"pulling back on the yoke at the same rate you are sinking". YES! Huge key there. I never taught my students to "flare". They just balloon. Instead we taught them to LEVEL OFF right above the runway. Wait for the sink....then offset the sink with back pressure as long as possible...."don't let it land" The result is a flare with a nice nose high touch down on the mains. Peripheral vision....Yes ! In some airplanes you are completely blind straight ahead in the flare and peripheral is all you got. Flaring to high is usually caused by looking too close over the nose thus experiencing ground rush. Knowing where to look is everything. Like your tips. Ur a good instructor. Landings are the hardest thing to teach and learn because you can't quantify it. It's a feel. Cheers from a fellow CFI and pilot.
I smiled when you said"Not bad since I hadn't landed in a month." I just received a biennial flight reveal endorsement after a 12 year absence. My career took me to sea for 15 years, I had to put my flying aside. It sure felt good to be left seat once again.
@@FreePilotTraining No, I served on a geology research vessel. 63 days at sea per deployment then shore duties. I flew a '46 Culver V until my partner in the aircraft passed and the aircraft was sold. My first aircraft was a '47 Cessna 140 then a '47 Stinson 108-1. Now retired, in good health. I am looking for another bird. Maybe a sling wing.
@@rebelshaven congratulations. I know I don't need to say this, but a flight review is just that, a review. As for me, in addition to the actual physical aspects of flying and landing the aircraft, I wanted to study up on areas I was weak in. The airspace classification and rules had changed and weather sites offered more. What I will do on my own is get familiar more with IFly GPS and other electronic flight bag. It was fun and I inundated the CFI with questions I had and he was surprised and I pleased I used him as a living encyclopedia. I'll be back to sit down and mull though not-so -much lack of knowledge but best practices and approaches to be more efficient in weather briefing and cockpit organizations. The aviation world moved from the six pack instrument layout to glass during my 12 year stray. I am instrument rated and the six pack scan was drilled into me and I am comfortable with it. With glass, I find having to search a bit for the feedback needed. This will pass and I know more CFI time is needed. You got this and good best wishes.
I started watching you last year while training and got my PPL Sept 2023. This video would have been beneficial. I practiced this yesterday and greased all 3 of my landings. Multiple things happened, I flew in ground effect, I used peripheral vision, smaller corrections closer to the runway, and being more aggressive in flare. I was soooo shocked at how smooth my first landing was, then I repeated it 2 more times! Thank you very much.
Great clip. I was a flight instructor back in the 70s in Australia. Few of our airports suffered the curse of PAPI back then, with T-VASIS only at major airports (it had vertical and horizontal white lights, set to give a visual analogy of a glide slope indication, with all lights turning red if you got decidedly low), so student pilots weren't distracted from learning to judge what a correct approach angle looked like. Most of the instructors I knew also taught looking towards the end of the runway during the flare and sustaining it during the hold-off. On final, peripheral vision would initially give a perception of slowly moving down the approach path. Judging the flare was associated with a transition in peripheral vision from the world 'moving slowly' to 'moving quickly'. This also was the cue for lifting the line of vision towards the end of the runway to enable the hold-off to be accurately judged and controlled as airspeed dropped and controls became less effective. That's sounds a bit clunky when said, but I think you get the drift. Not quite sure about the 'high flare', 'low flare' thing. It will certainly work in 172s (and the 150/152s we commonly used), but if you were training people in Victa AirTourers (probably the finest 'ab initio' trainers I flew) you would have something a little different happen. They were tough aircraft (2 seat, aerobatic, +9g / -6g, strong spring steel 'legs', faster and with a higher wing loading than a 150) and had a very interesting 'character'. It was easy to fly (almost as if you were 'riding' it), and very forgiving, but if you didn't fly it quite right, it wasn't dangerous, but it would let you know it "didn't approve" of what you were doing. If you used that high flare technique it would drop in just a bit hard. If you flared too late it would thud in decisively, like it was doing a carrier landing. Do the same thing in a 150/152 and it would just waffle gently in anyway, feeling much the same, and the trainee often wouldn't be much the wiser. The 172 was similar, but the 182 and higher models were (from my observation at least), a bit less forgiving. Thanks for the memories. BTW, I compete in Oz, in IPSC, Service and WA1500, using a CZ-75 SP-01 Shadow.
My landing are good and even my short field landings and soft are spot on. Working on getting not forgetting the steps on a slow stall. Like forgetting to descend first a bit before pulling up.
So like riding a dirtbike you need to be aware of the obstacles down the road but don't look so far out you miss the pot hole in front of your tire, pick a point, plan a path and ride it out.
Josh is the man! These tips improved my landings practically over night! My bad landings really had me second guessing my flight training. I got in touch with Josh, put this practice into action and now I'm excited about continuing my lessons again! I cannot thank you enough Josh!
I’m a gunner too. I’ve been practicing shooting from the hip. I’m a new PPL student, been up 3 times so I’m better understand what you are doing in flight. Thanks for all the videos I can study books but a lecture helps me understand.
Flaring too high is my #1 bad habit when it comes to landings. You’re exactly right about “high flare, hard flare,” and I didn’t even realize that was the reason why I had to apply so much back pressure to keep the nose at horizon level…but of course now I’m 5-10 feet off the ground, and I come down hard, every time. My problem is that peripheral version and gauging my closure rate and exactly how high I am above the runway. I always feel like I’m way lower than I am. As someone else pointed out, this is probably because I am staring right in front of the nose of my airplane, and that ground feels like it’s coming up QUICK. It’s been too long since I’ve gone and hammered out some touch n goes. Going to do that soon, and my focus will be on looking TOWARD the end of the runway, flaring in that 2-3 foot sweet spot, and pulling back to match my sink rate. Great video as always, Josh. Just got my instrument rating a couple days ago, and your videos have helped me tremendously with just flying the airplane.
Thanks! Now, I briefly mentioned this in the video, but are you glancing at your touchdown point AFTER transitioning from your aimpoint? This can help you start the roundout in a better spot before you transition to peripheral vision
@@FreePilotTraining no, and I think that’s one reason my landings are so inconsistent. I’m pleased with how stable my approaches are, but when it’s time to begin the round out, all bets are off and I kind of just do whatever each time, not really thinking about any consistent method.
I'm not a pilot but this makes a lot of sense to me. I was a trucker for 21 years and one of the things we're taught and learn is "where you're looking, that's where you'll go". That's because we just have a natural tendency to follow our eyes. That's one of the reasons you'll so often see someone who's gone off the road manages to hit the only sign anywhere around. This is especially true if you turn your head to look at something versus glancing at it with your eyes. Tunnel vision isn't good either which is why a good driver will constantly adjust their focal point between near and far to keep a complete picture.
Looking forward to putting these ideas into practice. But one "student to CFI tip": stress leads to tunnel vision. I know I've had to put a lot of work into remaining calm with everything that's going on as we round out and touch down. I distinctly realized that on my early landings, I had my eyes locked on the end of the runway and my circle of vision was about 5 degrees wide - pure tunnel. But with more experience, that cone has widened a lot, but I'm still working on it. These tips are going to help a lot, but in early landings, my sense is that most students are going to be tunneling pretty hard so it will take some time and experience to have the ability to implement this stuff, outside of students who may be unnaturally chill.
Yea I had a similar experience. When I was doing 360,s I would be stuck inside and nervous but with time and use of trim I calmed down and started looking outside. Same sort of thing happened with my landings. The more comfortable and chill I was the more I could stop thee tunnel vision and get more cues of where I am in the flare. Also I’m lucky enough to have my A&P so I get to sit in the planes I fly giving me a slight advantage over those who only may get an hour a week or Month. If you wanna fly, I highly suggest getting your license.
Yea I had a similar experience. When I was doing 360,s I would be stuck inside and nervous but with time and use of trim I calmed down and started looking outside. Same sort of thing happened with my landings. The more comfortable and chill I was the more I could stop thee tunnel vision and get more cues of where I am in the flare. Also I’m lucky enough to have my A&P so I get to sit in the planes I fly giving me a slight advantage over those who only may get an hour a week or Month. If you wanna fly, I highly suggest getting your license.
I am a Class 2 flight instructor in Canada and this video is excellent the only thing I would comment on is I only use the vasis/pappi as a guide only in small GA aircraft otherwise the student tends to be low and if you have an engine fail you probably won’t make the threshold especially when doing circuits! I prefer a steeper angle and at about 200/300 ft I am on vasis profile!
I used to be a trim dozer operator, and peripheral vision is paramount to precise work, similar to landing. Pretty much everyone who jumps into a trim dozer at first tends to focus too hard on the blade and ends up just like pilot induced oscillation - up, down, up, down, bang bang! Good tips! Keep on trolling the trolls😂
Good job, Josh, finding various points of view to help with landing. Sparky's, Wolfgang's "stall down," and the Army's apparent brisk walk rate of closure (similar to "stall down") all are good orientation. Good job with the rate of closure. Whether conscious or not, the same deceleration we use in autos to keep the rate of closure appearing to remain at a brisk walk really helps. Luckily in Ag, where the student already had the license to learn, we didn't have to deal with the more difficult round out and hold off technique but could actually decelerate enough to actually use the dynamic throttle as a very precise glide angle and rate of descent control all the way to touchdown with power/pitch and flair. Eliminating both round out and hold off not only makes it STOL, but more importantly emphasizes energy management and actually makes the landing less complicated. Forcing the elevator into both airspeed and altitude control with extra speed requiring round out throws the whole flying/landing (not flying) thing off. We land (not fly) much slower than Vso, an out of ground effect number. Wolfgang says it best on page 302, "The 'stall-down' landing requires that you blend the approach glide, the flare-out, and the slowing up of the airplane all into one maneuver so that, when you arrive at ground level, you arrive in three-point attitude, all slowed up and ready to squat." No problem if we wish to move the touchdown spot (ground level) down the runway a bit. I realize hiding the lack of round out might upset the DPE, but it is a much easier, more energy managed, and safer way to land.
