Thanks everyone for lots of great feedback! Corrections: 1:39: cues, not queues (cringe) 2:25: the video isn't a good example of a hard landing caused by low approach speed. What's shown is actually just a short field landing. I should have used an animation here instead since I don't have any clips of that mistake.
@@doktorhunggari4415 I teach the same technique for gusts. During primary training, always better to touch down at the minimum energy state possible. Gusts just makes the round out harder. Sometimes you balloon, or plop down prematurely, due to the wind rather than pilot input.
@@chapmanflying7632 Great video -- I do wish the video wasn't so fast-paced. Taking a breath and adding a slight pause in between edits isn't just good for you, it's good for the viewer too. It would be nice to add a text pop-up saying the short field landing is fine because I started to question you when the example did not support your dialogue. Happy new year and thank you!
@@TBolt1 thanks man! Fast paced, single topic, just the meat, is kinda the lane I'm in for these vids. The idea is to keep them short enough that a rewatch isn't painful. I'd add a popup like you're describing but I don't think that's possible.
@@chapmanflying7632 You dismiss TBolt1's first suggestion too readily. It will only add minimally to the length of the vid if you add slight pauses after each point, but add greatly to viewers ability to distinguish the different points you are making and, importantly to absorb the information that is the whole point of watching it. Watching this vid is like trying to read a page of instructions that has no full stops (periods for you Americans?) and no paragraph breaks! Good content, and I appreciate the effort you've put into it, but it could easily be much better presented, without significant increase in length, by a little attention to this issue.
Glider students learn this on their first lesson. Then they use a bunch of lessons to implement it 😀 Theres no go around in gliders. I know, on my fourth flight lesson I ended up in a wheat field that was at the end of the grass field and my instructor let me. Possibly because we were doing a little more than jogging pace and that we were in a Bergfalke III, I swear, that thing was built like a tank. No wonder the royal flying association of sweden chose it to be their main teaching glider back in the 50:s. "Yes this is Scheibe? Hello, this is KSAK, we would like to buy a couple of gliders. OK, How many? Thirteen" 😀 Over the next 20 years the swedish glider clubs imported in excess of 160 gliders.
@@matsgustavsson665 What you learn in gliders is how to handle an engine failure in a powered airplane, after you learn to deal with the much steeper descent angle. But what is missing is how to use the engine to do countless more things which are not possible in a glider. There's no reason to follow glider procedures in a powered airplane. Your argument is illogical.
@itp5x5 honestly, you should maybe look for a new CFI. I’m only a flight simmer, but even I’ve seen “pitch for airspeed, and power for altitude” all over the place. It’s a very common, and simple way to explain landings.
@@markhughes7927 At 00:43 it's noted 'power for altitude'. In other words, a little propeller that produces about 500lbs of force can hold a +2000lb airplane in the air. Is that what you believe?
I was a CFI of a soaring club and have 140-odd hours as a private pilot. Great video - I’m rather shocked by how few views it has, and how few subscribers you picked up.
Thanks man! I'm making these as ground lessons to share with students prior to each flight (save us both from the headache of long drawn-out ground sessions). Promoting this channel isn't really a goal, but if people see them and find them useful, all the better!
Possibly because full stall landings might help a student bracket the kind of landing they should be doing, but they aren't the end goal and shouldn't be promoted as an acceptable landing technique. Stall attitude landing = good. Stall landing = bad.
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Fantastic presentation. I wish I had this when I went through my first PPL lessons! And it does not matter how much you have already flown, a refresher on the essentials is always useful. Well explained and visualised, no nonsense and to the point. Keep up the great work.
1966, Piper Colt, working towards a private pilot license, I recall THE best landing up to then. It was a tough-go but in my happiness I almost forgot to add power and take off! Perfect landings, at least for me, were rare but joyous occasions. Thanks for bringing those memories back.
Having spent most of my working life flying jet airliners, I think putting the wheels on the ground in the correct spot is of the utmost importance to a safe landing If you can achieve the following three things all will be ok. Stay on track, on speed and on profile ( slope). If you can do these three things regardless of what else is going on then you are a good pilot. To be a great pilot ( in the eyes of the airline that is) you need to also be on time.
Landing in the correct spot is good but we are also expected to do so from an on-speed, stabilised approach every time. A smooth touchdown is just the icing on the cake. But don’t get to hung up about meeting schedule. If you are hit with departure or en-route delays there is little you can do other than steal a few minutes. What a good airline does is provide you with the instant cost or effect of a delayed arrival. If it’s zero then take it easy.
@@Trevor_Austin As I said, on speed, on track and on profile. And in jet aircraft, don’t forget to arm the speed break for landing. The large airline I work for has now prohibited us from landing in heavy rain. We have to ensure we have enough fuel to ether hold till the rain eases or divert. Along with tightening up the stable approach criteria. With the advent and mandating of the enhanced ground proximity warning system controlled flight into terrain is no longer the biggest threat. Loss of control and runway excursions now being top of the list for accidents. Pretty much all runway excursions occur in heavy rain or snow, and usually associated with touching down to fast or to deep.
@@mitseraffej5812 I am guessing the reason pilots are touching down too fast is not related too often to actual errors where the pilot was overzealous/confident. Would the errors be more related to attempting to maintain airspeed to buffer gusty conditions opting for increased controllability in the air over less deadly problems after touchdown?
I feel it's often overlooked outside of the tactical aircraft community, but it's important to remember that "pitch for airspeed" is not so much about airspeed in particular but about aoa. Pitch up to increase aoa, pitch down to decrease aoa. Landing on-speed AOA is how you avoid bouncing if you're fast or dropping if you're slow. Personally, I'd like to see AOA indicators/indexers added to GA aircraft as they're something you use literally every flight in tactical aircraft, though I've seen not only ambivalence but even pushback from GA pilots about it on forums for some reason.
@@jonathanbaird8109 Thanks. AOA at touchdown seems what this video is about. No one is talking 30,000 ft, G-loads, bank angles, just stall at touchdown.
@@u2mister17 I made that comment after seeing the "throttle for descent, pitch for speed" comment in the video. That phrase gets thrown around a lot and I wanted to address it.
AOA is not a considerstion in GA , airline and civilian jet operations. Our AOA indicators are for advisory only and not a primary flight instrument on 100 million USD jets. Unfortunately many civilians don’t even understand AOA in detail.
Straight to the point, good explanation. I've seen so many CFIs trying to explain something and not been able to find the words. Good job my friend 👍👍👏
This just turned up in my feed unannounced and uninvited. But it encapsulates everything I was taught and gave me a new way of looking at a few things. IOW, it put it all together in a nice little package. Thanks Chapman Flying, whoever you are!
I once observed many landings, thousands of them, using a full stall. it was the "Gooney Birds" on the Midway Islands (the "Layson Albatross" and the "Blackfooted Albatross"). They come in, often just gliding (they glide really well with their over 6-foot wingspans) and get low to the ground. Maybe flap a little and stall in the air maybe a foot above the ground and just gently settle straight down. On many TV shows, you will see them tripping and tumbling upon landing. But this is only the first day or two after returning to land from living at sea. Young ones can live at sea for up to five years before returning to land and get used to landing on water where they do NOT completely stall and sort of water ski in a little. When they try that on land, they get tripped up. But they learn fast. Also, if one lands on a building for some reason, it will starve to death if somebody doesn't help get it off the building. They need a long running takeoff and without it they don't try. They don't understand they could just hop off the roof edge and be flying. I don't know if there is anything pilots can learn from watching a bird like this. Maybe.
