Free Airplane Landing Tutorials

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How to Walk Free From Any Crosswind Landings

I had been recently inquired on the chance of a wingtip strike when landing in the typical light plane being a Cherokee or simply a Cessna 172. Specifically, I was inquired on how far that aileron control might be deflected without striking the tarmac when either from the main landing gear is about the runway after landing at near stall speeds.

I am going to admit I always haven't ever attempt to hit the runway with my wing tip I do not know those who have. However, it certainly can be carried out. Maybe a better question is: what landing technique means that that this wingtip will not strike the tarmac in the crosswind?

I want to speak about landing approaches to quite a strong crosswind before I tackle the case of wingtip strikes. in spite of everything, wingtip strikes aren't a reputable issue except in crosswinds that approach the airplane's crosswind limitations.

To make controlled crosswind landings, you should master the skill of pointing your airplane in the same direction that it moves over the ground. If the airplane is pointed in some other direction when you touchdown, the best you can hope for is abrupt side forces on your landing gear followed with a swerve as the airplane swings in the right direction. The worst is loss of directional control followed with a trip off the side of the runway, possible ground loop, nose over, wingtip strike, or all of the above.

Pointing the airplane it the direction it moves is the most essential landing skill. It is not as easy as it sounds. And it certainly requires practice before it can be mastered. In a nutshell, here is how to do it:

Point the airplane in the direction that it travels by turning the nose with your rudder pedals alone. Move the airplane from side to side by changing your angle of bank with ailerons. Control airspeed or height above the runway by changing your pitch attitude with your elevator. This lets you keep your wheels pointed in the direction the airplane moves and keep your airplane directly over the middle of the runway. This is exactly where you should be when you land.

Landing in a crosswind, you touch the runway while cross controlled. It's much steady state condition. Your airplane will not be rolling around its long axis. In other words that this provides a steady angle of bank. In a general aviation, production light plane, you can not cross control far enough to the touch the wing tip.

 The process that works best is to try to try to keep the downwind main wheel barely off the runway providing possible when you have touched down with all the upwind wheel. To hold the downwind wheel off, you have to continuously increase aileron control defection until it reaches its limit. Eventually, since the airplane will continue to decelerate, the ailerons lose power as well as the other main wheel will settle towards the runway.

Finally in almost any well executed crosswind landing, the aileron control will probably be pushed to its limit. An essential point here is, that just like every other benefit with good airmanship, you should move your controls smoothly to provide a source reason for changing the airplane's attitude. Easy roll will be the only situation where I deliberately move the controls violently.

Now, back to the subject: how might you strike a wingtip? I can think of two ways.

Suppose you suddenly and violently slapped the aileron control all the way to its limit. Two things would happen: the airplane would no longer be properly cross controlled, and it would start to roll. Now it is possible to strike the wingtip. In other words, you would have just fouled up a perfectly good crosswind landing. You would have put the airplane in a very difficult situation, one that would require a particularly skilled pilot to salvage. I don't recommend it.

A lot more likely situation is that you simply land wings level from a strong crosswind. This means, not cross controlled. Here, the airplane is crabbed within the wind along with the wheels aren't aligned together with the airplane's path above the ground. Since the airplane will not be aligned using its path through space, the wheels will generate a quite strong side ways force on the undercarriage once they touch the runway. With luck, this makes a sideways skid. Much like in a vehicle, should the wheels are far enough apart, the airplane skids until it either stops or straightens up. If for example the wheels won't be far enough apart, you're unlucky. The airplane rolls over, striking the ground utilizing its wingtip.

The lesson is: use proper crosswind techniques and you may not have to bother with wingtip strikes.

Doug Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites people to visit http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for further flying articles like this one. You may as well contact Doug by visiting his website.

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Most Dangerous Landing Mistakes Pilots Make and approaches to Avoid Them

Over-shoot, under-shoot, lack of directional control, wing tip strikes... are typically indications of mistakes made BEFORE the pilot touches down. Mistakes which might be easily to improve - although not necessarily in ways perhaps you believe.

I landed within the Nuttree Airport inside a Cessna 172 in 1968. I felt pretty smug. It had been an extremely smooth landing, some of those landings you could hear but not feel. Then the wind gust picked me up and that I landed a second time on a parallel taxiway. The pilot taxiing in the other direction was kind enough (or maybe stunned enough or frightened enough) to hold short of a turn-off therefore I could move over towards the parking apron. I couldn't look him inside the eye once we went past. Red-faced, I mumbled some excuses to my passengers that we didn't believe. I needed just made the three biggest (and quite a few common) mistakes a pilot can make when landing.