Just did my first solo and buttered the first two landings, last one I swore I got hit with a bat and dropped like a stone after trying to correct from ballooning it. I think I am getting the cause of why watching this. Thanks! I ballooned up pretty high and instinctively I tried to correct and reflare but lost all speed and plopped in pretty hard. Airplane was ok but I swore I hit the prop. Lesson learned. It was such a great approach too! if you make it to Oshkosh There is a Cheese curd Taco on me waiting for ya! Oh and Rock River shooter here! LAR-8
I agree that the mantra of “look at the end of the runway” is incorrect. A lot of CFIs say this, and it’s wrong. Proven by a simple thought experiment: if I built a runway 100,000ft long, are you going to put your eyes at the end of it? My eyes are approximately shooting through the same square inch of the windshield throughout the approach, round-out, and maybe a small portion of the flare. I could draw with a sharpie a square inch box on my windshield right where I normally look through on approach, and assuming no wind, tell my student to keep the same spot on the runway inside that square, and he or she will fly a stabilized glideslope. When we get to about 7-10ft AGL, you keep looking through that same square inch of window for the roundout, but shift aiming point maybe 200-400ft further down the runway while simultaneously reducing power. Then the flare begins at about 2ft. The airplane will be slowing down during the roundout and will want to nose-down due to the rapid loss of airspeed, so it’s a constant *increase* in pull to achieve the same glidepath during the roundout. A roundout is simply flying a shallower glidepath while reducing power and airspeed. This allows the airplane to reach its landing speed and for you to have time to react for the flare. If you look outside your car side-window on the freeway doing 60mph straight down to the ground, all you will see is motion-blur. That motion blur extends out in front of the car based on your speed and it gradually gets less and less motion-blur. If students are using their periphery to look in this area of motion-blur to judge height, it won’t work. They need to look far enough out, maybe 200ft in front of the airplane to start seeing what I call the “texture” of the asphalt. There is no shame in even just darting your eyes back and forth between centerline and about 20ft off centerline to judge height when you’re learning. You have to see the “texture” for your brain to judge height correctly. This is also why landing into the setting sun is difficult. Everyone has what is called a “dominant eye.” There is a simple test you can look up to figure out which eye is your dominant eye, but for most people it is their right eye. Your brain relies on information from your dominant eye far more than your non-dominant eye. And in a Cessna 172, when it’s easier to get the periphery sneak-peak out the left side of the front windshield, that unfortunately will be utilizing your non-dominant eye. I encourage students to actually use their dominant eye to periodically check their height above the ground by looking at about 200ft in front of them and about 20ft off centerline, and then going back to looking at about 500-800ft down the centerline of the runway. A “pro” in my view keeps their eyes about 500-800ft down the centerline in a light single piston and uses periphery for height judging. Another landing tip. When a gust of wind or turbulence changes the bank angle of the wings, don’t let the angle of the wings stay like that longer than you could prevent it. A bank angle means there is a horizontal component of lift, and the airplane will begin to turn, and it becomes harder to maintain centerline. One thing many students fail to understand is adverse yaw. Whenever the yoke turns (i.e. it isn’t in the neutral position), a yawing motion will occur in the opposite direction. This is what rudder is for, to control and counter adverse yaw. With every aileron input, there must be a slight rudder input as well, or else you become an unstable wobbly mess on final. Saying “apply rudder at the same time as aileron” is probably good enough, but when you get really good at stabilizing yaw that rudder input occurs just a fraction of a second prior to the aileron input. It becomes a muscle memory of how much to put in, and you don’t look at the ball to see if you’re applying the right amount, you look at the imaginary longitudinal axis of the aircraft (a line from the tail to the nose). One last tip. There is such a thing as the “landing attitude”. It’s a pitch angle (or sight picture if you prefer) that corresponds with being at the right airspeed for touchdown. If you are noticing a flatter pitch than usual to hold altitude during the flare 1ft off the ground, it means you’re too fast and risk touching down on the nose gear first. Which structurally isn’t good, but touching down on the nose gear is the first step in a porpoise landing/crash, and it also causes significant lateral steering issues once rolling on the ground. I’m sure you’ve experienced massive swerves with students upon touchdown. Vice versa, if you’re increasing pitch beyond the “landing attitude” to hold that 1ft off the ground during the flare, you’re getting too slow. Keep getting slow, you risk a tail strike or losing visual cues ahead of you. Pros can lose visual cues ahead of them and maintain control using the side “Lindberg reference”, but it’s just not a textbook landing at that point. Once you reach the “landing attitude”, it’s better to just hold that sight picture and let the airplane sink to its touchdown instead of continually increasing pitch to milk the landing, unless you achieved that landing attitude at some unsafe altitude, like 5ft+ in the air. Now you’re in good-around territory holding altitude at 5ft+. Even 4ft holding altitude is making me uncomfortable. 1-3ft, ok.
Great tips! As I was editing this video, I came up with a handful of other tips I forgot about. Might have to make another vid and include one of these ☝️
It is correct if you mention that you look with your peripherals. The last 10 feet you feel more than you look, but your eyes will automatically be at horizon because your angle of attack increases and runway disappears under the hood. And thats where the end of runway basically at.
I recently got shown I'm way over controlling in bumpy turbulent crosswind. The instructor demonstrated how you don't even need to move the ailerons to land. He kept it still and only used rudder to pick up a wing if it dropped. The landing he made was super smooth and calm despite the wind. He just held the yoke still. A friend and I tried this yesterday and it absolutely works. So the strange tip is: once you put the plane on the right path, leave the ailerons absolutely alone and hold them still unless you need a bank to start a turn to change the path. But if the wing drops add some pressure with the rudder and wait for it to raise back up.
@@FreePilotTraining This is applicable in the wing low method as well. Once you set the wing low attitude, leave the ailerons alone in level position and keep the wing low attitude with rudder if a gust changes it. Let the stability of the aircraft do the flying and help it with rudder, only use ailerons when you need a different bank or when you need to level out. I wish someone did a good detailed video on this, I was looking for it and it doesn't exist on the whole youtube! Can you do it?
@@FreePilotTraining Actually at 12:57 in the vid you're doing exactly what I was doing and if you watch it back in slow motion you'll see you're causing most of your own turbulence, just like I did. Those aggressive movements of the yoke are not needed and actually are detrimental for a nice landing. I couldn't believe it either when I got shown this and I admit it's a strange unnerving feeling trusting the plane to not spin out of control and just keeping the ailerons still when you get bumped around. But it works, and I was shocked how well in what I thought were moderately difficult conditions.
I love this advice. I recently learned this rudder technique with a great CFII, and my centerline control on final and landing has definitely improved.
I really appreciate these explanations! They’re really helpful to go along with the cookie cutter explanations from books. Super practical. I passed my written exam yesterday and now I’m preparing for the checkride and trying to get more precise with my landings and maneuvers.
Terrific job, Josh! This video is now a part of my high-rotation aviation watch list as I re-enter flying after a 20-year break. I was a member of the Point Mugu (CA) Navy Flying club for several years flying our two T-34B Mentors. BTW, gun videos are always appreciated!
Thanks Brian! That’s too cool! I’d love to fly the T-34 at some point. Cool plane. If you haven’t already, you should check out my Adventure Men channel. I hope to make a few shooting videos over there: youtube.com/@adventuremen?si=FnXk_0eMZbkMoXjD
This is a very great idea to make my landings more fun than before and thank you for the tips on what to look for and best practices is flying the Aircraft and controlling it
I was taught that VASI / PAPI were just a reference as you note and the important thing was learning to 'see' the dynamic aim point as the line where runway coming towards you changes to runway moving away from you. Having an eye for that makes it a lot easier to adjust pitch and power to keep the spot stationary and if you've setup your initial glide well the angle will take care of itself. While it was never quite termed peripheral vision, I was also taught to look a bit to the side in the flair for better sense of height and sink rate. I think different words for the same concept. A note that in aircraft with laminar flow wings, like Comanches and Mooneys "high flair hard flair" is a good way to get a very hard landing. These aircraft don't 'mush' in the stall but pretty much stop flying so you don't want to be too far above the runway in a full stall landing. Adding a bit of power or going around in a short field situation is usually the best move if you really mess up the flair. Similarly, the Comanches are known to float forever with a clean wing that is set very low to the ground. A full size nose wheel doesn't make matters easier for a smooth landing (but helps a lot on grass). Good speed control into the flair and gentleness in pitch help a lot to make a good one. Another tip that works in many airplanes is to consider 2/3rds instead of full flaps. Often trim forces are much less, it's easier to position the nose high for a nice main gear landing, and for typical paved airports the difference in ground roll isn't really an issue. Works nicely in Comanches and Bonanzas in my personal experience. Also good in strong crosswinds in many aircraft.
I always fly the papi and vasi. I trust those, especially at night when there is no ILS. But, I don't ONLY FLY the papi. As a pilot, you should be using ALL of your knowledge and skills on EVERY FLIGHT. i do a lot of single pilot IFR and my home airport is in the mountains, and the "black hole effect" is a major issue. If you do not fly the instruments or the papi, you will fall into the black hole effect.
PAPI lights give you a visual path to warranty pass over the threshold 50 ft and reach the aiming point no more of 300 meters. But always take in accurate the path is calibrated in base of the highest cabin of the Airplane normally landing in the Airport.. Very good video 🎉
I have always thought I was good at landings. I thought I looked at the end of the runway, but I realized, after your explanation, that I actually do look at the nose towards the end. I didn't even realize that I did that. Nice.