It was only on the next to last line when I figured out you were talking about actual birds instead of planes. I seem to remember a plane with the nickname "Gooney Bird".
@@robertbrandywine They might resist some. And you have to be very careful about them fighting you and slashing you with the very sharp tip of their beak. When I lived on the island (as I suspect it still is) it was illegal to touch or molest the birds in any way. It was a national bird sanctuary. One time a few of us violated this this when told if you remove the egg from their nest and put something else there, they will try and hatch the something else. So, I helped move a bird off the nest and another fellow removed the egg and replaced it with a football. The bird pondered it for a while, and then got up on top of the football and straddled it where its little webbed feet could barely reach the ground. Of course, we returned the egg right away and everything was fine. I never helped on a roof but knew others that did. I would say they are less of a handful than, say, a goose. Perhaps more like a chicken, just a really big one. Of course, on the building, you just need to shove them off into the air. They know what to do then. Also, they take turns sitting on the egg for days, even weeks, at a time. The only time they get any water is when it rains. And you see them with their beaks open and up trying to catch water. We tried to give water to some of them and they wouldn't have anything to do with it.
I don't know, man: the footage of the Champ touchdown was PERFECT. Full-stall, three point, and a definitive transition from flight to rollout. Posting it as an example of lack of elevator authority due to slow VREF and a hard touchdown seems a bit much.
You're right, that clip was staged on purpose and I didn't want to break my plane by dropping it in harder. When I saw the footage I was disappointed. Felt pretty rough from inside the plane, but from outside it looked like a nice short field. I agree with your comment that it doesn't quite work as a negative example, but I didn't think it was important enough to re-shoot. That was the last clip I cut in and I was tired of working on the project.
@@LJDRVR no worries man, I deserve it for all the dickishness I've thrown out over the years. Wish youtube would let people edit vids in response to feedback.
@@chapmanflying7632 I also thought that the Champ TD was a perfect short-field landing for a tailwheel! Also, fwiw, even 6000 feet or so is a 'short-field' runway for an airliner ... and I used to always tell myself and my first officers when landing at places like LGA - Accuracy is Job One! Smoothness does not count on this runway." (the over runs at LGA by even a few feet become disastrous. ouch.).. anyway - again - nice job with this video.
I got my PPL in 82V, wasn't expecting to run across her again in a random youtube video! Lots of good memories at I73. Nice informative video, keep it up.
Well this was just a great video to watch. I’ve been landing too flat (as you can tell by my recent vids) and otherwise ballooning my landings when trying to flare more adequately. This video makes it so much clearer.
After a lifetime of flight instructing and examining the one aspect which was most difficult for the student pilot to accept was that the pilots responsibility is to 'fly' the aircraft to the appropriate position regarding direction and height and attitude over the runway. If the throttle is fully closed gravity will do the rest.
This reminds me of when I was 9 year's old(1981). We got our first airplane (N51305) a Cessna 150J. The grey paint will later to be found out to have been radar absorbent paint. The RG on the tail stands for Roger's county in Oklahoma and most of the stickers on the nose are from Edwards Air Force Base. As you were talking about it, I could actually see it. It was scary the first few times landing. We had a tail skid added to help avoid tail strikes.
I remember my Chipmunk days in the early 60’s when I was taught to round out and bring the stick back progressively until the full stall angle was reached and then the aircraft would sit down gently on its three wheels. Always was very satisfying when done properly. It certainly put my landings in good stead for future flying experiences when full stall landings were preferable to greasers.
@@wmason1961 A landing when the main wheels kiss the ground without bouncing and the aeroplane continues along the runway until the tailwheel finally lowers itself to assume a 3 point attitude. This style of would usually bring forth admiring comments from our peers . This pleasure is not usually enjoyed in this day and age with the almost total use of tricycle undercarriages Cheers from Downunder 👍🇦🇺
@@michaelrussell5346 The term is still common in the USA to refer to a particularly smooth landing in any fixed wing aircraft. Well, I think it's common, anyway
@@chapmanflying7632 and all the shots are yours? Dude, you have a gift for making instructional content like this. Keep going!There’s another fortune waiting for you beside being a pilot.
I have very few hours of seat time in a 172, but this is definitely something my instructor taught me. Round out as closely as possible to the ground and stall the aircraft to land. He would say "hold it hold it hold it" and then we would touch down. Gave me a greater level of confidence.
Pitch plus power = performance. If power is fixed (full power climb or idle descent), pitch controls airspeed. If power isn't fixed, then pitch controls attitude and hence altitude while power now controls airspeed.
When I was learning to fly, it was taught that we focus on the end of the runway during the flair as a way to keep the aircraft flying in a straight line for a nice landing. At some point this knowledge got shifted into my subconscious, and for years I was landing with no problems at all. One day I was landing at an unfamiliar airstrip that had a row of houses along one side. There was a cross wind that day, and I didn’t realise at the time that the houses were mashing up the steady cross wind and I lost about 20kts in and instant about 10 feet off the ground. The aircraft stalled and came down really hard. The incident severely knocked my confidence and I couldn’t land well after that. I got an instructor to check me out to figure out what I was doing, and he just said “hey where are your eyes pointing” and suddenly I was back to doing nice landings again.
After talking to several of my IRL pilot friends about this, it seems everyone has their own favorite place to look. All that matters is that it's constant. Personally I don't like using the end of the runway, because that distance varies from one airport to the next. But if it's working for you, sweet.
If you ever think about flying bigger planes, don't watch this. As a private bush pilot you can do whatever you want, but there are way better ways of doing it. Keep the approach path going to your aiming point (correct, not the one shown on the video) with yoke (pitch/roll) and use power/thrust for speed. Flare slightly in the end and cut the power early enough when entering the ground effect (with small planes one wingspan over ground, not 5ft). Learn it the correct way from the beginning and it will be easier to fly the bigger planes one day. Additionally you will end up doing tail strikes with this technique pulling too much on the yoke or doing some aerodynamic braking. I was first taught the wrong way and had to learn the right way in flight school before going for the airlines. Don't just take my word for it, ask any other airline pilot how they fly.
@@bhc1892 And vice versa. From the Handbook - "The pilot who has acquired necessary skills during training, and develops these skills by flying training-type airplanes with precision and safe flying habits, is able to easily transition to more complex and higher performance airplanes."
You are completely correct. And yes, it's pitch for altitude (glideslope) and power for speed, although in reality both of those have to be adjusted nearly simultaneously.
Great explanation, pretty much exactly how my CFI explained it. Made my first successful landing without his input about 4 hours into training although it felt longer. He didn’t like to say “flare” but rather emphasized that I needed to be levelling off just above the runway and flying it along until the lift was all gone. I definitely failed to keep the yoke in my lap after touchdown a few times and that gets your attention quick in a tail wheel aircraft. Have only done 3 pt landings so far, looking forward to learning wheel landings. 😅
Thanks man! Good luck with wheel landings. They're my favorite. I'm going to do a tailwheel series in a few months, probably not on your timeline. In the meantime, if you want to see how I teach wheel landings, this is me teaching them to a friend at the time. ua-cam.com/video/sAp5S7WWB3Y/v-deo.html
When I was a kid doing my Private Pilot Check Ride, with Paul Argus being the FAA Guy (I never forgot his name) well, he had me land at the Pomona Airfield near Atlantic City NJ, a 5000 foot runway, and he had me do the approach with an airspeed of 100 mph, so he could test me on being able to control through what you call the Roundout, but which the rest of the Aviation World calls the Flare Out. I was able to do it, keeping the Piper Cherokee a few feet above the runway the entire time, without ballooning, and then was able to full stall it for a soft touchdown, and Mr. Argus signed my form. Thumbs Up! Thanks for the memories.
