Dear Rod:
I’m a flight instructor with several primary students under my charge. I’ve been introducing students to landings with full flaps in our school’s Cessna 172s. There seems to be quite a disagreement regarding the use of full flaps versus partial flaps when teaching student pilots how to land. Would you care to weigh in on the issue?
Mark
Greetings Mark:
I’ve never been a big fan of using full flaps (in airplanes with very effective flaps) when first introducing student pilots to landings. Most things happen faster when flaps are extended. The descent rate is faster, the airspeed decreases faster during the roundout and flare, and the nose must be raised faster to avoid landing on the nose gear. All of these things demand reactions that are typically faster than most student pilots are capable of making when trying to get a feel for the roundout and flare.
When introducing landings, my personal preference is to use 25- to 50-percent flap deployment. This gives the airplane a slight nose-down attitude, making the runway easier to see. It also results in just enough increase in drag to reduce the effects of floating, but doesn’t allow the airplane to slow down as quickly as it would when the airplane sports its entire assembly of flaps.
The next time you introduce your students to landings in a Cessna 172, try an experiment (you don’t need an Experimental airplane for this, either). Since you’ve been using full flaps to introduce landings, try using 10 to 15 degrees of flaps for the introduction, and observe what happens. You’ll probably find that your students experience less difficulty in learning to perform the roundout and flare. Once they learn how to land with these flap settings, teaching landings with full flaps will be much easier.
Dear Rod:
What’s the proper way for (student) pilots to trim the elevator control on an airplane?
Nancy
Greetings Nancy:
The easiest way for student pilots (or any pilot) to apply elevator trim after a major attitude change is to reduce elevator pressure first, followed by visually detecting, and then stopping, pitch deviation.
A major attitude change often results in a large pressure differential on the yoke. This is when a student will normally look over at the instructor and, with an expression indicating physical exertion, yell out, “Spot me!” At this point, have the student immediately twist the trim wheel several times to remove most of the pressure. Don’t dawdle here. Think Wheel of Fortune and spin the trim wheel quickly (but don’t call out any letters, please). At this point, the remaining pressure on the yoke is most likely below anyone’s ability to sense or identify by feel (it’s below our discrimination threshold).
Any further application of trim should be applied to keep the nose attitude steady with reference to the horizon. How? Keep a slight grip on the yoke, then slowly release any pressure being applied (don’t let go of the yoke), and look for a pitch change. Move the yoke to stop the pitch change and apply a little corrective trim. Repeat until the nose attitude stays put.
Dear Rod:
I’m having trouble learning to land. It seems that when I’m at the point where the landing flare begins, I often overflare the airplane. What do you advise?
Ellie
Greetings Ellie:
After chatting with you, it became clear that your instructor has you carrying power on the approach right up until you cross the runway threshold. At that point, he has you reduce power to idle, followed by the landing (or attempt at landing). Herein lies the problem.
Your airplane is trimmed for a power-on approach on short final. The moment you reduce power as you cross the threshold, the airplane is now untrimmed and pitches nose down. Yikes! Is it any wonder that you would (wo)manhandle the elevator and overflare the airplane, given the sudden nose-down pitch so close to the runway? When being introduced to landings, it’s often best to avoid power-on approaches for this reason, opting for power-off approaches instead.
So here’s what I want you to do. Ask your instructor to verbally identify the point in the pattern where you can reduce power to idle, trim the airplane, and make power-off approaches until you learn how to flare an airplane properly. This way, the airplane’s pitch attitude remains much more predictable throughout the approach, roundout, and flare. You’ll learn to land much more quickly this way.
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