I do a similar thing with peripherals on the flare but since i have to share students with other instructors, i tell mine to watch the point where the stripes no longer have the gaps ahead of us and use peripherals to feel out our distance over the ground. other instructors will tell them eyes at the end and that's where i have them look. I also made it a point for them to learn this peripheral skill by practicing this when learning wind corrections and crab angles by flying straight, watching a distant object like a smoke stack at a factory, and watching how the ground shifts under us. Transferring that experience to the landing helped a ton when i started teaching and including a "wind check, power idle, glide down" call out helps with the last second wind shifts we get in the south. I agree about the end of the runway being too vague though since some people stare at the trees and others the pavement so it's very inconsistent. It was a major hurdle for myself as well when i learned to fly. Honestly the hardest thing as an instructor is that no method is perfect and you're always wondering if something you tried with someone today would have helped someone more yesterday.
Hi Josh, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you so much for all the Free Pilot training here on your channel. I've been working towards a VFR PPL license for the past year and next week will have my pre-exam test here in the Netherlands. Your video's were a great help in getting a that more comprehension on some of the tougher subjects. Also nice to see the beautiful scenery and to hear the somewhat different ATC style on the way. Thank you very much sir.
Thanks! I’m currently on orders with the military and building a house. It’s been tough to make content regularly. Hopefully things will stabilize soon and I can get back to it more regularly
This was awesome. I was paying attention, then heard you call Palmer. I realized where you were and started looking for my house! I found it a few times😁 about to start training soon!
YES! As soon as you said look at the cowling suddenly all my struggles during the ppl made sense. By looking at the end of the runway, I would lose all reference to how my axis were actually aligned with it. I understood how landings were supposed to work, but I could never actually see in the flare the corrections that needed to happen. I did figure out eventually that keeping eyes on the cowling, and orientation to the runway in the peripheral, allowed me to actually see the yaw corrections I needed much easier. The way you described it was like OHHHH why did nobody tell me this five years ago 😂
How did you find an opportunity at PAAQ when Blue RIver didn’t have 7 aircraft in the pattern asking “where are you”, making ‘extended base’, ‘long crosswind’ , ‘abeam the Butte’ calls along with ‘lining up to wait’ and generally ruining aviation for everyone else? Impressive.
So ,if im not mistaken, all runways have a known altitude above sea level which helps you gauge your touchdowm point. How do you gauge it when making an emergency landing in a random field? I guess you just hope you got enough experience by then to gauge it on feel and perception???
I'm currently working on my commercial, but there was a topic talked about at my flight school the other day. Since a lot of your vids are "Real Life" flying.... how about doing a vid on an IFR Visual Approach? It's easy to read about it in a book, but when we are working on our IR... we do published approaches. None of the students have really flown a visual (including some CFII's). Could you do a vid on it? The questions that came up the other day were.... What will ATC/Approach/Center tell you to do after accepting it? (Vectors to a long final? Move into the pattern?) Then, what will I say to the tower once ATC tells us to change freq? In a normal published procedure, I would say something like.... "Johnstown tower, N697LB on the RNAV 23". Not knowing exactly what ATC will have me do... I don't know what to say to the tower. ANyway... as always, thanks for the vid.
I’m actually extremely familiar with the visual approach as I have flown them many times, and have done a tremendous amount of research on the topic since I had a small argument with a fellow C-130 pilot a few years ago. It might be a while before I can make a video, but I’ll share my experience here: as you probably know, when the weather is better than 1000/3, the visual becomes an option. You’ll often hear the ATIS say: visual approaches in use 16R and 16L. If you tell ATC you’re inbound with yankee or whatever when ATIS is announcing this, you are telling them you want the visual. You have to specifically ask for an approach when the visual is in use. Here’s where things get interesting. Technically, you are still on an instrument clearance when you fly the visual. Air Force pilots I have flown with will fly through clouds because of this, but technically you should not be going through clouds on the visual. That’s the whole point of the approach. Once you are passed off to approach, and you tell them you have yankee, they will tell you to expect the visual for 16R. Now, the key is that APPROACH needs to hear you tell them that you have the field in sight BEFORE they can clear you for the visual approach, so as soon as you know you’re getting it, you need to start looking. Often approach will say: expect the visual, report the field “in sight”. Once you see the field and tell them you have it “in sight.” They will clear you the visual for 16R. Now, here’s where things get kinda weird. According to the regulations, clearance for the visual approach does not mean you have priority over VFR traffic. You must avoid VFR traffic and their flow of traffic. So until you get passed over to tower, you need to stay out of the traffic pattern. Technically, you should “plan on” making a straight in. However, I have made MANY visual approaches into a downwind or a base in busy airspace. If approach or tower tells you you can do so then it’s fine. You just have to watch out for other traffic. The Air Force would say that you MUST enter a straight in, but I can’t find anything from the FAA that says this. So, if I need to make a downwind or base, I typically make my pattern larger outside of the standard pattern and when approach passes me off to tower on the visual, I tell tower, I’m on downwind, straight in, base or whatever and from there, they will clear me to land. Clearance for the visual is not clearance to land. Hopefully I can make a video at some point, but it might be a while. Hopefully this helps. I can’t always reply to responses for some reason, so if you have more questions, start another comment or PM me on Facebook or Instagram
Gun lover 🔥🔥 hey brother, working through the ppl now and your channel has been invaluable. Thanks for all your hard work on these videos! They really help
Hey Josh, thanks for your helpful videos. Lately I believe I've been overthinking when to go power idle. Too early, and you need to pitch down at the aim point to maintain airspeed, only to pitch up more abruptly to enter the flare. Too late and you float. Should power idle be made before the roundout and let the airspeed bleed by not diving at the runway through pitch correction? Smoothly during the roundout? I could use a "soft reset" in my rule of thumb. Given a typical C172 landing config of 40º flaps, 60kts, 2100lbs. Cheers!
Thanks! Great question! Here’s my philosophy: touchdown speed does not equal landing speed. If you are AT landing speed when you begin the roundout, you can pull power and should not even need to look at airspeed in most small airplanes. Touchdown will be 6-10 knots below your landing speed. You can verify this by a slight chirp of the stall horn. Wiping power typically takes a slightly more aggressive flare, but it’s still very manageable in a 172. Consider my mantra: Crack, shift, idle, flare. When it’s time to start the roundout, crack the power back. Not much, maybe a 1/4”. Shift your aimpoint and then go idle immediately after. Try that and report back
@@FreePilotTraining Right, I think I recall that mantra from some of your earlier videos which I'll revisit and try out this weekend! But the stepped power reduction makes a lot of sense, especially to avoid overcontrolling. Thanks for the detailed response, keep up the great work with the videos. ps I would not mind some gun content as a firearm-owning Canadian
Here is a tip about how to turn base: When you make that left turn, wait for the runway number to appear on the left mark of your gyro compass. For example, if you are going to land on runway 15, end your turn just before 15 reaches the left hand mark. When 15 reaches the left mark, your actual course will be 240 degrees, which is perpendicular to runway 15. When you level the wings, the runway will be right where you expect it to be. For me, this works much better than choosing a landmark 90 degrees to my left and turning to it. In general, turns to base can feel really strange. You are low, slow, turning, sinking, and (in a high wing airplane) you can't see the runway. That is normal! The instruments can reassure you that you are not too low, too slow, or banking too much.
As always, love your videos Josh. By far the most practical and easy to understand content for a low hour pilot looking to improve. Question, on downwind do you set your power abeam the numbers or intended landing point? I’ve read/seen it described both ways so just curious what your method/thoughts are?
Thanks! My intended landing spot is typically the second stripe after the numbers so I usually just use the numbers as a perch point. Technically, you want to use your touchdown point, but a couple hundred feet won’t make that big of a difference.
So, C182H with a XP470 (IO520, p.ponk upgrade). I land perfectly every time, until the last 2-3 feet AGL, then I drop it in. It feels great, I float out the energy, but drop it in. Ideas? Also, on my home grass strip, I grease it in...its only on larger hard surface runways where I drop it.
I bet you’re flaring too high. Larger runways give the illusion that you’re lower than you think. High flare = plopped in landing. If that’s not the case, try cracking the power over the threshold, but not pulling power completely until you’re completely in the flare. You’re bleeding off airspeed exponentially. This is either because you’re too high OR you’re too fast and then that airspeed bleeds off too quickly to gauge
Thanks! I originally bought this cable www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/sep/11806?gclid=Cj0KCQiAorKfBhC0ARIsAHDzsltAJp_vB3bTzYrE8OOpHFbu47XoVnRdiSyTV3Xn_2ds_0nmIL113YkaAgGLEALw_wcB to plug in directly to my GoPros, but GoPros really like to overheat in the cockpit. A few months ago, I bought this audio recording device www.amazon.com/Digital-Voice-Recorder-Lectures-Meetings/dp/B084KQMH6V/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=1ZQG28ZIVD4AE&keywords=audio+recording+device&qid=1676466337&sprefix=audio+record%2Caps%2C211&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=AQ1GO4ZRYD98S&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzUzJLOVlXRkRLUlJCJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODI5OTUzMlVUSE81WkJDMzEyUCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzQxMzQyMUZFMU5CQlhGSjk5MSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX3Bob25lX3NlYXJjaF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl and the main cord from the GoPro audio adapter plugs right into it and I haven’t had a single issue since. If a go pro overheats, I can use the rest of my cameras and I haven’t lost my audio rest of my cameras and I haven’t lost my audio
Gun lover here... Hunt, target, reload, etc... one of rhe reasons moving back to AR from CA. Can't believe how big the flight community is here. Cost is some of the best in rhe country.
Hey thanks Josh, great video and address some of my issues. Even though I am a PPL I worked with a CFI yesterday to work on landing and worked through some of the same things in your video, I will continue to rewatch this video as a reinforcement tool. Also, I shoot competitive 22 pistol and 22 precision rifle matches.