Yes Sir....that's how I learned. Real tire "rollers"in a Cessna 150 with 40* of flaps. I had a great instructor. Our field was 33' wide, 3000" long tucked in tree lines. I'd go over to "huge field" with a 120' wide 6000' long to practice crosswind. Man, I could land and takeoff 3times...LOL Good vid, thanks
I've never had a single lesson in flying. I fly a couple of flight sims (DCS and FS2020) and, for civilian aircraft, I land exactly as this video explains. A Navy (aircraft carrier) landing is quite different so I won't discuss this. The full stall landing is perfect for non-military landings. Thank you for the video.
1:38 - One thing to keep in mind at this stage is a strong enough headwind gust can absolutely pop you back up into the air. Probably the second scariest moment I ever had in an airplane was a very extreme case of this. Stall buzzer going off as I'm just a few feet above the runway about to touchdown, then suddenly I could hear and "feel" the wind gust hard, I see the airspeed jump up, the stall buzzer stops, and I pop 20 or so feet into the air. Before I even have time to react to this, the wind just dies, the airspeed drops, the stall buzzer comes back on, and I slam down hard into the runway.
I have not gotten to do a landing as pilot in command for over 30 years. I appreciate this video. I have an Ercoupe with rudder pedals and no flaps so I will have to land a little flat but this is still great information.
Amazing video. Ive decided on a career change after a major injury last year, and Im getting ready to start flight lessons soon. This video makes it feel accessible for anyone. Thank you! Subbed.
Excellent tutorial. I impressed my wife of 40 years on our first date by greasing a C172 landing. The technique was adding full flaps and a pinch of power just short of the fence while flying into a light headwind directly down the runway. The plane touched on in a full stall as light as a cloud with just some quiet chirps from the mains and no vibration at all. If conditions were right I would always use this technique and my best flying buddy called me "old smoothie" by greasing one on this way right past the nose of an L1011 holding short at the Toronto International Airport back in 1975. This tutorial is good for tail draggers too and my first landing in one was a grease job in a North American SNJ Harvard (navy version of the T6 Texan.)
I didn't watch this video with sound, but the graphics are excellent in describing all the things that go into a landing! Great tool for a CFI to help students visualize.
Great to hear you say that because one of my goals for all the videos is that the voice track should be disposable. I intend to use these for in-person ground schools where I mute the audio and use the video like animated powerpoint slides.
My last flight was 8 landings at 3 different airports. 7 of those were good! I feel that I’ve discovered my trick for good landings. For me it’s watching the speed as I flare and trying to not loose speed but rather hold it up only slightly enough to let the speed bleed off as gently as possible as I pull more to slightly hear the stall vane. So I will scan my speed repeatedly until I’m fully landed. Hope that helps someone. Thanks for sharing your video.
As a former glider pilot, when I learned to fly powered aircraft I would always use pitch for airspeed, and therefore power for altitude. It worked perfectly, and rarely got you into a stall situation.
This video made me start installing FS 2020 again and just practice landings in a bog standard Cessna; you explained so well the things I thought I understood (power for altitude, elevators for speed) and then went even more in-depth as to /why/ and explained that perfectly simple as well. Kudos, and thanks! P.S. nice video clips as well. I want a good controller stack now for the lefty throttle, righty controls action
That is such an awesome Video!!!! So perfectly balanced everything you need to know reduced to only the important steps but with enough detail and extraordinarily good animations!!!
Additional tip to judge altitude during the flare is to monitor the runway out the side window. Watching the runway motion out the area to the left of the cowling gives you a better perception of height off the ground than only focusing ahead (where you can't see much if you have no flaps or are in a taildragger anyways)
Well done on packing so much good information into one short video - I loved it! I agree with everything except for your recommending using elevator for speed, especially so close to the ground. (The speed should already be set by trim and throttle setting during base turn.) In our flight school, we teach elevator for attitude and power for aspect and speed adjustment when on finals. We use the same method as airliners - Maintain the glideslope with power and pitch the nose with elevator. Earlier in the final approach, the elevator can be used momentarily to raise or lower the nose to adjust speed. But from that point onward, once correct aimpoint, glideslope aspect and airspeed are attained, they are managed with power for arresting sink (recatching the glideslope), or flaps/sideslip for excessive height. The elevator is used to maintain aimpoint (but may have to be adjusted slightly due to power applications where needed in order to keep that aimpoint). Power to idle for transition (or earlier) and elevator to arrest sink during the flare till stall. I hope you dont mind my five cents worth - This is one of the best landing videos Ive ever seen.
Tell this to any pilot who flies aircraft with auto throttle and they will smile-AP is using throttle to control speed and elevator is used to control pitch.Even when hand flying, during ILS or RNAV APP a bug is kept centered using elevator first (then throttle is used to help maintain constant speed) this allows for a very precise control. When hand flying throttle and elevator are simultaneously used to be on a specific glide path anyway. I think, this subject is controversial like deciding how a lift is created-Bernoulli vs Newton vs…..
@ATOMEK2025 Thanks for your reply. Great points you make. Yes I agree its a contraversial one. I think we use the airliner method just to keep things standardised. My CFI learned in the airforce who taught this way. I think it might be a touch easier for a student to understand than playing with power and elevator hoping to get it right. Its a scary world making one of your first landings, trying to put into practice that stuff you learned in the theory brief while battling a highly dynamic final glide environment
Flying gliders is a great way to hone these skills - the airbrakes/spoilers control works just like the throttle, so it's airspeed control with pitch, glide-slope control with the brakes. And you only get one chance... lol
Just a flight simmer here, but I thought this was a great video and will be helpful. My problem is coming into fast and then floating halfway down the runway. Or, when I try to avoid that, I come down too hard and bounce. That is, if I don't break the gear. LOL this was a very concise video, no extraneous nonsense. I liked it very much.
@@chapmanflying7632 you bring up something I have wondered about for quite some time. That is if the flight simulator controls and the model are actually harder to maneuver than the real thing. I know this to be the case, for example, in driving simulations. I have a steering wheel controller but the cars don't handle anything like a real car. Neither does the controller. And hard to keep them going where you want them to. I guess the degree of resolution of a computer simulation and the real thing is just not the same.
@@BillSmith-rx9rm I'm not a huge fan of flight sims prior to instrument training. The information it deprives you of is precisely what I'm trying to teach my students to be conscious of. Which way is gravity pulling your butt into the seat (are we coordinated)? How does the air sound moving over the fuselage (airspeed + altitude)? Do the flight controls feel firm or mushy (airspeed)? Is the tail buffeting (about to stall)? I also want my students continually scanning the full horizon for traffic, which is technically possible in flight sim, but not something people do. Every simmer I've flown with tends to fixate on the instruments, and want to know what the numbers should be. Takes a few lessons to sort that out.
