Plan to Land

Good landings are made in the approach. Having the wheels kiss the ground so lightly that we don't even know if we're still flying is great, but the hard work that goes into that moment of magic begins minutes earlier. The point of touchdown is nothing more than the logical conclusion of doing everything right, from downwind on down to the runway. Chances are if you are becoming an expert at making bad landings, you've been making bad approaches--the top reason on the how-to-make-a-bad landing list.

What else turns an otherwise great lesson into an awful feeling on the drive home? The reasons are numerous, but most can be broken down into 14 common gaffes:

1. The pattern is inconsistent. Every landing has to start somewhere, and that is the point opposite the end of the runway on downwind. That point is the datum from which we begin our approach, and if we put our downwind in a different place and at a different height every time, we have no common reference point from which to begin the approach and landing. Nail that pattern altitude and distance from the runway for your best chance at a greaser.
2. No ground track is envisioned. From the time we turn downwind we should already be envisioning what's going to happen at the initial point (abeam the approach end of the runway) and beyond. Think about where the base leg is likely to be and what the wind is doing. Plan ahead. We don't want to wait until we're there to decide what we're going to do. Visualize a path on the ground that becomes your mental road map to the runway, and continually monitor your progress down it.
3. Configuration changes made in different places in different ways. Consistency in the way we begin the approach eliminates the judgment and guesswork that can make flying an approach difficult. Make all the important speed and configuration changes in the same place and the same way every time so they are expected and their effect well known. Not only will we then be able to recognize when something is unusual (and therefore often wrong), we can also concentrate on the other, less consistent factors such as wind and traffic.
4. No spot picked out on the runway. If we don't have a specific point picked out on the runway where we want to land, we don't have a front sight on our rifle and we're using a shotgun approach. Using the numbers as a reference point, we know that when we flare, we'll glide past them a short distance, usually no more than 500 to 700 feet. Thus, when we touch down, we'll be able to stop in 1,500 to 1,800 feet of runway. On each landing, we want to mentally catalog where we touched down and how much runway we left behind unnecessarily.
   
   
5. Not trimmed to approach speed. It's not absolutely necessary that we trim to approach speed, but if we don't, we'll be struggling to fly an airplane that wants to drop its nose and go faster. Also, without proper trim, the control pressures required to flare the airplane are much higher, making control much more difficult. Flying an approach is difficult enough; make your life easier and trim to alleviate problems.
6. Moving controls in increments rather than pressuring them. If we're thinking in terms of control movements rather than pressures to fly the airplane, we greatly increase the probability of continually overshooting our position as we ratchet back and forth. Make corrections by changing the pressure on the controls, which will let us creep up on perfect--and we won't be correcting our own corrections.
7. Not watching both runway edges far enough ahead. The only way we can judge our altitude in the flare, as well as accurately control our position, is to look at the edges of the runway several hundred feet ahead. But look at both sides alternately. The triangulation from looking at both will greatly increase our ability to judge alignment, altitude, and drift.
8. Not seeing lateral drift. Not seeing the airplane moving sideways is caused by the previous point and not looking far enough ahead, and is generally the result of visual acuity that hasn't been honed enough by practice to see small left/right motions. Often this is because we're looking at the nose, but not judging its position against the background accurately enough.
9. No coordination in the flare. Making sure the nose of the aircraft is pointed straight down the runway is one of the harder landing skills to master. Even the slightest crosswind will require the proper aileron and rudder inputs, so be prepared to use your feet on every landing. If we don't, the adverse yaw will cause the nose to move right or left, making it impossible to touch down straight ahead.
10. Getting impatient and forcing it on. The infamous nosewheel-first "wheelbarrow" landing is generally the result of too much speed and not enough patience. The airplane is floating along and rather than being patient and gently milking the nose up as the speed bleeds off, we basically force the airplane onto the runway, or simply allow it to land without taking control. If the speed is high enough, the nosewheel contacts first, often quite hard--sometimes resulting in firewall damage.
11. Weak speed and nose attitude control. The ability to accurately control the nose attitude is critical to good airspeed control. This, however, assumes we know to set the attitude first, hold it for a few seconds, and then check the airspeed to see if the attitude is right, rather than chasing the airspeed needle. But once you have proper control of the nose attitude, and thus airspeed, making the perfect landing is much easier.
12. Ballooning. The tendency to inadvertently gain altitude during the flare is the result of several factors we've mentioned earlier. Too much speed is almost always the main ingredient, although overcontrolling in the flare is the recipe for the event. If a balloon is handled correctly--ease off the back-pressure as the airplane attempts to climb so as to not make it worse, then fly it back to the ground, possibly with a little power--a good landing is still possible. If, however, the back-pressure isn't released, we can count on an embarrassingly abrupt arrival on the runway.
13. Not minimizing touchdown speed and letting it touch down prematurely. Assuming the speed over the threshold is correct and the position is right, it is still possible to orchestrate an ugly landing by doing nothing more than not holding the airplane off the ground long enough to lose excess speed and touch on the mains at minimum speed. The easiest way to make a good landing when in the process of holding it off is to visualize the attitude we want the airplane to be in--nose up enough to put the nose gear two feet or so off the ground--and gradually work the airplane into that position, bleeding off speed in the process.
14. Landing in the first place. Let's say we're fighting with the airplane and nothing is working because we've made all the previous errors. It's too fast, ballooning, drifting to the side, the nose won't stay centered, and the airplane is at an angle to the centerline. The message is clear: Don't land the airplane. Most of the time, a portion of our mind recognizes that it's not right, but another portion of our brain says, Go ahead, land, it'll be OK. And that's where the ugliest landings come from--refusing to go around when the situation isn't right.

The truth is there is no reason to make a truly bad landing. Usually, we see that landing in the making. We know when things aren't right and deep inside we know what the result is going to be--and it isn't going to be pretty. Yet we insist on going ahead and making it. So instead let's power up, enjoy a trip around the pattern, and add five minutes to our logbook as we come around and try again.

Budd Davisson is an aviation writer/photographer and magazine editor who has written approximately 2,200 articles and has flown more than 300 different types of aircraft. A CFI since 1967, he teaches about 30 hours a month in his Pitts S-2A Special. Visit his Web site

What about the perfect landing?

To avoid some of these common mistakes, it helps to think about what constitutes a good landing. A good landing doesn't necessarily need to be a perfect landing, but it should be as close as we can make it. So let's shoot for the moon. A perfect landing means:

• Crossing the threshold at the correct speed.
  
• The height over the threshold is correct.
  
• Touchdown is at minimum speed consistent with conditions and load.
  
• Touchdown is on the centerline.
  
• Touchdown is on the main gear (assuming a tricycle-gear airplane).
  
• The nosewheel is held off and let own gently as the speed dissipates.
  
• Touchdown occurs within a reasonable distance of a predetermined spot.
  
• The touchdown point is within the first 500 to 700 feet of the runway, or less.
  
• No sideways drift exists at the moment of touchdown.
  
• The aircraft's centerline is aligned with the runway's centerline.