And here I thought 'Aimpoints' were more or less obsolete optical shotgun sights. 😅 Literally did pop into my mind despite the context here. Thought this might be a yawner but no, the articulation of the why's made all the difference. Excellent communication, love it.
with small SEP I should say the last seconds of flare it is not looking at all - it is FEELING with your butt. I can feel every foot that is left until the ground. I can tell one more: learn how to exchange your energy on final approach. Try to apprach close to idle and extend flaps only when speed decays as you exchange that energy. Power off 180 is also good to master this.
My approaches were terrible until I switched my thinking from pitch for airspeed and power for altitude to pitch for aim point and power for airspeed. Of course it's a combination of both that gets what you want. But for some reason I'd end up with a very unstable approach. Now in looking at an ILS for some reason my mind can comprehend okay low add power. But as soon as I go visual. Pitch for aim point power for airspeed
About 44 years ago , c-172, night, two friends so total 3 on board, airport Lwm or KLWM, I was a new renter when I was twenty and was familiar with this runway and that this end was oh mabe ten feet lower elevation than the other. The elevation rose all on the first third of the runway. This night I wanted to try something I was told about that sounded reasonable. The running is the big black abiss between the runway lights. SO here’s the suggestion that could be applied to any runway, not just this one. Wide runway and at this point the landing light is pointing towards the sky I’m focused on two things center looking towards the other end of the runway and perifersl blurred present a second confirmation of runway surface near. Usual action be nose wheel up to ease on the runway surface. This was the outcome and lesson. It became a nose up hard drop that made me ( thank you for the strong spring steel landing gear arms Cessna !) for me it was my bad to allow the practice of this take so much of my focus and attention that I did not remember that this third of the runway is lower than the other two thirds. Passengers didn’t notice or comment on the landing. They did enjoy all of the new to them all the spectacular city lights . Now 44 years later I’m an expired medical ppl. Love your channel.
I'm studying for my PPL but I've been practicing in MSFS and every time I'm landing im repeating something I learned from playing rocket League lol "Aim small miss small" as in if you are aiming for a specific spot, if you miss, you shouldn't miss by a lot but if you aren't really aiming anywhere specific, you can miss greatly, so I pick a spot on my approach where I want to land and If I miss, it's not usually by much but if I don't aim anywhere, I tend to mess up and land really far down the runway.
The key to a good landing is the correct airspeed. Even in a small airplane, if you fly it often, don't just go for the same Vref every time (presumably the one for MTOW, which is too high for all other scenarios < MTOW). Use a table or some other tool to estimate the adjusted Vref, and fly that. Approach speeds that are too high lead to ballooning, which combined with crosswind, changing aileron and rudder effectiveness with reducing speed, and the wish "to bring it down" leads to all sorts ofbad landings. Most approaches flown by beginners are simply too fast which makes it harder once you flare. Also, always use full flaps - unless you have no flaps or an electrical failure or something like that. Half flaps on landings reduce the stall speed while not adding a lot of drag, aggravating the issues of an approach that is too fast. Even with strong crosswinds, use full flaps - or no flaps. Half flaps make sense in takeoffs (for some makes and models) but not in landings.
One simple rule to saev a lot of words in videos nad instructing. Never use the word "what" unless you are asking a question. Gets ridof "what i'm gonna do is I'm gonna" and "what you wanna do is you wanna" and the dreaded "what you wanna do now is you wanna look at what you are gonna do".
The object of the perfect landing is stability. You should be looking way down the runway, and the peripheral vision should be judging the height above the pavement down through the sides of the windscreen. By maintaining proper approach speed, 1.3 times VSO with maybe five extra knots, you will visualize coming down a hill in a car and your reaction to level at the bottom will be automatic. Once you have leveled out, you then slowly rotate the nose up to just below takeoff attitude, and the plane will settle each time very softly. Oddly, I have softer landings at night than I do during the day. I was lucky enough a couple of weeks ago to practice my landings in a tail wheel airplane. This made my landings, very consistent. Wheel landings, well those needed a little bit of work but then again I haven’t flown a trail dragger for over 10 years. A good rule of thumb is do not descend more than 400 ft./min. and average your descent of 350 feet in each leg of the pattern. Fly one speed throughout the pattern until you are on short final, then you can slow the 1.3 times VSO.
Awesome Josh! Thank you so much for all the great info! Definitely will improve my landings :) keep up the great work you do! I really appreciate it 🙏 p.s Would love to see an engine fire video and learn more how to deal with a situation like that. From your experience at least! Thanks again!
It was funny to watch this video and see the part about shooting a handgun... because I'm watching this video while waiting to start my day at the range for pistol qualifications lol.
My smoothest landings have been swooping in below the glide slope at around that 200 foot mark and coming in 5kts fast in a light flare just barely held off the ground. It’s a terrible technique that eats up available runway, but man the touchdowns are smooth.
Yeah, there’s actually a name for that. It’s called a “duck under”. It works great. You just have to pay attention when doing it so you don’t run into something at the beginning of the runway
@@FreePilotTraining Nice. Interesting to know that it’s established enough to have a name. Yea, definitely have to be mindful of obstacles on the approach end.
I never used papis, Untill I did my night rating, landing in the bush I just use my own judgment for altitude and try not to land the plane. You’ll naturally flare
I tell students to look 1/2 way up the trees at the end, level out so that point will smack you right between the eyes. Then ease back on yoke as the airplane starts to sink. Don't pull back to cover the trees so you don't balloon.
@@FreePilotTraining we’ve had a couple DPEs fail people for not adhering to 91.129 in our class D in Long Beach. Aside from 129, we have our noise abatement program asking us to stay on glide slope-keeping us higher and quieter for our neighbors. Personally I like the sound of airplanes. I still run to the window to see who’s flying overhead. But some people would rather have less sound. I get it.
I didn’t learn this too by you common sense after watching spotters videoing other aircraft landing now you just confirmed I was right choose decent point then aim for the landing zone
Lookup “ICAO PAPI obstacle protection surface”, because your interpretation of what +/- 10 degrees from centerline is doesn’t match ICAO. You get more protection than you think. I understand you took that phrase from the AIM, I’m not saying it isn’t in the AIM, I’m saying you’re interpreting what that means incorrectly.
"pulling back on the yoke at the same rate you are sinking". YES! Huge key there. I never taught my students to "flare". They just balloon. Instead we taught them to LEVEL OFF right above the runway. Wait for the sink....then offset the sink with back pressure as long as possible...."don't let it land" The result is a flare with a nice nose high touch down on the mains.
Peripheral vision....Yes ! In some airplanes you are completely blind straight ahead in the flare and peripheral is all you got.
Flaring to high is usually caused by looking too close over the nose thus experiencing ground rush. Knowing where to look is everything.
Like your tips. Ur a good instructor. Landings are the hardest thing to teach and learn because you can't quantify it. It's a feel.
Cheers from a fellow CFI and pilot.
Thank you!
I smiled when you said"Not bad since I hadn't landed in a month." I just received a biennial flight reveal endorsement after a 12 year absence. My career took me to sea for 15 years, I had to put my flying aside. It sure felt good to be left seat once again.
Nice! You in the Navy? Its always great getting back in the air
@@FreePilotTraining No, I served on a geology research vessel. 63 days at sea per deployment then shore duties. I flew a '46 Culver V until my partner in the aircraft passed and the aircraft was sold. My first aircraft was a '47 Cessna 140 then a '47 Stinson 108-1. Now retired, in good health. I am looking for another bird. Maybe a sling wing.
I’m working on mine after 6 years too. This video is awesome. It’s the same airport I’m flying out of.
@@rebelshaven congratulations. I know I don't need to say this, but a flight review is just that, a review. As for me, in addition to the actual physical aspects of flying and landing the aircraft, I wanted to study up on areas I was weak in. The airspace classification and rules had changed and weather sites offered more. What I will do on my own is get familiar more with IFly GPS and other electronic flight bag. It was fun and I inundated the CFI with questions I had and he was surprised and I pleased I used him as a living encyclopedia. I'll be back to sit down and mull though not-so -much lack of knowledge but best practices and approaches to be more efficient in weather briefing and cockpit organizations. The aviation world moved from the six pack instrument layout to glass during my 12 year stray. I am instrument rated and the six pack scan was drilled into me and I am comfortable with it. With glass, I find having to search a bit for the feedback needed. This will pass and I know more CFI time is needed. You got this and good best wishes.
Going back after 38 years , looking forward to it .
I started watching you last year while training and got my PPL Sept 2023. This video would have been beneficial.
I practiced this yesterday and greased all 3 of my landings. Multiple things happened, I flew in ground effect, I used peripheral vision, smaller corrections closer to the runway, and being more aggressive in flare. I was soooo shocked at how smooth my first landing was, then I repeated it 2 more times! Thank you very much.
Awesome! Thanks for the comment! It means a lot! So glad you’re getting value out of these videos!
Great clip. I was a flight instructor back in the 70s in Australia. Few of our airports suffered the curse of PAPI back then, with T-VASIS only at major airports (it had vertical and horizontal white lights, set to give a visual analogy of a glide slope indication, with all lights turning red if you got decidedly low), so student pilots weren't distracted from learning to judge what a correct approach angle looked like.
Most of the instructors I knew also taught looking towards the end of the runway during the flare and sustaining it during the hold-off. On final, peripheral vision would initially give a perception of slowly moving down the approach path. Judging the flare was associated with a transition in peripheral vision from the world 'moving slowly' to 'moving quickly'. This also was the cue for lifting the line of vision towards the end of the runway to enable the hold-off to be accurately judged and controlled as airspeed dropped and controls became less effective. That's sounds a bit clunky when said, but I think you get the drift.