@@chapmanflying7632 Yes, I understand what you are saying. So since students that come from flight simming focus more on the instruments, does that make them easier to train for their instrument rating?
The techniques may differ because not all trainers fly the same. As a result, there are various (safe) techniques for teaching roundouts and flares. This video is actually pretty decent. I wouldn't call it a “hot mess” or misinformation because it does share quite a few very useful valid tips and techniques. Of course that's just my opinion, and as we all know “opinions” are like noses because everyone has one. Stay safe!
As a CFI with 1500 in Cessnas and tail wheels, I like this video, however I would change the last point if “pulling all the way back” when you sense stall cues. I would teach to keep holding it off until you reach the landing attitude, which for a C172 is “one finger width between the cowling and horizon, or cowling touching horizon depending on seat height. This corresponds to a pitch attitude of 8-10 degrees, which is close to a full stall and the yoke fully aft depending on CG. With 2 in the front it is possible to land with the yoke full aft, but with 1 person or baggage in the rear seat, landing with the the cue to hold the yoke fully aft could result in a tail strike which results at approximately 12.5 degrees in a C172. In summary, land just as you do, but when you get to 1-2 ft, hold it off as long as you can but if you get to the “landing attitude” before the yoke is at the stop, you better stop and let it touch or you will risk a tail strike.
Clear information, when I was in private flight training my instructor showed me that there was more energy in the plane than I thought after touchdown, pulling back on the stick , gliding 2 hundred more feet. After that I would get the stick all the way back as I touched the wheels on the runway.
When did this ban on the term flare get started. When I learned to fly 45 years ago the terms round out and flare were both used together, and small aircraft flared for landing. Round out shallows the flight path and leads into the flare, which reduces airspeed before touchdown. I feel like I've stumbled into the "newspeak" of 1984 here. The video even talks about doing this, but for some reason avoids use of the term flare. This is not helpful.
It seems a lot of viewers like this video and that is good for teaching, but I have never been taught by any CFI to use the term round out. 😃@@gort8203
1:30 -- another way to put this is that after roundout, you are in ground effect. As the plane slows, it will sink -- simply pull back gently to hold that ground effect float. Raising the nose increases drag and slows the plane even more. In most light planes, you will feel control authority draining away with airspeed, so the same amount of gentle pressure on the stick will be enough to keep the stick moving back. Nose goes up more, creating more drag, you get a greater angle of attack, and the plane settles to the runway. Holding the nose off keeps that high drag to help get the plane slow.
Did not know the terminolgy but learned by experience to do this with my remote control airplane flying. One thing I do different with rc airplanes - at least for tricycle gear like in this video - right before touchdown I release the elevator to neutral to level the plane. If I don't do this and it hits the back wheels first then the plane usually starts a bunny hop. If I'm flying tail wheel planes then instead of releasing the elevator to neutral right before touchdown, I pull the elevator full back and pin the tail to the ground. This seems to help prevent ground loops. I don't know if this is technically correct but it works for me. Also, maybe there are some differences between rc planes and full scale (pilot in cockpit) airplanes.
I took a course in fluid mechanics as part of my engineering degree program. My prof was a retired USAF colonel who had flown P-51s in WWII and thereafter was a test pilot. He explained landings a just letting the plane stall, sink, and gently touch down. Yet I don’t think I’ve ever been on a commercial airliner where it seemed that was the practice. I’ve wondered about that. It seems that full stall landings are natural for taildraggers such as the DC-3, P-51, and Piper Cub. A nose high attitude that puts all three wheels parallel to the runway would stall the wing as speed bleeds off. My prof described that as the way to get a very gentle touchdown. Perhaps not so much for tricycle gear?
Very good presentation. The only thing I would add is: to stabilize your approach try using pitch trim to stabilize your airspeed, use power to keep your aim point in the same place in your windshield. If the aim point is “moving” down in the windshield, you are going to overshoot it, reduce power just enough to stop the aim point movement in the windshield. If the aim point is moving up in the windscreen, you are going to undershoot it, add power- do not pull the elevator back. Of course careful attention should always be be given to airspeed to make sure it is remaining at the desired approach speed. If you have properly set the pitch trim, speed shouldn’t change much, only minor power changes are necessary to maintain proper descent to the aim point. I fly heavy piston twin aircraft where power management on descents are mandatory, “power off” landings are not used because the descent angle would resemble that of chrome plated hammer. Even flying heavy twins, the landing process is exactly what has been described in this video. Nice job!
Every pilot must be competent to perform power off landings the first time every time. Never trim to slower than best glide speed no matter how much power you are using.
a friend of mine cured my landing difficulties in my Citabria real simple one afternoon . . . sitting behind me, we pulled onto the runway, and he said "Ok, see out the front? this is how it's gonna look when you get back" Sure enough, that pretty well solved it for me!
Keep the throttle friction lock loose and don't hesitate to add a little power if sinking too fast.... A good practice is to fly the airplane about 1 foot above the runway at "slow flight". Use the Lindbergh reference (side of the windshield) to judge depth perception as a nose high attitude will often affect your vision over the cowling during the flare/touchdown.
After nearly 250 hours of dual control lessons in an Ercoupe, I wanted to fly my instructors Cessna 185 (P&W 400 HP radial engine!). J.G. said "Fine" and I got in the left-hand seat and take-off and flying was GREAT. Now it's time to land, and in the tiny Ercoupe, I had a tree at the start of the grass strip that was my "flare-out" point to stall land at about 30 Knots, 33% flaps. The big 185 is 100 knots FASTER and weighs 6-8 times what the Ercoupe does, and starting my "flare" over the tree, put me halfway down the strip, and at 120 Knots, when I needed 70 knots MAX! PS: The 185 is a "tail-dragger" instead of a tricycle geared Ercoupe. After 8-10 attempts, J.G. says 'Let me have her" and dropped her onto strip so gently, he coulda cracked an egg! I marched back to my beloved Ercoupe, that four guys could CARRY! But climbing out to 13,000 feet in six minutes in the 185 was something! I have 23+ minutes in the right-hand seat of the B-17G-45 "Sentimental Journey" and the "Queen" is EASIER to fly than any other airplane I've even flown! We were at about 65,000 lbs. take-off, and at 7000 feet and 270 knots trimmed up, you can fly her with one finger. Turn-on AFACE and she flies herself, stable as a cruise ship. Four big Wright Cyclones sound and feel like FLYING. I creped her up to 9300 feet but I was freezing the "ducks" (passengers), so I dropped her back down. I paid $1000 to co-pilot her, and today, $5000 for a third of an hour wouldn't pay for fuel and maintenance!
Just nail your approach speed which is very important because you will float down the runway (or worse). Look down to the very end of the runway with the engine at idle and keep her flying for as long as possible; this will make her land on her main wheels first. Keep punching big holes in the big blue. If in doubt, go-around!
It’s a good video for landing technique, but none of these are a full stall landing. A full stall landing is very dramatic and difficult to get right, most all of your energy is spent especially forward momentum, so most of all the energy remaining is in the vertical axis so a large portion of any energy left is dissipated in the landing touchdown. Your height above the runway at this time dictates how firm the landing will be and thus how much or little energy is left after touchdown, and the Hereford how little the ground run will be. But just because the stall warning is sounding, or you have a high nose, this is not a stall landing. A full stall landing will have very little forward movement before the touchdown, and a very small ground run if any at all.
