Thirty miles up the coast from the concrete expanse of Los Angeles lie the tranquil fields surrounding Camarillo Airport (a towered airport with Class D airspace), which offers an ideal location for flight instructors who wish to teach their students proper landings. The airport offers geography not found elsewhere in Southern California: flat, undeveloped surroundings, dotted with strawberry plants. The uncongested geography provides a safe haven to teach your students proper landing techniques using the most underappreciated and underutilized tool that flight instructors have: the low approach.
According to the Pilot/Controller Glossary: “Low Approach—An approach over an airport or runway following an instrument approach or a VFR approach, including the go-around maneuver, where the pilot intentionally does not make contact with the runway.” If you’ve ever been cleared for the option, you’ve been cleared for the low approach. From the Pilot/Controller Glossary: “Cleared for the Option—ATC authorization for an aircraft to make a touch and go, low approach, missed approach, stop and go, or full stop landing at the discretion of the pilot. It is normally used in training so that an instructor can evaluate a student’s performance under changing situations.”
Since nearly every poor landing begins with a poor final, the low approach is the ideal way to practice flying a stable final approach and flare, without the anxiety of an actual touchdown. Unlike a go-around, however, the low approach also lets your students gain confidence flying near the ground. Once they do, a proper flare to touchdown is an easy transition.
Start by having your student practice a stable final approach, as they would with any landing. Then, as they near the altitude for beginning the flare (for example, 10 feet above ground level in the Cessna 172R), pitch to a shallow flare and add just enough power to hold altitude and maintain final approach speed (65 KIAS for the C172R). In other words, transition to level flight at just above the runway.
Your student will now have to make tiny elevator corrections to maintain altitude: Do not let the student touch down, or climb above the proper flare altitude for your airplane. These subtle corrections teach the student the finesse necessary for when you later allow him or her to touch down. Slightly adjust power as needed to maintain altitude and approach speed. And continue this low approach all the way down the runway, to the opposite threshold, before initiating a go-around. Caution: Do not retract the flaps too quickly in the go-around or you’ll abruptly lose lift—a danger when so low!
The low approach can also strengthen your student’s crosswind correction techniques. I use the wing-low approach, rather than the crab method, as it is easier to land without side loading the landing gear—and thus safer. With the wing-low method, have your student use ailerons to control drift from the centerline while using opposite rudder to keep the airplane’s longitudinal axis parallel to the centerline. Use the far end of the runway centerline to judge the wind correction. The aircraft will be banked toward the wind as it flies low down the runway.
Once your student masters the low approach, it is time to allow him to touch down. Try emphasizing that the flare of any landing starts, at least for an instant, with a level-off (a low approach). I tell my students to psychologically prepare for every landing as if it was a low approach, and only when they are stable above the ground do I then talk them through the actual flare and touchdown: “Ease back the power as you ease the nose up to the horizon.” Odds are good that if your student can get to a stable low approach, the touchdown also will be safe enough. With practice and as confidence builds, this momentary low approach before touchdown soon will become indistinguishable from the flare itself.
Camarillo’s active runway is 6,013 feet but the original 8,000-foot runway still remains as an overrun area. In a worst-case scenario, you will definitely walk away. Geography (and noise abatement procedures) must be a factor in deciding where you conduct low approaches.
One final tip: If you are cleared for the ambiguous option, consider explicitly telling the tower controller you intend to do a low approach, as this helps their traffic planning. The educational value of the low approach is unmatched to any technique in teaching landings. Next time you are cleared for the option, be sure to consider the low approach.
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Thirty miles up the coast from the concrete expanse of Los Angeles lie the tranquil fields surrounding Camarillo Airport (a towered airport with Class D airspace), which offers an ideal location for flight instructors who wish to teach their students proper landings. The airport offers geography not found elsewhere in Southern California: flat, undeveloped surroundings, dotted with strawberry plants. The uncongested geography provides a safe haven to teach your students proper landing techniques using the most underappreciated and underutilized tool that flight instructors have: the low approach.
According to the Pilot/Controller Glossary: “Low Approach—An approach over an airport or runway following an instrument approach or a VFR approach, including the go-around maneuver, where the pilot intentionally does not make contact with the runway.” If you’ve ever been cleared for the option, you’ve been cleared for the low approach. From the Pilot/Controller Glossary: “Cleared for the Option—ATC authorization for an aircraft to make a touch and go, low approach, missed approach, stop and go, or full stop landing at the discretion of the pilot. It is normally used in training so that an instructor can evaluate a student’s performance under changing situations.”
Since nearly every poor landing begins with a poor final, the low approach is the ideal way to practice flying a stable final approach and flare, without the anxiety of an actual touchdown. Unlike a go-around, however, the low approach also lets your students gain confidence flying near the ground. Once they do, a proper flare to touchdown is an easy transition.
Start by having your student practice a stable final approach, as they would with any landing. Then, as they near the altitude for beginning the flare (for example, 10 feet above ground level in the Cessna 172R), pitch to a shallow flare and add just enough power to hold altitude and maintain final approach speed (65 KIAS for the C172R). In other words, transition to level flight at just above the runway.
Your student will now have to make tiny elevator corrections to maintain altitude: Do not let the student touch down, or climb above the proper flare altitude for your airplane. These subtle corrections teach the student the finesse necessary for when you later allow him or her to touch down. Slightly adjust power as needed to maintain altitude and approach speed. And continue this low approach all the way down the runway, to the opposite threshold, before initiating a go-around. Caution: Do not retract the flaps too quickly in the go-around or you’ll abruptly lose lift—a danger when so low!
The low approach can also strengthen your student’s crosswind correction techniques. I use the wing-low approach, rather than the crab method, as it is easier to land without side loading the landing gear—and thus safer. With the wing-low method, have your student use ailerons to control drift from the centerline while using opposite rudder to keep the airplane’s longitudinal axis parallel to the centerline. Use the far end of the runway centerline to judge the wind correction. The aircraft will be banked toward the wind as it flies low down the runway.
Once your student masters the low approach, it is time to allow him to touch down. Try emphasizing that the flare of any landing starts, at least for an instant, with a level-off (a low approach). I tell my students to psychologically prepare for every landing as if it was a low approach, and only when they are stable above the ground do I then talk them through the actual flare and touchdown: “Ease back the power as you ease the nose up to the horizon.” Odds are good that if your student can get to a stable low approach, the touchdown also will be safe enough. With practice and as confidence builds, this momentary low approach before touchdown soon will become indistinguishable from the flare itself.
Camarillo’s active runway is 6,013 feet but the original 8,000-foot runway still remains as an overrun area. In a worst-case scenario, you will definitely walk away. Geography (and noise abatement procedures) must be a factor in deciding where you conduct low approaches.
One final tip: If you are cleared for the ambiguous option, consider explicitly telling the tower controller you intend to do a low approach, as this helps their traffic planning. The educational value of the low approach is unmatched to any technique in teaching landings. Next time you are cleared for the option, be sure to consider the low approach.
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