Not quite sure about the 'high flare', 'low flare' thing. It will certainly work in 172s (and the 150/152s we commonly used), but if you were training people in Victa AirTourers (probably the finest 'ab initio' trainers I flew) you would have something a little different happen. They were tough aircraft (2 seat, aerobatic, +9g / -6g, strong spring steel 'legs', faster and with a higher wing loading than a 150) and had a very interesting 'character'. It was easy to fly (almost as if you were 'riding' it), and very forgiving, but if you didn't fly it quite right, it wasn't dangerous, but it would let you know it "didn't approve" of what you were doing. If you used that high flare technique it would drop in just a bit hard. If you flared too late it would thud in decisively, like it was doing a carrier landing. Do the same thing in a 150/152 and it would just waffle gently in anyway, feeling much the same, and the trainee often wouldn't be much the wiser. The 172 was similar, but the 182 and higher models were (from my observation at least), a bit less forgiving.
Thanks for the memories. BTW, I compete in Oz, in IPSC, Service and WA1500, using a CZ-75 SP-01 Shadow.
My landing are good and even my short field landings and soft are spot on. Working on getting not forgetting the steps on a slow stall. Like forgetting to descend first a bit before pulling up.
Youre my best FI in youtube. Thanks a lot
That means a lot thanks!
So like riding a dirtbike you need to be aware of the obstacles down the road but don't look so far out you miss the pot hole in front of your tire, pick a point, plan a path and ride it out.
Excellent point!
Josh is the man! These tips improved my landings practically over night! My bad landings really had me second guessing my flight training. I got in touch with Josh, put this practice into action and now I'm excited about continuing my lessons again! I cannot thank you enough Josh!
That’s super cool! So glad I could help
I’m a gunner too. I’ve been practicing shooting from the hip.
I’m a new PPL student, been up 3 times so I’m better understand what you are doing in flight. Thanks for all the videos I can study books but a lecture helps me understand.
Awesome! Bet you’re loving it! You’re welcome!
Flaring too high is my #1 bad habit when it comes to landings. You’re exactly right about “high flare, hard flare,” and I didn’t even realize that was the reason why I had to apply so much back pressure to keep the nose at horizon level…but of course now I’m 5-10 feet off the ground, and I come down hard, every time.
My problem is that peripheral version and gauging my closure rate and exactly how high I am above the runway. I always feel like I’m way lower than I am. As someone else pointed out, this is probably because I am staring right in front of the nose of my airplane, and that ground feels like it’s coming up QUICK.
It’s been too long since I’ve gone and hammered out some touch n goes. Going to do that soon, and my focus will be on looking TOWARD the end of the runway, flaring in that 2-3 foot sweet spot, and pulling back to match my sink rate.
Great video as always, Josh. Just got my instrument rating a couple days ago, and your videos have helped me tremendously with just flying the airplane.
Thanks! Now, I briefly mentioned this in the video, but are you glancing at your touchdown point AFTER transitioning from your aimpoint? This can help you start the roundout in a better spot before you transition to peripheral vision
@@FreePilotTraining no, and I think that’s one reason my landings are so inconsistent. I’m pleased with how stable my approaches are, but when it’s time to begin the round out, all bets are off and I kind of just do whatever each time, not really thinking about any consistent method.
Try glancing at your touchdown point right after you transition. I think you’ll notice a significant improvement
@@FreePilotTraining I’ll give it a shot next time I’m up. I’ll let you know how it goes!
I'm not a pilot but this makes a lot of sense to me. I was a trucker for 21 years and one of the things we're taught and learn is "where you're looking, that's where you'll go". That's because we just have a natural tendency to follow our eyes. That's one of the reasons you'll so often see someone who's gone off the road manages to hit the only sign anywhere around. This is especially true if you turn your head to look at something versus glancing at it with your eyes. Tunnel vision isn't good either which is why a good driver will constantly adjust their focal point between near and far to keep a complete picture.
That’s exactly right!
Looking forward to putting these ideas into practice. But one "student to CFI tip": stress leads to tunnel vision. I know I've had to put a lot of work into remaining calm with everything that's going on as we round out and touch down. I distinctly realized that on my early landings, I had my eyes locked on the end of the runway and my circle of vision was about 5 degrees wide - pure tunnel. But with more experience, that cone has widened a lot, but I'm still working on it. These tips are going to help a lot, but in early landings, my sense is that most students are going to be tunneling pretty hard so it will take some time and experience to have the ability to implement this stuff, outside of students who may be unnaturally chill.
Yea I had a similar experience. When I was doing 360,s I would be stuck inside and nervous but with time and use of trim I calmed down and started looking outside.
Same sort of thing happened with my landings. The more comfortable and chill I was the more I could stop thee tunnel vision and get more cues of where I am in the flare.
Also I’m lucky enough to have my A&P so I get to sit in the planes I fly giving me a slight advantage over those who only may get an hour a week or Month.
If you wanna fly, I highly suggest getting your license.
Yea I had a similar experience. When I was doing 360,s I would be stuck inside and nervous but with time and use of trim I calmed down and started looking outside.
Same sort of thing happened with my landings. The more comfortable and chill I was the more I could stop thee tunnel vision and get more cues of where I am in the flare.
Also I’m lucky enough to have my A&P so I get to sit in the planes I fly giving me a slight advantage over those who only may get an hour a week or Month.
If you wanna fly, I highly suggest getting your license.
What an excellent tip. Thank you! Might include this in a future video
I am a Class 2 flight instructor in Canada and this video is excellent the only thing I would comment on is I only use the vasis/pappi as a guide only in small GA aircraft otherwise the student tends to be low and if you have an engine fail you probably won’t make the threshold especially when doing circuits! I prefer a steeper angle and at about 200/300 ft I am on vasis profile!
Thanks! I typically don’t even use the VASIs or PAPIs unless it’s night time or there’s bad visibility
@@FreePilotTraining
I really love this video on landing and also your other videos! I frequently use your tips when I instruct!
I used to be a trim dozer operator, and peripheral vision is paramount to precise work, similar to landing. Pretty much everyone who jumps into a trim dozer at first tends to focus too hard on the blade and ends up just like pilot induced oscillation - up, down, up, down, bang bang! Good tips! Keep on trolling the trolls😂
😂 I’m always blown away how similar things are sometimes. I tell people all the time that flying is a lot like driving a boat
@@FreePilotTraining Yeah, I guess it is too!
Good job, Josh, finding various points of view to help with landing. Sparky's, Wolfgang's "stall down," and the Army's apparent brisk walk rate of closure (similar to "stall down") all are good orientation. Good job with the rate of closure. Whether conscious or not, the same deceleration we use in autos to keep the rate of closure appearing to remain at a brisk walk really helps. Luckily in Ag, where the student already had the license to learn, we didn't have to deal with the more difficult round out and hold off technique but could actually decelerate enough to actually use the dynamic throttle as a very precise glide angle and rate of descent control all the way to touchdown with power/pitch and flair. Eliminating both round out and hold off not only makes it STOL, but more importantly emphasizes energy management and actually makes the landing less complicated. Forcing the elevator into both airspeed and altitude control with extra speed requiring round out throws the whole flying/landing (not flying) thing off. We land (not fly) much slower than Vso, an out of ground effect number. Wolfgang says it best on page 302, "The 'stall-down' landing requires that you blend the approach glide, the flare-out, and the slowing up of the airplane all into one maneuver so that, when you arrive at ground level, you arrive in three-point attitude, all slowed up and ready to squat." No problem if we wish to move the touchdown spot (ground level) down the runway a bit. I realize hiding the lack of round out might upset the DPE, but it is a much easier, more energy managed, and safer way to land.
Thanks Jimmy! I’d like to incorporate more of that stuff in my videos at some point. Maybe I can fly an Ag plane at some point too. That’d be awesome
Just did my first solo and buttered the first two landings, last one I swore I got hit with a bat and dropped like a stone after trying to correct from ballooning it. I think I am getting the cause of why watching this. Thanks! I ballooned up pretty high and instinctively I tried to correct and reflare but lost all speed and plopped in pretty hard. Airplane was ok but I swore I hit the prop. Lesson learned. It was such a great approach too! if you make it to Oshkosh There is a Cheese curd Taco on me waiting for ya! Oh and Rock River shooter here! LAR-8
Awesome! I’ll definitely take you up on that if I ever make it to Osh. I never say no to free food
I learned at a short and narrowish field, where the PAPIs were broken on one end of the runway. I wholeheartedly agree with what you present here.
Thanks! Yeah, that’s another problem. If they’re broke, you can’t use them.
I agree that the mantra of “look at the end of the runway” is incorrect. A lot of CFIs say this, and it’s wrong. Proven by a simple thought experiment: if I built a runway 100,000ft long, are you going to put your eyes at the end of it? My eyes are approximately shooting through the same square inch of the windshield throughout the approach, round-out, and maybe a small portion of the flare. I could draw with a sharpie a square inch box on my windshield right where I normally look through on approach, and assuming no wind, tell my student to keep the same spot on the runway inside that square, and he or she will fly a stabilized glideslope. When we get to about 7-10ft AGL, you keep looking through that same square inch of window for the roundout, but shift aiming point maybe 200-400ft further down the runway while simultaneously reducing power. Then the flare begins at about 2ft. The airplane will be slowing down during the roundout and will want to nose-down due to the rapid loss of airspeed, so it’s a constant *increase* in pull to achieve the same glidepath during the roundout. A roundout is simply flying a shallower glidepath while reducing power and airspeed. This allows the airplane to reach its landing speed and for you to have time to react for the flare.
If you look outside your car side-window on the freeway doing 60mph straight down to the ground, all you will see is motion-blur. That motion blur extends out in front of the car based on your speed and it gradually gets less and less motion-blur. If students are using their periphery to look in this area of motion-blur to judge height, it won’t work. They need to look far enough out, maybe 200ft in front of the airplane to start seeing what I call the “texture” of the asphalt. There is no shame in even just darting your eyes back and forth between centerline and about 20ft off centerline to judge height when you’re learning. You have to see the “texture” for your brain to judge height correctly. This is also why landing into the setting sun is difficult.