You use pitch for airspeed and power for altitude/descent rate in a normal visual approach. But if you are on an ILS glideslope or on the virtual glidepath of an RNAV approach, for example while using the autopilot, it works the other way: you will have to use power to accelerate if you get too slow.
As someone interested in being a pilot with limited piloted experience from summer camps I really like this video- although long term I don’t think I’ll be able to get a license any time soon because I have ADHD meds and the FAA doesn’t like that.
Nice vid. Great delivery of solid information. Next time, please address differences in the final landing stages between a tail dragger and a tricycle gear setup. Also, please address how newer pilots tend to confuse ground effect with 'true' lift. Too many times newer pilots tend to overly increase sink rate when they first experience the feel of ground effect. It's also good to note that an airframe will tend to speed up when entering ground effect due to the reduced drag from wingtip vortices, reduction of downwash, and increased lift.
Excellent video and short and concise as well. Surprised you didn't mention what the stall horn is doing as well as that is always interesting and adds another input to learning. Well done!
Full stall landings are limited on most aircraft by the angle of attack which would need to reach about 15° before the airplane stalls in Ground effect and with such an angle, the tail typically hits the ground at the moment of impending stall.
Once you understand how everything in your airplane equates to gaining, holding, or losing energy, your competence level as a pilot instantly _tripples._
Thanks everyone for lots of great feedback!
Corrections:
1:39: cues, not queues (cringe)
2:25: the video isn't a good example of a hard landing caused by low approach speed. What's shown is actually just a short field landing. I should have used an animation here instead since I don't have any clips of that mistake.
What about variable winds, Is it still okay to pull back to force stall and achieve that "float" safely?
@@doktorhunggari4415 I teach the same technique for gusts. During primary training, always better to touch down at the minimum energy state possible. Gusts just makes the round out harder. Sometimes you balloon, or plop down prematurely, due to the wind rather than pilot input.
@@chapmanflying7632 Great video -- I do wish the video wasn't so fast-paced. Taking a breath and adding a slight pause in between edits isn't just good for you, it's good for the viewer too. It would be nice to add a text pop-up saying the short field landing is fine because I started to question you when the example did not support your dialogue. Happy new year and thank you!
@@TBolt1 thanks man! Fast paced, single topic, just the meat, is kinda the lane I'm in for these vids. The idea is to keep them short enough that a rewatch isn't painful. I'd add a popup like you're describing but I don't think that's possible.
@@chapmanflying7632 You dismiss TBolt1's first suggestion too readily. It will only add minimally to the length of the vid if you add slight pauses after each point, but add greatly to viewers ability to distinguish the different points you are making and, importantly to absorb the information that is the whole point of watching it. Watching this vid is like trying to read a page of instructions that has no full stops (periods for you Americans?) and no paragraph breaks!
Good content, and I appreciate the effort you've put into it, but it could easily be much better presented, without significant increase in length, by a little attention to this issue.
This 4-minute video is everything I was taught over a period of weeks.
Glider students learn this on their first lesson. Then they use a bunch of lessons to implement it 😀 Theres no go around in gliders. I know, on my fourth flight lesson I ended up in a wheat field that was at the end of the grass field and my instructor let me. Possibly because we were doing a little more than jogging pace and that we were in a Bergfalke III, I swear, that thing was built like a tank. No wonder the royal flying association of sweden chose it to be their main teaching glider back in the 50:s. "Yes this is Scheibe? Hello, this is KSAK, we would like to buy a couple of gliders. OK, How many? Thirteen" 😀 Over the next 20 years the swedish glider clubs imported in excess of 160 gliders.
@@matsgustavsson665 What you learn in gliders is how to handle an engine failure in a powered airplane, after you learn to deal with the much steeper descent angle. But what is missing is how to use the engine to do countless more things which are not possible in a glider. There's no reason to follow glider procedures in a powered airplane. Your argument is illogical.
@itp5x5 honestly, you should maybe look for a new CFI. I’m only a flight simmer, but even I’ve seen “pitch for airspeed, and power for altitude” all over the place. It’s a very common, and simple way to explain landings.
It’s simply amazing when good reason comes one’s way!😂
@@markhughes7927 At 00:43 it's noted 'power for altitude'. In other words, a little propeller that produces about 500lbs of force can hold a +2000lb airplane in the air. Is that what you believe?
I was a CFI of a soaring club and have 140-odd hours as a private pilot. Great video - I’m rather shocked by how few views it has, and how few subscribers you picked up.
Thanks man! I'm making these as ground lessons to share with students prior to each flight (save us both from the headache of long drawn-out ground sessions). Promoting this channel isn't really a goal, but if people see them and find them useful, all the better!
@@chapmanflying7632 ah that is why the video is so good. No “hello! What’s up? Please hit the subscribe…” or other filler fluff. Thank you very much.
Possibly because full stall landings might help a student bracket the kind of landing they should be doing, but they aren't the end goal and shouldn't be promoted as an acceptable landing technique.
Stall attitude landing = good.
Stall landing = bad.
Fantastic presentation. I wish I had this when I went through my first PPL lessons! And it does not matter how much you have already flown, a refresher on the essentials is always useful. Well explained and visualised, no nonsense and to the point. Keep up the great work.
1966, Piper Colt, working towards a private pilot license, I recall THE best landing up to then. It was a tough-go but in my happiness I almost forgot to add power and take off! Perfect landings, at least for me, were rare but joyous occasions. Thanks for bringing those memories back.
Having spent most of my working life flying jet airliners, I think putting the wheels on the ground in the correct spot is of the utmost importance to a safe landing
If you can achieve the following three things all will be ok. Stay on track, on speed and on profile ( slope). If you can do these three things regardless of what else is going on then you are a good pilot.
To be a great pilot ( in the eyes of the airline that is) you need to also be on time.
Landing in the correct spot is good but we are also expected to do so from an on-speed, stabilised approach every time. A smooth touchdown is just the icing on the cake. But don’t get to hung up about meeting schedule. If you are hit with departure or en-route delays there is little you can do other than steal a few minutes. What a good airline does is provide you with the instant cost or effect of a delayed arrival. If it’s zero then take it easy.
@@Trevor_Austin As I said, on speed, on track and on profile. And in jet aircraft, don’t forget to arm the speed break for landing. The large airline I work for has now prohibited us from landing in heavy rain. We have to ensure we have enough fuel to ether hold till the rain eases or divert. Along with tightening up the stable approach criteria.
With the advent and mandating of the enhanced ground proximity warning system controlled flight into terrain is no longer the biggest threat. Loss of control and runway excursions now being top of the list for accidents.
Pretty much all runway excursions occur in heavy rain or snow, and usually associated with touching down to fast or to deep.
@Tech What exactly sounds wrong?
@@Trevor_Austin Learn to read before replying.
@@mitseraffej5812 I am guessing the reason pilots are touching down too fast is not related too often to actual errors where the pilot was overzealous/confident. Would the errors be more related to attempting to maintain airspeed to buffer gusty conditions opting for increased controllability in the air over less deadly problems after touchdown?
