Beefitarian, when teaching people something that is foreign to what they are used to such as judging height during the approach and landing I have found calling exact heights and letting them form their own sight picture is the most efficient method.
Like any other exercise you must be assured they have actually not only formed an accurate sight picture but have hard wired it into their muscle memory.
The real secret to success using the procedure I described is the ability of the instructor to accurately judge height every time.
Accurate height verbal repeatability is a must.
How I teach landings:
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Cat Driver
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Re: How I teach landings:
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
Re: How I teach landings:
The instructor calling out heights - sort of a biological radar altimeter - can be very helpful to students, because unless they know what the aircraft is doing, they can't possibly use the correct inputs.
What helps enormously to students is consistency on final approach. If every approach is different, then every flare is different, and that's hard for a beginner student pilot to compensate for.
Rolling out on final, first thing is to establish the aircraft on the extended runway centerline. The instructor should all call out left or right of centerline - again, the student may have difficulty seeing it, at first.
Then establish the aircraft on the correct glidepath by pulling up or down on the control yoke or stick. If there are PAPI or VASI, turn them on. Red/white. You can ignore them when you get really close to the threshold.
Then establish the correct airspeed. Too slow, add power and push down to remain on correct glidepath. Too fast, reduce power and increase drag as required - flaps, sideslip?
I am not a martinet. I do not insist on exact airspeed control on base and long final. For example, you might be looking at a range of 80 to 90 mph on base, and 70 to 80 mph on long final. Anywhere in this range is ok, esp for a beginner student just learning to fly the circuit and land.
However, on short final, we need to be a bit more precise. On the runway centerline, on glidepath, crossing the runway threshold at a consistent height and nailing the airspeed (eg 70 mph). Try hard not to be 5 mph too high or too low. This may be difficult for the student at first, but is a worthy goal.
So, we aim to cross the runway threshold on centerline, at the same height, and at the same airspeed (eg 70 mph) every time. A good, safe, consistent final approach.
Crossing the runway threshold, power goes to idle and the flare slowly commences.
Common error is people panic and pull back too hard and level off too high.
Flare should NOT be rapid, which is a result of starting late. Flare should be slow and gradual. Now the instructor should be calling out heights.
Ensure that power is at idle. Common error is not pulling off ALL the power and boy does that make your life miserable, extending the touchdown.
Establish the landing attitude, hopefully at around 6 inches to 1 foot. You do not land the aircraft. Never force a light aircraft onto the ground. You may wheelbarrow and porpoise and possibly collapse the nosegear in the process.
With the power off, the aircraft will de-celerate and this causes lift to decrease. Try to keep the aircraft in the air at a height of 6 inches. This will naturally keep the nosewheel in the air, or with a tailwheel, result in a beautiful 3-pt landing.
After a while, the airplane says "screw you" and squats on the runway. Continue to pull the yoke/stick back to full aft as you de-celerate. If there is any crosswind, steadily apply full aileron into the crosswind. This is really, really important.
Stay on the runway centerline during the rollout. I know you are busy but runway lights are expensive.
What helps enormously to students is consistency on final approach. If every approach is different, then every flare is different, and that's hard for a beginner student pilot to compensate for.
Rolling out on final, first thing is to establish the aircraft on the extended runway centerline. The instructor should all call out left or right of centerline - again, the student may have difficulty seeing it, at first.
Then establish the aircraft on the correct glidepath by pulling up or down on the control yoke or stick. If there are PAPI or VASI, turn them on. Red/white. You can ignore them when you get really close to the threshold.
Then establish the correct airspeed. Too slow, add power and push down to remain on correct glidepath. Too fast, reduce power and increase drag as required - flaps, sideslip?
I am not a martinet. I do not insist on exact airspeed control on base and long final. For example, you might be looking at a range of 80 to 90 mph on base, and 70 to 80 mph on long final. Anywhere in this range is ok, esp for a beginner student just learning to fly the circuit and land.
However, on short final, we need to be a bit more precise. On the runway centerline, on glidepath, crossing the runway threshold at a consistent height and nailing the airspeed (eg 70 mph). Try hard not to be 5 mph too high or too low. This may be difficult for the student at first, but is a worthy goal.
So, we aim to cross the runway threshold on centerline, at the same height, and at the same airspeed (eg 70 mph) every time. A good, safe, consistent final approach.