Everyone has what is called a “dominant eye.” There is a simple test you can look up to figure out which eye is your dominant eye, but for most people it is their right eye. Your brain relies on information from your dominant eye far more than your non-dominant eye. And in a Cessna 172, when it’s easier to get the periphery sneak-peak out the left side of the front windshield, that unfortunately will be utilizing your non-dominant eye. I encourage students to actually use their dominant eye to periodically check their height above the ground by looking at about 200ft in front of them and about 20ft off centerline, and then going back to looking at about 500-800ft down the centerline of the runway. A “pro” in my view keeps their eyes about 500-800ft down the centerline in a light single piston and uses periphery for height judging.
Another landing tip. When a gust of wind or turbulence changes the bank angle of the wings, don’t let the angle of the wings stay like that longer than you could prevent it. A bank angle means there is a horizontal component of lift, and the airplane will begin to turn, and it becomes harder to maintain centerline. One thing many students fail to understand is adverse yaw. Whenever the yoke turns (i.e. it isn’t in the neutral position), a yawing motion will occur in the opposite direction. This is what rudder is for, to control and counter adverse yaw. With every aileron input, there must be a slight rudder input as well, or else you become an unstable wobbly mess on final. Saying “apply rudder at the same time as aileron” is probably good enough, but when you get really good at stabilizing yaw that rudder input occurs just a fraction of a second prior to the aileron input. It becomes a muscle memory of how much to put in, and you don’t look at the ball to see if you’re applying the right amount, you look at the imaginary longitudinal axis of the aircraft (a line from the tail to the nose).
One last tip. There is such a thing as the “landing attitude”. It’s a pitch angle (or sight picture if you prefer) that corresponds with being at the right airspeed for touchdown. If you are noticing a flatter pitch than usual to hold altitude during the flare 1ft off the ground, it means you’re too fast and risk touching down on the nose gear first. Which structurally isn’t good, but touching down on the nose gear is the first step in a porpoise landing/crash, and it also causes significant lateral steering issues once rolling on the ground. I’m sure you’ve experienced massive swerves with students upon touchdown. Vice versa, if you’re increasing pitch beyond the “landing attitude” to hold that 1ft off the ground during the flare, you’re getting too slow. Keep getting slow, you risk a tail strike or losing visual cues ahead of you. Pros can lose visual cues ahead of them and maintain control using the side “Lindberg reference”, but it’s just not a textbook landing at that point. Once you reach the “landing attitude”, it’s better to just hold that sight picture and let the airplane sink to its touchdown instead of continually increasing pitch to milk the landing, unless you achieved that landing attitude at some unsafe altitude, like 5ft+ in the air. Now you’re in good-around territory holding altitude at 5ft+. Even 4ft holding altitude is making me uncomfortable. 1-3ft, ok.
Great tips! As I was editing this video, I came up with a handful of other tips I forgot about. Might have to make another vid and include one of these ☝️
Very detailed, thank you😊
Good tips. You could make a video of your own 😉
It is correct if you mention that you look with your peripherals. The last 10 feet you feel more than you look, but your eyes will automatically be at horizon because your angle of attack increases and runway disappears under the hood. And thats where the end of runway basically at.
I recently got shown I'm way over controlling in bumpy turbulent crosswind. The instructor demonstrated how you don't even need to move the ailerons to land. He kept it still and only used rudder to pick up a wing if it dropped. The landing he made was super smooth and calm despite the wind. He just held the yoke still. A friend and I tried this yesterday and it absolutely works. So the strange tip is: once you put the plane on the right path, leave the ailerons absolutely alone and hold them still unless you need a bank to start a turn to change the path. But if the wing drops add some pressure with the rudder and wait for it to raise back up.
I like that. I’m more of an aileron guy because I like the wing low method, but I’ve done that before and it does work. Great tip!
@@FreePilotTraining This is applicable in the wing low method as well. Once you set the wing low attitude, leave the ailerons alone in level position and keep the wing low attitude with rudder if a gust changes it. Let the stability of the aircraft do the flying and help it with rudder, only use ailerons when you need a different bank or when you need to level out. I wish someone did a good detailed video on this, I was looking for it and it doesn't exist on the whole youtube! Can you do it?
@@FreePilotTraining Actually at 12:57 in the vid you're doing exactly what I was doing and if you watch it back in slow motion you'll see you're causing most of your own turbulence, just like I did. Those aggressive movements of the yoke are not needed and actually are detrimental for a nice landing. I couldn't believe it either when I got shown this and I admit it's a strange unnerving feeling trusting the plane to not spin out of control and just keeping the ailerons still when you get bumped around. But it works, and I was shocked how well in what I thought were moderately difficult conditions.
I love this advice. I recently learned this rudder technique with a great CFII, and my centerline control on final and landing has definitely improved.
I really appreciate these explanations! They’re really helpful to go along with the cookie cutter explanations from books. Super practical. I passed my written exam yesterday and now I’m preparing for the checkride and trying to get more precise with my landings and maneuvers.
Thanks Jenn! Congrats on the written! Let me know how the check ride goes
It helped me a lot…going close as possible to the runway makes everything way easier
Awesome!
Terrific job, Josh! This video is now a part of my high-rotation aviation watch list as I re-enter flying after a 20-year break. I was a member of the Point Mugu (CA) Navy Flying club for several years flying our two T-34B Mentors. BTW, gun videos are always appreciated!
Thanks Brian! That’s too cool! I’d love to fly the T-34 at some point. Cool plane. If you haven’t already, you should check out my Adventure Men channel. I hope to make a few shooting videos over there: youtube.com/@adventuremen?si=FnXk_0eMZbkMoXjD
Even if it doesn't help me, I can see how your videos may help others, and I like that, so I click the 'like' button, because that is what it is for.
Awesome! Thanks for that!
This is a very great idea to make my landings more fun than before and thank you for the tips on what to look for and best practices is flying the Aircraft and controlling it
You’re welcome!
I was taught that VASI / PAPI were just a reference as you note and the important thing was learning to 'see' the dynamic aim point as the line where runway coming towards you changes to runway moving away from you. Having an eye for that makes it a lot easier to adjust pitch and power to keep the spot stationary and if you've setup your initial glide well the angle will take care of itself.
While it was never quite termed peripheral vision, I was also taught to look a bit to the side in the flair for better sense of height and sink rate. I think different words for the same concept.
A note that in aircraft with laminar flow wings, like Comanches and Mooneys "high flair hard flair" is a good way to get a very hard landing. These aircraft don't 'mush' in the stall but pretty much stop flying so you don't want to be too far above the runway in a full stall landing. Adding a bit of power or going around in a short field situation is usually the best move if you really mess up the flair.
Similarly, the Comanches are known to float forever with a clean wing that is set very low to the ground. A full size nose wheel doesn't make matters easier for a smooth landing (but helps a lot on grass). Good speed control into the flair and gentleness in pitch help a lot to make a good one.
Another tip that works in many airplanes is to consider 2/3rds instead of full flaps. Often trim forces are much less, it's easier to position the nose high for a nice main gear landing, and for typical paved airports the difference in ground roll isn't really an issue. Works nicely in Comanches and Bonanzas in my personal experience. Also good in strong crosswinds in many aircraft.
I always fly the papi and vasi. I trust those, especially at night when there is no ILS. But, I don't ONLY FLY the papi. As a pilot, you should be using ALL of your knowledge and skills on EVERY FLIGHT. i do a lot of single pilot IFR and my home airport is in the mountains, and the "black hole effect" is a major issue. If you do not fly the instruments or the papi, you will fall into the black hole effect.
Thank you for your service
PAPI lights give you a visual path to warranty pass over the threshold 50 ft and reach the aiming point no more of 300 meters. But always take in accurate the path is calibrated in base of the highest cabin of the Airplane normally landing in the Airport..
Very good video 🎉
I’ve never heard that. Thanks!
I have always thought I was good at landings. I thought I looked at the end of the runway, but I realized, after your explanation, that I actually do look at the nose towards the end. I didn't even realize that I did that. Nice.
I thought that for the longest time too, and at some point I realized that my eyes kinda lose focus right as I start seeing that ground rush.
I do a similar thing with peripherals on the flare but since i have to share students with other instructors, i tell mine to watch the point where the stripes no longer have the gaps ahead of us and use peripherals to feel out our distance over the ground. other instructors will tell them eyes at the end and that's where i have them look. I also made it a point for them to learn this peripheral skill by practicing this when learning wind corrections and crab angles by flying straight, watching a distant object like a smoke stack at a factory, and watching how the ground shifts under us. Transferring that experience to the landing helped a ton when i started teaching and including a "wind check, power idle, glide down" call out helps with the last second wind shifts we get in the south. I agree about the end of the runway being too vague though since some people stare at the trees and others the pavement so it's very inconsistent. It was a major hurdle for myself as well when i learned to fly. Honestly the hardest thing as an instructor is that no method is perfect and you're always wondering if something you tried with someone today would have helped someone more yesterday.
Awesome tip. Thank you!
Great tips. I will be using these as an instructor to more clearly explain landing techniques to my students.
Awesome!
As a firearms instructor the front sight reference was very relatable. Thanks
That’s awesome
Uncle Josh with the golden aviation knowledge nuggets once again! Thanks for helping improve all our landings to be buttery smooth!
😂 You’re welcome!
Interesting, where did you find the reduction in induced drag vs. wingspan? Always trying to learn. Thanx.
I believe i found it in either the PHAK or the Airplane Flying Handbook
Hi Josh, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you so much for all the Free Pilot training here on your channel. I've been working towards a VFR PPL license for the past year and next week will have my pre-exam test here in the Netherlands. Your video's were a great help in getting a that more comprehension on some of the tougher subjects. Also nice to see the beautiful scenery and to hear the somewhat different ATC style on the way. Thank you very much sir.