I feel it's often overlooked outside of the tactical aircraft community, but it's important to remember that "pitch for airspeed" is not so much about airspeed in particular but about aoa. Pitch up to increase aoa, pitch down to decrease aoa. Landing on-speed AOA is how you avoid bouncing if you're fast or dropping if you're slow. Personally, I'd like to see AOA indicators/indexers added to GA aircraft as they're something you use literally every flight in tactical aircraft, though I've seen not only ambivalence but even pushback from GA pilots about it on forums for some reason.
For us obvious "jerks" WTH is 'aoa' ??
@@u2mister17 Angle of Attack
@@jonathanbaird8109 Thanks.
AOA at touchdown seems what this video is about.
No one is talking 30,000 ft, G-loads, bank angles, just stall at touchdown.
@@u2mister17 I made that comment after seeing the "throttle for descent, pitch for speed" comment in the video. That phrase gets thrown around a lot and I wanted to address it.
AOA is not a considerstion in GA , airline and civilian jet operations. Our AOA indicators are for advisory only and not a primary flight instrument on 100 million USD jets.
Unfortunately many civilians don’t even understand AOA in detail.
Straight to the point, good explanation. I've seen so many CFIs trying to explain something and not been able to find the words.
Good job my friend 👍👍👏
edging the plane
A literal child wrote this and I’m ashamed to say I laughed audibly at this
Same…😢. 😂
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Funniest 💩 ever
😂😂😂
You are banned
This just turned up in my feed unannounced and uninvited. But it encapsulates everything I was taught and gave me a new way of looking at a few things. IOW, it put it all together in a nice little package. Thanks Chapman Flying, whoever you are!
I once observed many landings, thousands of them, using a full stall. it was the "Gooney Birds" on the Midway Islands (the "Layson Albatross" and the "Blackfooted Albatross"). They come in, often just gliding (they glide really well with their over 6-foot wingspans) and get low to the ground. Maybe flap a little and stall in the air maybe a foot above the ground and just gently settle straight down. On many TV shows, you will see them tripping and tumbling upon landing. But this is only the first day or two after returning to land from living at sea. Young ones can live at sea for up to five years before returning to land and get used to landing on water where they do NOT completely stall and sort of water ski in a little. When they try that on land, they get tripped up. But they learn fast. Also, if one lands on a building for some reason, it will starve to death if somebody doesn't help get it off the building. They need a long running takeoff and without it they don't try. They don't understand they could just hop off the roof edge and be flying. I don't know if there is anything pilots can learn from watching a bird like this. Maybe.
It was only on the next to last line when I figured out you were talking about actual birds instead of planes. I seem to remember a plane with the nickname "Gooney Bird".
@@victorbasta7359 The C-47 was named the "Gooney Bird" after the birds.
What happens when you try to help a gooney on a roof? Do they just run around until you catch them?
@@robertbrandywine They might resist some. And you have to be very careful about them fighting you and slashing you with the very sharp tip of their beak. When I lived on the island (as I suspect it still is) it was illegal to touch or molest the birds in any way. It was a national bird sanctuary. One time a few of us violated this this when told if you remove the egg from their nest and put something else there, they will try and hatch the something else. So, I helped move a bird off the nest and another fellow removed the egg and replaced it with a football. The bird pondered it for a while, and then got up on top of the football and straddled it where its little webbed feet could barely reach the ground. Of course, we returned the egg right away and everything was fine. I never helped on a roof but knew others that did. I would say they are less of a handful than, say, a goose. Perhaps more like a chicken, just a really big one. Of course, on the building, you just need to shove them off into the air. They know what to do then. Also, they take turns sitting on the egg for days, even weeks, at a time. The only time they get any water is when it rains. And you see them with their beaks open and up trying to catch water. We tried to give water to some of them and they wouldn't have anything to do with it.
@@trainliker100 Such an unusual species!
I don't know, man: the footage of the Champ touchdown was PERFECT. Full-stall, three point, and a definitive transition from flight to rollout. Posting it as an example of lack of elevator authority due to slow VREF and a hard touchdown seems a bit much.
You're right, that clip was staged on purpose and I didn't want to break my plane by dropping it in harder. When I saw the footage I was disappointed. Felt pretty rough from inside the plane, but from outside it looked like a nice short field. I agree with your comment that it doesn't quite work as a negative example, but I didn't think it was important enough to re-shoot. That was the last clip I cut in and I was tired of working on the project.
@@chapmanflying7632 Cool, I toned down my initial response, I was a little bit of a dick. Thanks for what you're doing with these videos.
@@LJDRVR no worries man, I deserve it for all the dickishness I've thrown out over the years. Wish youtube would let people edit vids in response to feedback.
@@chapmanflying7632 I also thought that the Champ TD was a perfect short-field landing for a tailwheel! Also, fwiw, even 6000 feet or so is a 'short-field' runway for an airliner ... and I used to always tell myself and my first officers when landing at places like LGA - Accuracy is Job One! Smoothness does not count on this runway." (the over runs at LGA by even a few feet become disastrous. ouch.).. anyway - again - nice job with this video.
I got my PPL in 82V, wasn't expecting to run across her again in a random youtube video! Lots of good memories at I73. Nice informative video, keep it up.
Come fly her again!
Well this was just a great video to watch. I’ve been landing too flat (as you can tell by my recent vids) and otherwise ballooning my landings when trying to flare more adequately. This video makes it so much clearer.
After a lifetime of flight instructing and examining the one aspect which was most difficult for the student pilot to accept was that the pilots responsibility is to 'fly' the aircraft to the appropriate position regarding direction and height and attitude over the runway. If the throttle is fully closed gravity will do the rest.
Yeah. The best way to land is to try not to land is sort of saying the same thing.
This reminds me of when I was 9 year's old(1981). We got our first airplane (N51305) a Cessna 150J. The grey paint will later to be found out to have been radar absorbent paint. The RG on the tail stands for Roger's county in Oklahoma and most of the stickers on the nose are from Edwards Air Force Base.
As you were talking about it, I could actually see it. It was scary the first few times landing. We had a tail skid added to help avoid tail strikes.
I remember my Chipmunk days in the early 60’s when I was taught to round out and bring the stick back progressively until the full stall angle was reached and then the aircraft would sit down gently on its three wheels. Always was very satisfying when done properly. It certainly put my landings in good stead for future flying experiences when full stall landings were preferable to greasers.
"Greasers"?
@@wmason1961 A landing when the main wheels kiss the ground without bouncing and the aeroplane continues along the runway until the tailwheel finally lowers itself to assume a 3 point attitude. This style of would usually bring forth admiring comments from our peers .
This pleasure is not usually enjoyed in this day and age with the almost total use of tricycle undercarriages
Cheers from Downunder 👍🇦🇺
@@michaelrussell5346 The term is still common in the USA to refer to a particularly smooth landing in any fixed wing aircraft. Well, I think it's common, anyway
@@jonathanbaird8109 👍🇦🇺🇺🇸 cheers mate.
@@wmason1961 greasers, where you grease the wheels onto the runway. Smooth, so you barely notice the touchdown.
Excellent explanations behind the techniques. An extremely well done video.
This is the most exceptional video I’ve ever seen of landing procedure in a single engine airplane.
Thank you!
@@chapmanflying7632 and all the shots are yours? Dude, you have a gift for making instructional content like this. Keep going!There’s another fortune waiting for you beside being a pilot.
@@matthewrammig Thanks man! Also, your covers. Wow.
