Learning Experiences

Finally seeing the problem

It all began on February 9, 2004 -- the day I began my flight training at SkySchool in Prescott, Arizona. Flying fixed-wing aircraft was something that I had always wanted to do. After being a firefighter for almost 20 years, I now had the opportunity.

For the first few weeks of flight instruction, everything went well, and I was able to master takeoffs and basic maneuvers with ease. The challenge came with learning to land the airplane. Even with more than 50 landings under my belt, I was consistently flaring the airplane about two feet too high. My flight instructor and I were frustrated. Even though I continued to work on the flaring challenge I could not resolve it.

When my instructor believed that I was ready to solo, I did a stage check with the chief flight instructor. Everything was great except for the landings. The chief flight instructor also worked with me to try to figure out why I consistently flared the airplane two to three feet too high, but to no avail. He told me the landings were good enough to solo, but said that I still needed to get the flare under control.

My first solo went as well as any first solo does, complete with the nervousness and excitement. Once again I flared too high and subsequently landed a little firm.

As my training continued, I scheduled a checkout flight in a Cessna 152 with the assistant chief flight instructor. The check flight was going smoothly until the landing -- when, once again, I flared too high. After watching several landings, this instructor also couldn't explain why I consistently flared too high. All four of us were stumped. By this time I had completed 130 landings, most with flares too high.

The answer finally came when I commenced night training with my original instructor. Practicing takeoffs and landings in the closed pattern, my landings didn't improve -- they got worse. Now I was flaring the airplane several feet too high. The problem seemed to worsen at night. My CFI took the controls and instructed me to observe him perform a few landings. After the second touchdown, I asked him for the controls. The next time around, my landing was very good.

When he looked at me, puzzled, and asked what I had done differently, I explained that I was able to figure out the problem while watching him land the airplane. When I looked up at the end of the runway during the landing, I was looking through the bottom of my progressive eyeglass lenses, which made the ground appear to be closer than it was. The next time I did not move my head to look at the end of the runway; instead, I kept my head down and looked up through the upper part of the lenses, so that the eyeglasses were not altering my peripheral vision.

Needless to say, my landings became much better.

By Jeff Moore

"Learning Experiences" is presented to enhance safety by providing a forum for students and pilots to learn from the experiences of others. It is intended to provoke thought and discussion, acknowledging that actions taken by the authors were not necessarily the best choices under the circumstances. We encourage you to discuss any questions you have about a particular scenario with your flight instructor.