Crossing the runway threshold, power goes to idle and the flare slowly commences.
Common error is people panic and pull back too hard and level off too high.
Flare should NOT be rapid, which is a result of starting late. Flare should be slow and gradual. Now the instructor should be calling out heights.
Ensure that power is at idle. Common error is not pulling off ALL the power and boy does that make your life miserable, extending the touchdown.
Establish the landing attitude, hopefully at around 6 inches to 1 foot. You do not land the aircraft. Never force a light aircraft onto the ground. You may wheelbarrow and porpoise and possibly collapse the nosegear in the process.
With the power off, the aircraft will de-celerate and this causes lift to decrease. Try to keep the aircraft in the air at a height of 6 inches. This will naturally keep the nosewheel in the air, or with a tailwheel, result in a beautiful 3-pt landing.
After a while, the airplane says "screw you" and squats on the runway. Continue to pull the yoke/stick back to full aft as you de-celerate. If there is any crosswind, steadily apply full aileron into the crosswind. This is really, really important.
Stay on the runway centerline during the rollout. I know you are busy but runway lights are expensive.
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Cat Driver
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Re: How I teach landings:
Further to Hedleys comments.
In the latter stage of the landing ( the hold off portion. ) if the student over controls and the airplane " Balloons " the height call out will be like this....
five feet.
four feet
three feet
four feet
five feet...etc...
In the latter stage of the landing ( the hold off portion. ) if the student over controls and the airplane " Balloons " the height call out will be like this....
five feet.
four feet
three feet
four feet
five feet...etc...
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
Re: How I teach landings:
Tip for instructors: ensure that your idle is not set too high. With the engine warmed up, the idle should NOT be 900 RPM with the throttle all the way back and carb heat cold.Ensure that power is at idle. Common error is not pulling off ALL the power and boy does that make your life miserable, extending the touchdown.
The idle, with the carb heat cold, should be no more than 700 RPM. If it is higher than that, your students are going to struggle unnecessarily during the landing, because the airspeed (and lift) will decrease slowly, extending their misery of the actual touchdown, after the flare.
Easiest touchdown technique in the world is a tailhook and arresting cable, as found on an aircraft carrier. Catch a wire, the aircaft figures out what to do, pretty quickly.
Back to your light trainer. Even a couple hundred RPM difference in the idle can make a HUGE
difference to your students. If the idle is too high, bug your AME to fix it. He probably checked it when the engine wasn't warmed up.
Back to aircraft carriers. Not many of us have tailhooks and arresting cables. However, some of us have fixed pitch props, and some of us have constant speed props.
FYI constant speed props, with the throttle at idle and the prop control all the way forward, provide MUCH more drag than a fixed pitch prop. This is useful in decelerating you during touchdown - speed rapidly decreases, and so does lift, and the airplane sits right down, and you are taxiing sooner.
Re: How I teach landings:
Yup. Not every landing is perfect! Sometimes the student levels off too soon. Or, he bounces. Or, he just encounters some great lift off the hot pavement in summer.the airplane "Balloons"
So for whatever reason, the student is too high after the flare. What to do?
Maintain the landing attitude. Increasing and decreasing the pitch attitude don't help.
Generally, the airplane shoots up and converts what little airspeed it has, into height and NO airspeed. This is gonna hurt, shortly. The guy in the hangar next to me, wrecked his Murphy Rebel during a good bounce. Bent everything on the airplane except the fuel caps.
What the student needs to do, is maintain the landing attitude and use POWER. The higher he goes, the more power he needs to use. If he bounces back up to 50 feet, it's full power and overshoot time.
If he bounces to 10 feet, we might put on half throttle to maintain airspeed to avoid the rapid loss of lift, and maintain the landing attitude, and allow the aircraft to gently settle back to 6 inches above the ground, and then power off again. Very important - common error is to NOT take off the power, which extends the landing misery because airspeed and lift do not decrease.
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Cat Driver
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Re: How I teach landings:
Hedley when doing PBY type ratings I do three minute circuits at three hundred feet. ( Water training )
The circuit is oval shaped at 300 feet down wind, the power has to be decreased to approach power ( around 18 inches of M.P. and 2050 RPM. ) as you begin the turn from down wind to final approach, the airspeed will decay in the turn to approach speed ( 85 knots ) and at 200 feet the throttles are closed and the nose lowered to the attitude that will maintain 85 knots. All touch and go landings must be done without using power from 200 feet.