I have very few hours of seat time in a 172, but this is definitely something my instructor taught me. Round out as closely as possible to the ground and stall the aircraft to land. He would say "hold it hold it hold it" and then we would touch down. Gave me a greater level of confidence.
Wish this was explained so clearly when I was learning to fly. Simple, easy, and very clear - great explanation, thank you.😀
Pitch plus power = performance. If power is fixed (full power climb or idle descent), pitch controls airspeed. If power isn't fixed, then pitch controls attitude and hence altitude while power now controls airspeed.
one of the best videos I have watched until now that explains the exact process to be followed for a safe and perfect landing
When I was learning to fly, it was taught that we focus on the end of the runway during the flair as a way to keep the aircraft flying in a straight line for a nice landing. At some point this knowledge got shifted into my subconscious, and for years I was landing with no problems at all. One day I was landing at an unfamiliar airstrip that had a row of houses along one side. There was a cross wind that day, and I didn’t realise at the time that the houses were mashing up the steady cross wind and I lost about 20kts in and instant about 10 feet off the ground. The aircraft stalled and came down really hard. The incident severely knocked my confidence and I couldn’t land well after that. I got an instructor to check me out to figure out what I was doing, and he just said “hey where are your eyes pointing” and suddenly I was back to doing nice landings again.
After talking to several of my IRL pilot friends about this, it seems everyone has their own favorite place to look. All that matters is that it's constant. Personally I don't like using the end of the runway, because that distance varies from one airport to the next. But if it's working for you, sweet.
If you ever think about flying bigger planes, don't watch this. As a private bush pilot you can do whatever you want, but there are way better ways of doing it. Keep the approach path going to your aiming point (correct, not the one shown on the video) with yoke (pitch/roll) and use power/thrust for speed. Flare slightly in the end and cut the power early enough when entering the ground effect (with small planes one wingspan over ground, not 5ft). Learn it the correct way from the beginning and it will be easier to fly the bigger planes one day. Additionally you will end up doing tail strikes with this technique pulling too much on the yoke or doing some aerodynamic braking. I was first taught the wrong way and had to learn the right way in flight school before going for the airlines. Don't just take my word for it, ask any other airline pilot how they fly.
Imagine thinking that an airliner should be flown like a skyhawk.
@@bhc1892 And vice versa. From the Handbook - "The pilot who has acquired necessary skills during training, and develops these skills by flying training-type airplanes with precision and safe flying habits, is able to easily transition to more complex and higher performance airplanes."
You are completely correct. And yes, it's pitch for altitude (glideslope) and power for speed, although in reality both of those have to be adjusted nearly simultaneously.
Great explanation, pretty much exactly how my CFI explained it. Made my first successful landing without his input about 4 hours into training although it felt longer. He didn’t like to say “flare” but rather emphasized that I needed to be levelling off just above the runway and flying it along until the lift was all gone. I definitely failed to keep the yoke in my lap after touchdown a few times and that gets your attention quick in a tail wheel aircraft. Have only done 3 pt landings so far, looking forward to learning wheel landings.
😅
Thanks man! Good luck with wheel landings. They're my favorite. I'm going to do a tailwheel series in a few months, probably not on your timeline. In the meantime, if you want to see how I teach wheel landings, this is me teaching them to a friend at the time. ua-cam.com/video/sAp5S7WWB3Y/v-deo.html
When I was a kid doing my Private Pilot Check Ride, with Paul Argus being the FAA Guy (I never forgot his name) well, he had me land at the Pomona Airfield near Atlantic City NJ, a 5000 foot runway, and he had me do the approach with an airspeed of 100 mph, so he could test me on being able to control through what you call the Roundout, but which the rest of the Aviation World calls the Flare Out. I was able to do it, keeping the Piper Cherokee a few feet above the runway the entire time, without ballooning, and then was able to full stall it for a soft touchdown, and Mr. Argus signed my form. Thumbs Up! Thanks for the memories.
Sure wish I would have seen this video when I was starting to learn to fly!! Definitely the very best landing video I've ever seen!
Yes Sir....that's how I learned. Real tire "rollers"in a Cessna 150 with 40* of flaps. I had a great instructor. Our field was 33' wide, 3000" long tucked in tree lines. I'd go over to "huge field" with a 120' wide 6000' long to practice crosswind. Man, I could land and takeoff 3times...LOL Good vid, thanks
I've never had a single lesson in flying. I fly a couple of flight sims (DCS and FS2020) and, for civilian aircraft, I land exactly as this video explains. A Navy (aircraft carrier) landing is quite different so I won't discuss this. The full stall landing is perfect for non-military landings. Thank you for the video.
1:38 - One thing to keep in mind at this stage is a strong enough headwind gust can absolutely pop you back up into the air. Probably the second scariest moment I ever had in an airplane was a very extreme case of this. Stall buzzer going off as I'm just a few feet above the runway about to touchdown, then suddenly I could hear and "feel" the wind gust hard, I see the airspeed jump up, the stall buzzer stops, and I pop 20 or so feet into the air. Before I even have time to react to this, the wind just dies, the airspeed drops, the stall buzzer comes back on, and I slam down hard into the runway.
I have not gotten to do a landing as pilot in command for over 30 years. I appreciate this video. I have an Ercoupe with rudder pedals and no flaps so I will have to land a little flat but this is still great information.
Pitch for altitude, power for airspeed unless power is fixed. If power is fixed pitch controls airspeed and altitude.
Amazing video. Ive decided on a career change after a major injury last year, and Im getting ready to start flight lessons soon. This video makes it feel accessible for anyone. Thank you! Subbed.
Take your medical exam first.
0:41 that is such a crystal clear explanation. understanding this would save lives.
Excellent tutorial. I impressed my wife of 40 years on our first date by greasing a C172 landing. The technique was adding full flaps and a pinch of power just short of the fence while flying into a light headwind directly down the runway. The plane touched on in a full stall as light as a cloud with just some quiet chirps from the mains and no vibration at all. If conditions were right I would always use this technique and my best flying buddy called me "old smoothie" by greasing one on this way right past the nose of an L1011 holding short at the Toronto International Airport back in 1975. This tutorial is good for tail draggers too and my first landing in one was a grease job in a North American SNJ Harvard (navy version of the T6 Texan.)
I didn't watch this video with sound, but the graphics are excellent in describing all the things that go into a landing! Great tool for a CFI to help students visualize.
Great to hear you say that because one of my goals for all the videos is that the voice track should be disposable. I intend to use these for in-person ground schools where I mute the audio and use the video like animated powerpoint slides.
I love seeing 24A used as an example in this video. One of my favorite places to fly into!
My last flight was 8 landings at 3 different airports. 7 of those were good! I feel that I’ve discovered my trick for good landings. For me it’s watching the speed as I flare and trying to not loose speed but rather hold it up only slightly enough to let the speed bleed off as gently as possible as I pull more to slightly hear the stall vane. So I will scan my speed repeatedly until I’m fully landed. Hope that helps someone. Thanks for sharing your video.
As a former glider pilot, when I learned to fly powered aircraft I would always use pitch for airspeed, and therefore power for altitude. It worked perfectly, and rarely got you into a stall situation.
This video made me start installing FS 2020 again and just practice landings in a bog standard Cessna; you explained so well the things I thought I understood (power for altitude, elevators for speed) and then went even more in-depth as to /why/ and explained that perfectly simple as well. Kudos, and thanks!