Determined to never let that happen again, I spend a great deal of time in the intervening 40 years thinking about how to avoid these mistakes. The NTSB says that a full 45% of the weather-related accidents are caused by crosswinds and gusts. I believe it. It is time to introduce some little known techniques that help prevent these accidents. But first, we should look at their causes.

Landing too fast is caused by flying the approach too fast or trying to force the airplane on the runway before it is ready. The solution is to fly a consistent approach at the same airspeed, picking a safe projected glide point (or PGP), and controlling the PGP until you land. But hold the airplane a foot or so off the runway until the airplane nose has rotated up to the landing attitude. Hold that attitude until the airplane lands. That way you will land at the right speed.

Failing to cross control in a crosswind leads to ground loops, being blown off the side of the runway (the MOST common cause of accidents in the United States), wing tip damage, or, in my case, flying over the infield and landing on a taxiway. To put it simply, cross controlling is using the rudder to keep the long axis of the airplane parallel to the long axis of the runway and using the ailerons to keep the airplane positioned over the runway. This guarantees that you will keep the airplane moving straight down the runway after the wheels touch.

Quit flying the plane before the plane is through flying is one of the most dangerous mistakes that a pilot could make. Its cause is lack of concentration. Its solution is good flying habits.

I was lucky in a Nuttree. When the crosswind had been coming from the opposite side, I could have already been blown in to a canal. Remember that just because the chief gear is on the surface does not necessarily mean that there's no 'fly' left from the airplane. Recall if you continue the airplane just over the runway until it absolutely, positively will not fly to any extent further, the idea will an unusually strong gust that can put it in the air again.

You can actually be lulled in to the bad habits conducive to these mistakes. Should the wind is gentle and the runway is long, all is going to be forgiven. And so the real question is: ways to keep these undesirable habits from developing?

I wish to tell you about two exercises that have already helped pilots more that I would have ever imagined. These are 'very slow Dutch roll' and the 'controlled projected glide' point. Neither is difficult or dangerous. Both simplify and strengthen any pilot's chance to land.

The very slow Dutch roll is a simple exercise done with a safe altitude. It teaches two vital skills. First the pilot learns to continuously move the stick and rudders to manage the airplane as conditions change, and second, the pilot learns how to cross control the airplane inside the most extreme circumstances.

Here is how to carry out an extremely slow Dutch roll. Select a point beingshown to people there and hold it steady as you alter the angle of bank, airspeed and flap configuration. Maintain constant altitude. Produce positive changes to bank very slowly. Continue to enhance the angle of bank until either the aileron or perhaps the rudder is pushed to its limit. Right here is the angle of bank for your maximum crosswind which the airplane are prepared for. The cross controlled airplane slowly accelerates aside for a minute or two. During this time, the pilot must move the flight controls continuously on the grounds that the airplane accelerates to the side - an unanticipated benefit of this exercise.

Let me tell you about the projected glide point or PGP. When you approach the runway your eye will naturally gravitate toward a point on the runway that does not move in your field of vision. The phenomenon is much like when you are on a collision course with another airplane: it stays still in your field of vision but just gets bigger. Well, there is always a point on the ground where exactly the same thing happens. This is the point that you would glide to if you never made that last little flair to land. This is an extremely valuable concept that can save you many hours of landing practice. I never heard another flight instructor talk about it but I am sure that many pilots use this technique.

You can control the PGP with power and drag while keeping the airspeed constant. To move the PGP closer to you, reduce the engine's power or increase the airplanes drag - usually with flaps. To move the PGP away from you, increase the engine's power or decrease the airplane's drag.

Take advantage of the two concepts together to build consistent, safe landings. Once established on final, utilize center type of the runway when your reference point for very slow Dutch rolls. Utilize the ailerons to put the airplane on the extended centerline, the rudder to keep the long axis on the airplane parallel to that particular extended centerline. Move the PGP for the same place when. I recommend the runway threshold. Consciously continue cross controlling before the airplane slows to a taxi.

Both of these simple techniques provide to the same place on the runway whenever in a very landing configuration that compensates for crosswinds or gusts before the airplane is going so slow that one could taxi to parking. Doug Daniel, respected flight instructor and author, recently wrote Flying Secrets, an extraordinarily popular e-book, operates a website for interacting with fellow pilots. If you want to learn more ways to refine your flying skills and get a *free report* on how even a PC-based flight simulator can help you fly better, ask his experts a question or just get the free report, click here now => http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org.

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The Five Essential Procedures That You Will have to Master to Fly Instruments up to Principles

Instrument flying is merely hard when the pilot's workload is too great. This article shows you, the pilot, how to lessen your cockpit workload and greatly simplify instrument flying. The truly positive side effect is basically will fly more precisely and make fewer mistakes.