Once they become proficient at power off landings from 200 feet I let them use power if they wish, but they seldom do.
I am pleased to see people contributing to this discussion.
I have not done ab-initio training in the little bug smashers for a long time, however I think I still remember the basics of flying.
The circuit is oval shaped at 300 feet down wind, the power has to be decreased to approach power ( around 18 inches of M.P. and 2050 RPM. ) as you begin the turn from down wind to final approach, the airspeed will decay in the turn to approach speed ( 85 knots ) and at 200 feet the throttles are closed and the nose lowered to the attitude that will maintain 85 knots. All touch and go landings must be done without using power from 200 feet.
Once they become proficient at power off landings from 200 feet I let them use power if they wish, but they seldom do.
I am pleased to see people contributing to this discussion.
I have not done ab-initio training in the little bug smashers for a long time, however I think I still remember the basics of flying.
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
Re: How I teach landings:
The laws of physics (and humans) haven't changed much recentlyI have not done ab-initio training in the little bug smashers for a long time
I will cravenly admit that I do my best to avoid ab initio training. If I get roped into it reluctantly, we do it my way, and it's going to be on a taildragger.
However, I do not shirk from tailwheel / aerobatic / homebuilt / biplane / radial engine / jet / warbird / antique aircraft training, because there is simply no one around who will do it. Plenty of people have the Ray Bans and brown leather jackets, but they never seem to be around when there's something unusual (or downright nasty) to fly.
A friend of mine once told me that there would be a lot more wrecked taildraggers around if I didn't instruct on them, and I'm very happy with that. The reason I give specialty instruction isn't for the pilot's benefit. It's for the airplanes - I don't want to see them wrecked! There are plenty of pilots around, but precious few unique airplanes, by definition.
.: humble suggestion. You know the PBY like the back of your hand. Guys like you won't be around forever. Could you do me a favour and sit down and write out what a pilot needs to know, to fly a PBY? Do it in point form. Start with a blackboard introduction to the airplane and it's systems, and then move on to procedures for starting it, taxiing it (in wind), taking it off, setting cruise, engine management, different landing techniques, common emergencies, etc.
After you and I are dead, ., the content of the internet will live on, digitally. Something like the above is going to be really useful to future pilots who fly the precious few airworthy PBY's.
This is a HUGE problem with antique / warbird aircraft. There are so few people around who can fly them competently. And if they screw up, there's one less aircraft, which will never be replaced.
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Cat Driver
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Re: How I teach landings:
Hedley, funny you should mention that because a couple of years ago I wrote exactly that type of article for Dave Unwin the editor of Todays Pilot.
I have no idea where I stored the article but maybe Dave still has a copy, I had intended to keep writing for his magazine but when Pene got sick everything in my life changed.
We are in the process of starting a Catalina society in Victoria and the president of the society just bought a Catalina from Buffalo Airways which is now in Victoria B.C. , I will keep you informed.
Maybe I can do the article again this summer in my motor home at your airport.
Right now I am really not in a state of mind to do anything that requires concentration.
I have no idea where I stored the article but maybe Dave still has a copy, I had intended to keep writing for his magazine but when Pene got sick everything in my life changed.
We are in the process of starting a Catalina society in Victoria and the president of the society just bought a Catalina from Buffalo Airways which is now in Victoria B.C. , I will keep you informed.
Maybe I can do the article again this summer in my motor home at your airport.
Right now I am really not in a state of mind to do anything that requires concentration.
The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
After over a half a century of flying no one ever died because of my decision not to fly.
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Big Pistons Forever
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Re: How I teach landings:
I hear youHedley wrote:
I will cravenly admit that I do my best to avoid ab initio training. If I get roped into it reluctantly, we do it my way, and it's going to be on a taildragger.
.....I prefer to do ab initio instructing by proxy (aka teaching Instructor Ratings) . I will do a PPL but the student better be motivated ! Anybody who wants to be just good enough won't last long with me. I tell folks they will be at CPL flight test standards at the end of the PPL. I know that is not a very high standard but you have to set the low bar somewhere. 