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching!
Thank you! Can’t wait to put this info to good use 🙏
No problem! Let me know if it helps
Love this lesson! The analogy of aiming and relating it to landing make sense! Thank you
You’re welcome!
Your the best! Helping make better pilots is a wonderful mission, thank you CFI's !👍👍
Thanks!
Good to see a new post. Haven’t seen any of your videos for a while. Must’ve been a pretty good mission that you were on.
Thanks! I’m currently on orders with the military and building a house. It’s been tough to make content regularly. Hopefully things will stabilize soon and I can get back to it more regularly
This was awesome. I was paying attention, then heard you call Palmer. I realized where you were and started looking for my house! I found it a few times😁 about to start training soon!
😆 awesome!
I like to land with just a bit of rpm, and when in ground effect then go idle. Is that okay?
Yes. Keep in mind, you’ll float by doing that so your landing distance will be much longer
YES! As soon as you said look at the cowling suddenly all my struggles during the ppl made sense. By looking at the end of the runway, I would lose all reference to how my axis were actually aligned with it. I understood how landings were supposed to work, but I could never actually see in the flare the corrections that needed to happen. I did figure out eventually that keeping eyes on the cowling, and orientation to the runway in the peripheral, allowed me to actually see the yaw corrections I needed much easier. The way you described it was like OHHHH why did nobody tell me this five years ago 😂
I was told the same thing! That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to make this video! Thanks for the comment!
How did you find an opportunity at PAAQ when Blue RIver didn’t have 7 aircraft in the pattern asking “where are you”, making ‘extended base’, ‘long crosswind’ , ‘abeam the Butte’ calls along with ‘lining up to wait’ and generally ruining aviation for everyone else? Impressive.
😂 yeah, they’re always packed out there. It was after 8pm. That’s probably why
So ,if im not mistaken, all runways have a known altitude above sea level which helps you gauge your touchdowm point. How do you gauge it when making an emergency landing in a random field? I guess you just hope you got enough experience by then to gauge it on feel and perception???
They do, but no one really uses them for that purpose.
I'm currently working on my commercial, but there was a topic talked about at my flight school the other day. Since a lot of your vids are "Real Life" flying.... how about doing a vid on an IFR Visual Approach? It's easy to read about it in a book, but when we are working on our IR... we do published approaches. None of the students have really flown a visual (including some CFII's). Could you do a vid on it? The questions that came up the other day were.... What will ATC/Approach/Center tell you to do after accepting it? (Vectors to a long final? Move into the pattern?) Then, what will I say to the tower once ATC tells us to change freq? In a normal published procedure, I would say something like.... "Johnstown tower, N697LB on the RNAV 23". Not knowing exactly what ATC will have me do... I don't know what to say to the tower. ANyway... as always, thanks for the vid.
I’m actually extremely familiar with the visual approach as I have flown them many times, and have done a tremendous amount of research on the topic since I had a small argument with a fellow C-130 pilot a few years ago. It might be a while before I can make a video, but I’ll share my experience here: as you probably know, when the weather is better than 1000/3, the visual becomes an option. You’ll often hear the ATIS say: visual approaches in use 16R and 16L. If you tell ATC you’re inbound with yankee or whatever when ATIS is announcing this, you are telling them you want the visual. You have to specifically ask for an approach when the visual is in use. Here’s where things get interesting. Technically, you are still on an instrument clearance when you fly the visual. Air Force pilots I have flown with will fly through clouds because of this, but technically you should not be going through clouds on the visual. That’s the whole point of the approach. Once you are passed off to approach, and you tell them you have yankee, they will tell you to expect the visual for 16R. Now, the key is that APPROACH needs to hear you tell them that you have the field in sight BEFORE they can clear you for the visual approach, so as soon as you know you’re getting it, you need to start looking. Often approach will say: expect the visual, report the field “in sight”. Once you see the field and tell them you have it “in sight.” They will clear you the visual for 16R. Now, here’s where things get kinda weird. According to the regulations, clearance for the visual approach does not mean you have priority over VFR traffic. You must avoid VFR traffic and their flow of traffic. So until you get passed over to tower, you need to stay out of the traffic pattern. Technically, you should “plan on” making a straight in. However, I have made MANY visual approaches into a downwind or a base in busy airspace. If approach or tower tells you you can do so then it’s fine. You just have to watch out for other traffic. The Air Force would say that you MUST enter a straight in, but I can’t find anything from the FAA that says this. So, if I need to make a downwind or base, I typically make my pattern larger outside of the standard pattern and when approach passes me off to tower on the visual, I tell tower, I’m on downwind, straight in, base or whatever and from there, they will clear me to land. Clearance for the visual is not clearance to land. Hopefully I can make a video at some point, but it might be a while. Hopefully this helps. I can’t always reply to responses for some reason, so if you have more questions, start another comment or PM me on Facebook or Instagram
Gun lover 🔥🔥 hey brother, working through the ppl now and your channel has been invaluable. Thanks for all your hard work on these videos! They really help
Awesome! 🔥you’re welcome! So glad I could help!
Hey Josh, thanks for your helpful videos. Lately I believe I've been overthinking when to go power idle. Too early, and you need to pitch down at the aim point to maintain airspeed, only to pitch up more abruptly to enter the flare. Too late and you float. Should power idle be made before the roundout and let the airspeed bleed by not diving at the runway through pitch correction? Smoothly during the roundout? I could use a "soft reset" in my rule of thumb. Given a typical C172 landing config of 40º flaps, 60kts, 2100lbs. Cheers!
Thanks! Great question! Here’s my philosophy: touchdown speed does not equal landing speed. If you are AT landing speed when you begin the roundout, you can pull power and should not even need to look at airspeed in most small airplanes. Touchdown will be 6-10 knots below your landing speed. You can verify this by a slight chirp of the stall horn. Wiping power typically takes a slightly more aggressive flare, but it’s still very manageable in a 172. Consider my mantra: Crack, shift, idle, flare. When it’s time to start the roundout, crack the power back. Not much, maybe a 1/4”. Shift your aimpoint and then go idle immediately after. Try that and report back
@@FreePilotTraining Right, I think I recall that mantra from some of your earlier videos which I'll revisit and try out this weekend! But the stepped power reduction makes a lot of sense, especially to avoid overcontrolling. Thanks for the detailed response, keep up the great work with the videos.
ps I would not mind some gun content as a firearm-owning Canadian
Here is a tip about how to turn base: When you make that left turn, wait for the runway number to appear on the left mark of your gyro compass. For example, if you are going to land on runway 15, end your turn just before 15 reaches the left hand mark. When 15 reaches the left mark, your actual course will be 240 degrees, which is perpendicular to runway 15. When you level the wings, the runway will be right where you expect it to be.
For me, this works much better than choosing a landmark 90 degrees to my left and turning to it.
In general, turns to base can feel really strange. You are low, slow, turning, sinking, and (in a high wing airplane) you can't see the runway. That is normal! The instruments can reassure you that you are not too low, too slow, or banking too much.
That’s awesome. Thanks!
Just in time. My landings needed this!
Awesome!
I'm a lover and i love red dots on my hand guns it trains my eyes to maintain target focus
That’s exactly why HUDs are gaining popularity
this helped me alot with my landings
Awesome!
Why use vasi and papi during the day? Whatever happened to the mark one eyeball and landing spot?
I don’t use them during the day either
As always, love your videos Josh. By far the most practical and easy to understand content for a low hour pilot looking to improve. Question, on downwind do you set your power abeam the numbers or intended landing point? I’ve read/seen it described both ways so just curious what your method/thoughts are?
Thanks! My intended landing spot is typically the second stripe after the numbers so I usually just use the numbers as a perch point. Technically, you want to use your touchdown point, but a couple hundred feet won’t make that big of a difference.
So, C182H with a XP470 (IO520, p.ponk upgrade). I land perfectly every time, until the last 2-3 feet AGL, then I drop it in. It feels great, I float out the energy, but drop it in. Ideas? Also, on my home grass strip, I grease it in...its only on larger hard surface runways where I drop it.
I bet you’re flaring too high. Larger runways give the illusion that you’re lower than you think. High flare = plopped in landing. If that’s not the case, try cracking the power over the threshold, but not pulling power completely until you’re completely in the flare. You’re bleeding off airspeed exponentially. This is either because you’re too high OR you’re too fast and then that airspeed bleeds off too quickly to gauge
Best channel on RUclips
Thanks! I never get tired of hearing that!
Great vid, interesting that I’d pondered many of these things in trying to land better…good to get confirmation 😊
I truly believe that pondering played a significant role in understanding landings
I've seen that it's common to see an oil spot on the ground under older planes when they're parked (just like my old truck).
Very common lol
Excellent tips - thanks - BTW what are you using to record the ATC?
Thanks! I originally bought this cable www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/sep/11806?gclid=Cj0KCQiAorKfBhC0ARIsAHDzsltAJp_vB3bTzYrE8OOpHFbu47XoVnRdiSyTV3Xn_2ds_0nmIL113YkaAgGLEALw_wcB to plug in directly to my GoPros, but GoPros really like to overheat in the cockpit. A few months ago, I bought this audio recording device www.amazon.com/Digital-Voice-Recorder-Lectures-Meetings/dp/B084KQMH6V/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=1ZQG28ZIVD4AE&keywords=audio+recording+device&qid=1676466337&sprefix=audio+record%2Caps%2C211&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&smid=AQ1GO4ZRYD98S&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzUzJLOVlXRkRLUlJCJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwODI5OTUzMlVUSE81WkJDMzEyUCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMzQxMzQyMUZFMU5CQlhGSjk5MSZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX3Bob25lX3NlYXJjaF9hdGYmYWN0aW9uPWNsaWNrUmVkaXJlY3QmZG9Ob3RMb2dDbGljaz10cnVl and the main cord from the GoPro audio adapter plugs right into it and I haven’t had a single issue since. If a go pro overheats, I can use the rest of my cameras and I haven’t lost my audio rest of my cameras and I haven’t lost my audio
What airport are u landing in.. it looks beautiful
Palmer Alaska! PAAQ
What exactly do you mean by "potato"? I gather it has something to do with distance, or perhaps flying time (and thus distance)...