Any student pilot is aware that the most necessary 'instrument' is outside the airplane. It does not take horizon. When you fly into a cloud the horizon disappears. Nevertheless the airplane is constantly on the fly equally as it did outside the cloud. This informs you of that you should fly the airplane on instruments equally as you did visually but somehow you have to make amends for the lost horizon. On instruments you do exactly the same thing you need to do visually except you apply the attitude indicator (a.k.a. artificial horizon) rather than real horizon to remain alert to the aircraft's attitude.

All flying can be an iterative process. Someone flies by changing some parameter, maintaining a constant attitude, letting the airplane come back to a steady-state condition, monitoring the flight instruments, adjusting a parameter, maintaining a relentless attitude, letting the airplane go back to a steady-state condition,... The parameters which you change might be attitude, power, a principal flight control, flaps, etc. The Only Real difference is the fact attitude must be consciously monitored as your peripheral vision cannot monitor attitude for you.

Since attitude need to be monitored in a manner that is neither intuitive nor as fundamental as visual flying, you must use a disciplined scan for instrument flying. By 'scan' I am talking about how you examine instruments, which instruments as well as in what order.

Beyond question, the attitude indicator is considered the most useful instrument. Ironically it truly is not nesessary nor is it the principle instrument in different situation. It really is best because it substantially lessens the workload of instrument flying.

The attitude indicator needs to be the pivot point of your scan. For example, in straight and level flight... I can interrupt myself at the moment and have you what you consider the primary instruments are during straight and level flight? By primary instruments, I mean the 'must have' instruments. Which instrument absolutely, positively claims that your chosen pitch attitude is correct? Which instrument informs you that bank is correct? Which instrument notifys you that a rudder is within the proper position? Don't look at next paragraph before you allow yourself the resolution these questions.

Here come the surprising answers. The altimeter is primary for pitch, the gyrocompass is primary for bank plus the ball is primary for rudder.

As an instance the purpose about primary instruments, think you are flying an airplane having its wing-leveler engaged. You happen to be assigned an altitude of 8,000 feet. For the purpose of this discussion, all you have do is find the pitch attitude right. Checking out the attitude indicator, everything looks properly. The small airplane is exactly on the horizon. Does that explain how you will find the pitch attitude nailed? You are not familiar with. You need to look at the altimeter. Consider good enough to answer two questions: Precisely what does it say? What is it doing? Whether it reads 7,960 feet and is particularly moving up slowly, it claims that pitch attitude is just too high! In case the altimeter reads 7,960 feet and is not moving, congratulations, your pitch attitude is ideal. Your altitude tells you nothing about pitch attitude.

Your scan includes the main instrument(s) and also the attitude indicator. The movement associated with a primary instrument provides feedback concerning your attitude. If ever the gyrocompass were moving it could inform you that you're turning. For anyone who is turning and the ball is inside the center, then this wings are usually not level. You have to look at the attitude indicator enough time to level your wings. Still scan.

You may ask, "Why not the rate-of-turn indicator?" The reason is that monitoring the rate-of-turn improves your workload; you must look at your heading; and the gyrocompass provides the turning important information.

In straight and level flight without the artificial stabilization, your scan might follow this sequence: attitude indicator, altimeter, attitude indicator, gyrocompass, repeating for perhaps 2 or three cycles. An instant glance at the ball followed having a compensating rudder trim would suffice, then forget about the ball.

You'll want to determine which instruments are primary in every region of flight or you do will not always be able to make a decision on the correct scan. One example is, if you end up climbing, your airspeed indicator has to be your primary pitch instrument and gyrocompass is primary bank. If you are in a level standard rate turn, your rate of turn is primary bank and altimeter is primary pitch. If you end up in a 30° bank, the attitude indicator is primary bank and altimeter could be the primary pitch instrument, etc. Adjust your scan for each situation.

Right now you happen to be thinking that you have other instruments to bother with than others I mentioned as part of your scan. You're right. Do not forget that your most essential cockpit task is always to fly the airplane. Once that's unquestionably in balance then you could start adding other items to every third or fourth scan. Remember that throughout an instrument approach, an ILS or VOR could easily become one of the primary instruments.

To ensure the fundamental principles that you should understand and connect with your instrument flying are:

1. Notice both an instrument's reading and movement. 2. Use an instrument's movement to give feedback about your current attitude. 3. Look at the attitude indicator when adjusting attitude. (Unless they have tumbled!) 4. Operate the attitude indicator as being the base from your instrument scan, moving your focus from attitude indicator to primary instrument, to attitude indicator to other primary instrument, etc. 5. Get a new variety of primary instruments as part of your scan for the reason that region of flight changes; dropping some out of your scan, adding others.

If you want to learn more ways to refine your flying skills and get a *free report* on how even a PC-based flight simulator can help you fly better, ask his experts a question or just get the free report, click here now => http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org.