice (forced landings, stalls, etc.) and just simple fun flying. On return to Omni, we did a couple of circuits. The last landing before we signed off for the day, felt a bit high and fast. I did a side slip and tried to get the airplane to slow down by adjusting attitude and even cut the power right off way before short final, but we were too high. The right thing to do would have been a 'go around'. Nothing wrong with that. Instead, I elected to land because I felt we could still safely make it. We did, but it was a fast landing and I had to brake really hard with a bit of a skid in order to exit the last taxiway. Not one for the books.
Remember: keep those speeds in mind at all times, keep in control of the whole procedure and never be afraid to go around. Happy landings.
Great Landings - Be in Control - Key: Speed
There are probably hundreds of tips for great landings, covering everything from pre-landing checks and preparations, entering and flying a correct pattern, attitude, power settings, etc. etc. However, here is a very simple key: SPEED!
When it comes to landings, speed is everything. If you are flying the wrong speed (and often that means too fast), then no matter what you do, your landing will be challenging at best. The right speed at all stages of landings will allow you to 'be in control' and fly the airplane as opposed to 'be overwhelmed' and confused by this skill laden maneuver.
Here is a speed trick: When in pattern (circuit for those who still use this term), typically use the following guidelines for speed:
- On Downwind: Speed = 1.5 X Stall Speed
- On Base: Speed = 1.4 X Stall Speed
- On Final: Speed = 1.3 X Stall Speed
For example if your airplane's stall speed with clean configuration is 50 Knots, your speed in each of the legs should be:
- On Downwind: Speed = 1.5 X 50 = 75 Knots
- On Base: Speed = 1.4 x 50 = 70 Knots
- On Final: Speed = 1.3 X 50 = 65 Knots
There are many other tips such as keeping the same visual attitude with the runway all the way down the final, flaring in one consistent and smooth fashion, and basically keeping all landings the same in order to get consistency in your landings. I will not repeat them here. But I will give you one last advice:
No Landing - It may be the best advice you'll get
Even though student pilots practice overshoots and go-around during their training, it is noteworthy that very few approaches are followed by a pilot initiated go-around. It is perhaps psychological or a 'face' issue. Whatever it is, most pilots 'commit' themselves to the landing, especially if there are passengers on board and most especially if the weather has not been great. The rationale is that the sooner we get the airplane on the ground, the safer we are! NOTHING CAN BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!
Be absolutely committed to 'not land' during every landing procedure unless you are sure that you are executing a good approach and are in total 'control' of the situation. Do not feel pressured by passenger expectation or weather conditions, etc. If you feel that you are either too fast, too slow, too high, too low or for any other reason, you are not set up to execute a great landing, and you are unable to get back into total control by simple adjustments, simply pull up and go around. That is the best course of action and is one which is the safest and most prudent in any situation -- emergency or normal.
I had first-hand experience with this one. Once was in 1983 when we were going from Montreal to a private field near Peterborough, Ontario at the residence of Dave Hadden who had a private field in his estate. I was flying a Grumman Tiger AA-5 and as a young, inexperienced VFR pilot, Dave tried to explain to me how I could find his field by pointing to VOR radials. To make a long story short, I had a very hard time finding his airfield and was about to give up and divert to Peterborough when I finally spotted it. By this time, my sister was anxious in the back seat and given the bumpy ride, she was pleading with me to land. I set up to land the plane, but the field was a short gravel runway set up high on a ridge with a slight slope. It was also windy and the only way to land would give me a slight cross-wind from the back! Needless to say that the first attempt felt wrong! I was fast ... fast ... fast! I knew it was wrong and I pulled up. The second attempt was better, but I was still going to touch down more than one-third away from the threshold and was drifting to the left due to gusting cross-wind and was a bit fast. I pulled up again! My sister was visibly anxious. I asked her to bear with me and remain quiet so I can get us on the ground safely! The third attempt was excellent. I was setup right and it all felt good. Touch down was a grease and I stopped well short of the end of the runway. Dave greeted us and commended me on making it in just '3 attemps'! I felt so much better and felt proud of my judgment.
The second time was a recent experience at Clark air-base in the Philippines. After a long day of flying around and landing at Omni from Calapan, my son and I went out for some practice (forced landings, stalls, etc.) and just simple fun flying. On return to Omni, we did a couple of circuits. The last landing before we signed off for the day, felt a bit high and fast. I did a side slip and tried to get the airplane to slow down by adjusting attitude and even cut the power right off way before short final, but we were too high. The right thing to do would have been a 'go around'. Nothing wrong with that. Instead, I elected to land because I felt we could still safely make it. We did, but it was a fast landing and I had to brake really hard with a bit of a skid in order to exit the last taxiway. Not one for the books.
Remember: keep those speeds in mind at all times, keep in control of the whole procedure and never be afraid to go around. Happy landings.
Density Altitude Calculator
There are a lot of great articles and discussions about density altitude.
On a hot day, or at high altitude, or on a moist day, the air is less dense. A reduction in air density reduces the engine horsepower. Density altitude is defined as the pressure altitude corrected for the effects of temperature and humidity.
Density altitude affects engine horsepower of a normally aspirated engine. A reduction in air density reduces the amount of oxygen available for combustion and therefore reduces the engine horsepower and torque. The term station is the designation for the vertical point that you take your measurements; vertical meaning above (or below) sea level. The absolute air pressure is the calculated air pressure, but not corrected for altitude. It is also called the station pressure in weather reports from NOAA.
Here is a terrific and handy calculator:
http://www.witsflyingclub.co.za/pilots/density_calc.asp
On a hot day, or at high altitude, or on a moist day, the air is less dense. A reduction in air density reduces the engine horsepower. Density altitude is defined as the pressure altitude corrected for the effects of temperature and humidity.
Density altitude affects engine horsepower of a normally aspirated engine. A reduction in air density reduces the amount of oxygen available for combustion and therefore reduces the engine horsepower and torque. The term station is the designation for the vertical point that you take your measurements; vertical meaning above (or below) sea level. The absolute air pressure is the calculated air pressure, but not corrected for altitude. It is also called the station pressure in weather reports from NOAA.
Here is a terrific and handy calculator:
http://www.witsflyingclub.co.za/pilots/density_calc.asp