SEEYA! Nice :)
It’s just a made up measurement of time: 1 potato, 2 potato, 3 potato
😆
Awsome material
Thanks!
Very realistic and useful tips, thank you.
No problem!
Fabulous and well presented tipsy.
Thank you for your efforts
I'm looking forward to trying all this in the sim. Each landing an adventure!
You’re welcome! Thanks for watching
Gun lover here... Hunt, target, reload, etc... one of rhe reasons moving back to AR from CA. Can't believe how big the flight community is here. Cost is some of the best in rhe country.
Awesome! Arkansas is a great state!
Hey thanks Josh, great video and address some of my issues. Even though I am a PPL I worked with a CFI yesterday to work on landing and worked through some of the same things in your video, I will continue to rewatch this video as a reinforcement tool. Also, I shoot competitive 22 pistol and 22 precision rifle matches.
Awesome! I figured I had quite a few shooters on here. Competition shooting is a whole new level
And here I thought 'Aimpoints' were more or less obsolete optical shotgun sights. 😅 Literally did pop into my mind despite the context here.
Thought this might be a yawner but no, the articulation of the why's made all the difference. Excellent communication, love it.
Thanks Stu!
with small SEP I should say the last seconds of flare it is not looking at all - it is FEELING with your butt. I can feel every foot that is left until the ground. I can tell one more: learn how to exchange your energy on final approach. Try to apprach close to idle and extend flaps only when speed decays as you exchange that energy. Power off 180 is also good to master this.
I know exactly what your saying, but I believe you are using your peripheral vision more than you know when you’re “feeling” in this manner
My approaches were terrible until I switched my thinking from pitch for airspeed and power for altitude to pitch for aim point and power for airspeed.
Of course it's a combination of both that gets what you want. But for some reason I'd end up with a very unstable approach. Now in looking at an ILS for some reason my mind can comprehend okay low add power. But as soon as I go visual. Pitch for aim point power for airspeed
It makes a huge difference!
Thank you!!! Very good instruction!!! Deeply appreciated!!!
You’re welcome!
About 44 years ago , c-172, night, two friends so total 3 on board, airport Lwm or KLWM, I was a new renter when I was twenty and was familiar with this runway and that this end was oh mabe ten feet lower elevation than the other. The elevation rose all on the first third of the runway. This night I wanted to try something I was told about that sounded reasonable. The running is the big black abiss between the runway lights. SO here’s the suggestion that could be applied to any runway, not just this one. Wide runway and at this point the landing light is pointing towards the sky I’m focused on two things center looking towards the other end of the runway and perifersl blurred present a second confirmation of runway surface near. Usual action be nose wheel up to ease on the runway surface. This was the outcome and lesson. It became a nose up hard drop that made me ( thank you for the strong spring steel landing gear arms Cessna !) for me it was my bad to allow the practice of this take so much of my focus and attention that I did not remember that this third of the runway is lower than the other two thirds. Passengers didn’t notice or comment on the landing. They did enjoy all of the new to them all the spectacular city lights .
Now 44 years later I’m an expired medical ppl.
Love your channel.
Cool story! Go get your basic med! It’d be a super easy way to get back into it!
which sunglasses are you using?
The Ospreys from Flying Eyes
I'm studying for my PPL but I've been practicing in MSFS and every time I'm landing im repeating something I learned from playing rocket League lol
"Aim small miss small" as in if you are aiming for a specific spot, if you miss, you shouldn't miss by a lot but if you aren't really aiming anywhere specific, you can miss greatly, so I pick a spot on my approach where I want to land and If I miss, it's not usually by much but if I don't aim anywhere, I tend to mess up and land really far down the runway.
That is exactly what I’m talking about. Thanks for the comment!
@@FreePilotTraining thank you for your awesome videos! They're really helpful!
The key to a good landing is the correct airspeed. Even in a small airplane, if you fly it often, don't just go for the same Vref every time (presumably the one for MTOW, which is too high for all other scenarios < MTOW). Use a table or some other tool to estimate the adjusted Vref, and fly that. Approach speeds that are too high lead to ballooning, which combined with crosswind, changing aileron and rudder effectiveness with reducing speed, and the wish "to bring it down" leads to all sorts ofbad landings. Most approaches flown by beginners are simply too fast which makes it harder once you flare.
Also, always use full flaps - unless you have no flaps or an electrical failure or something like that. Half flaps on landings reduce the stall speed while not adding a lot of drag, aggravating the issues of an approach that is too fast. Even with strong crosswinds, use full flaps - or no flaps. Half flaps make sense in takeoffs (for some makes and models) but not in landings.
I totally agree. Airspeed is king
had my first solo but my landings were rough... great vid, just in time for me while I work on em :)
That’s awesome! Congrats!
I'm in MSFS tomorrow first thing! :)
Thanks!
You’re welcome! Thank you for the super thanks!
Very very nice
Thanks!
Great video! Next time you’re in Oklahoma, you’re welcome to come to KSNL and we can do some air work in my Skyhawk!!
Thanks! I’d be down!
One simple rule to saev a lot of words in videos nad instructing. Never use the word "what" unless you are asking a question. Gets ridof "what i'm gonna do is I'm gonna" and "what you wanna do is you wanna" and the dreaded "what you wanna do now is you wanna look at what you are gonna do".
Great feedback
The object of the perfect landing is stability. You should be looking way down the runway, and the peripheral vision should be judging the height above the pavement down through the sides of the windscreen. By maintaining proper approach speed, 1.3 times VSO with maybe five extra knots, you will visualize coming down a hill in a car and your reaction to level at the bottom will be automatic. Once you have leveled out, you then slowly rotate the nose up to just below takeoff attitude, and the plane will settle each time very softly. Oddly, I have softer landings at night than I do during the day. I was lucky enough a couple of weeks ago to practice my landings in a tail wheel airplane. This made my landings, very consistent. Wheel landings, well those needed a little bit of work but then again I haven’t flown a trail dragger for over 10 years. A good rule of thumb is do not descend more than 400 ft./min. and average your descent of 350 feet in each leg of the pattern. Fly one speed throughout the pattern until you are on short final, then you can slow the 1.3 times VSO.
Looking at the cowling while using your peripheral vision to look towards the end of the runway seems to work, but would that technique work at night?
You’re still using peripheral vision. It’s just a little tougher
Awesome Josh! Thank you so much for all the great info! Definitely will improve my landings :) keep up the great work you do! I really appreciate it 🙏
p.s
Would love to see an engine fire video and learn more how to deal with a situation like that. From your experience at least! Thanks again!
You’re welcome! I definitely have that down as a future vid. I have a few others I need to work on first. Really appreciate the ideas though!
Great video, thank you. Best regards.
Thanks Daniel!
It was funny to watch this video and see the part about shooting a handgun... because I'm watching this video while waiting to start my day at the range for pistol qualifications lol.
😆 nice! That’s how that works
My smoothest landings have been swooping in below the glide slope at around that 200 foot mark and coming in 5kts fast in a light flare just barely held off the ground. It’s a terrible technique that eats up available runway, but man the touchdowns are smooth.
Yeah, there’s actually a name for that. It’s called a “duck under”. It works great. You just have to pay attention when doing it so you don’t run into something at the beginning of the runway
@@FreePilotTraining Nice. Interesting to know that it’s established enough to have a name. Yea, definitely have to be mindful of obstacles on the approach end.
good work
Thanks!
beautiful landings...great tips...and beautiful mountains:)
Thanks!
I never used papis, Untill I did my night rating, landing in the bush I just use my own judgment for altitude and try not to land the plane. You’ll naturally flare
Happy JULY 4 and Thank You For Your Service and don't fire those flares for tonight lol
Thanks Mike! Happy 4th to you too!
I tell students to look 1/2 way up the trees at the end, level out so that point will smack you right between the eyes. Then ease back on yoke as the airplane starts to sink. Don't pull back to cover the trees so you don't balloon.
I like that! Thanks for the comment
Another great episode 🤓
Thanks! 😆
Maybe mention FAR 91.129 regarding glide slope indicator use in Class D airspace
Great point. I’ve mentioned that in other videos
@@FreePilotTraining we’ve had a couple DPEs fail people for not adhering to 91.129 in our class D in Long Beach. Aside from 129, we have our noise abatement program asking us to stay on glide slope-keeping us higher and quieter for our neighbors. Personally I like the sound of airplanes. I still run to the window to see who’s flying overhead. But some people would rather have less sound. I get it.
I didn’t learn this too by you common sense after watching spotters videoing other aircraft landing now you just confirmed I was right choose decent point then aim for the landing zone
Good!
Thank you
No problem!
Awesome chanel thanks
No problem!
good vid. nice points.
Thanks!
Great video. You are my favourite RUclips FI.
Thanks! I appreciate that!
Lookup “ICAO PAPI obstacle protection surface”, because your interpretation of what +/- 10 degrees from centerline is doesn’t match ICAO. You get more protection than you think. I understand you took that phrase from the AIM, I’m not saying it isn’t in the AIM, I’m saying you’re interpreting what that means incorrectly.
Not sure what the ICAO standard is on PAPIs. This is the FAA standard we’re discussing in the video
Australian pilot Roos and livestock make me focus further down the runway
😆
Thank you.
No problem!