P.S. nice video clips as well. I want a good controller stack now for the lefty throttle, righty controls action
pretty sure the game crashed before you did.
Exceptional instruction! Accurate, concise, and very clear.
That is such an awesome Video!!!! So perfectly balanced everything you need to know reduced to only the important steps but with enough detail and extraordinarily good animations!!!
Additional tip to judge altitude during the flare is to monitor the runway out the side window. Watching the runway motion out the area to the left of the cowling gives you a better perception of height off the ground than only focusing ahead (where you can't see much if you have no flaps or are in a taildragger anyways)
I watched a lot of videos so far, but this is the best explained video I got 🙏
Great video, thank you!
Next week we will address carrier landings
Probably the best, most concise explanation I've ever seen.
great tip about pitching back for extra weight on the main wheels when braking
Not so great if you think about steering with the help of a nose gear.
Well done on packing so much good information into one short video - I loved it! I agree with everything except for your recommending using elevator for speed, especially so close to the ground. (The speed should already be set by trim and throttle setting during base turn.) In our flight school, we teach elevator for attitude and power for aspect and speed adjustment when on finals. We use the same method as airliners - Maintain the glideslope with power and pitch the nose with elevator.
Earlier in the final approach, the elevator can be used momentarily to raise or lower the nose to adjust speed. But from that point onward, once correct aimpoint, glideslope aspect and airspeed are attained, they are managed with power for arresting sink (recatching the glideslope), or flaps/sideslip for excessive height. The elevator is used to maintain aimpoint (but may have to be adjusted slightly due to power applications where needed in order to keep that aimpoint). Power to idle for transition (or earlier) and elevator to arrest sink during the flare till stall. I hope you dont mind my five cents worth - This is one of the best landing videos Ive ever seen.
Tell this to any pilot who flies aircraft with auto throttle and they will smile-AP is using throttle to control speed and elevator is used to control pitch.Even when hand flying, during ILS or RNAV APP a bug is kept centered using elevator first (then throttle is used to help maintain constant speed) this allows for a very precise control. When hand flying throttle and elevator are simultaneously used to be on a specific glide path anyway.
I think, this subject is controversial like deciding how a lift is created-Bernoulli vs Newton vs…..
@ATOMEK2025 Thanks for your reply. Great points you make. Yes I agree its a contraversial one. I think we use the airliner method just to keep things standardised. My CFI learned in the airforce who taught this way. I think it might be a touch easier for a student to understand than playing with power and elevator hoping to get it right. Its a scary world making one of your first landings, trying to put into practice that stuff you learned in the theory brief while battling a highly dynamic final glide environment
Flying gliders is a great way to hone these skills - the airbrakes/spoilers control works just like the throttle, so it's airspeed control with pitch, glide-slope control with the brakes.
And you only get one chance... lol
I have my PPL just got it this past month but I will continue watching these types of videos so that I’m always sharp
Congrats man! Great feeling.
Just a flight simmer here, but I thought this was a great video and will be helpful. My problem is coming into fast and then floating halfway down the runway. Or, when I try to avoid that, I come down too hard and bounce. That is, if I don't break the gear. LOL this was a very concise video, no extraneous nonsense. I liked it very much.
I feel ya man, I can't land a sim either.
@@chapmanflying7632 you bring up something I have wondered about for quite some time. That is if the flight simulator controls and the model are actually harder to maneuver than the real thing. I know this to be the case, for example, in driving simulations. I have a steering wheel controller but the cars don't handle anything like a real car. Neither does the controller. And hard to keep them going where you want them to. I guess the degree of resolution of a computer simulation and the real thing is just not the same.
@@BillSmith-rx9rm I'm not a huge fan of flight sims prior to instrument training. The information it deprives you of is precisely what I'm trying to teach my students to be conscious of. Which way is gravity pulling your butt into the seat (are we coordinated)? How does the air sound moving over the fuselage (airspeed + altitude)? Do the flight controls feel firm or mushy (airspeed)? Is the tail buffeting (about to stall)? I also want my students continually scanning the full horizon for traffic, which is technically possible in flight sim, but not something people do. Every simmer I've flown with tends to fixate on the instruments, and want to know what the numbers should be. Takes a few lessons to sort that out.
@@chapmanflying7632 Yes, I understand what you are saying. So since students that come from flight simming focus more on the instruments, does that make them easier to train for their instrument rating?
@@BillSmith-rx9rm flight sim is complimentary to instrument training since that cert is mostly about procedures.
i will watch this a million times cause im going for the no license plane...i have flown model planes and sim and am confident
The techniques may differ because not all trainers fly the same. As a result, there are various (safe) techniques for teaching roundouts and flares. This video is actually pretty decent. I wouldn't call it a “hot mess” or misinformation because it does share quite a few very useful valid tips and techniques. Of course that's just my opinion, and as we all know “opinions” are like noses because everyone has one. Stay safe!
As a CFI with 1500 in Cessnas and tail wheels, I like this video, however I would change the last point if “pulling all the way back” when you sense stall cues. I would teach to keep holding it off until you reach the landing attitude, which for a C172 is “one finger width between the cowling and horizon, or cowling touching horizon depending on seat height. This corresponds to a pitch attitude of 8-10 degrees, which is close to a full stall and the yoke fully aft depending on CG. With 2 in the front it is possible to land with the yoke full aft, but with 1 person or baggage in the rear seat, landing with the the cue to hold the yoke fully aft could result in a tail strike which results at approximately 12.5 degrees in a C172. In summary, land just as you do, but when you get to 1-2 ft, hold it off as long as you can but if you get to the “landing attitude” before the yoke is at the stop, you better stop and let it touch or you will risk a tail strike.
Terrific! Not a pilot, not a subscriber. I am now one of those!
Kindest
Bob
England
Clear information, when I was in private flight training my instructor showed me that there was more energy in the plane than I thought after touchdown, pulling back on the stick , gliding 2 hundred more feet. After that I would get the stick all the way back as I touched the wheels on the runway.
Thank you for not using flare as a term. As small aircraft pilots we round out and touch down. Very good video
When did this ban on the term flare get started. When I learned to fly 45 years ago the terms round out and flare were both used together, and small aircraft flared for landing. Round out shallows the flight path and leads into the flare, which reduces airspeed before touchdown. I feel like I've stumbled into the "newspeak" of 1984 here. The video even talks about doing this, but for some reason avoids use of the term flare. This is not helpful.
It seems a lot of viewers like this video and that is good for teaching, but I have never been taught by any CFI to use the term round out. 😃@@gort8203
1:30 -- another way to put this is that after roundout, you are in ground effect. As the plane slows, it will sink -- simply pull back gently to hold that ground effect float. Raising the nose increases drag and slows the plane even more. In most light planes, you will feel control authority draining away with airspeed, so the same amount of gentle pressure on the stick will be enough to keep the stick moving back. Nose goes up more, creating more drag, you get a greater angle of attack, and the plane settles to the runway. Holding the nose off keeps that high drag to help get the plane slow.
You can also use flaps to dump the lift. We used to practice landing on the numbers and stopping before the end of the numbers.
Did not know the terminolgy but learned by experience to do this with my remote control airplane flying. One thing I do different with rc airplanes - at least for tricycle gear like in this video - right before touchdown I release the elevator to neutral to level the plane. If I don't do this and it hits the back wheels first then the plane usually starts a bunny hop.
If I'm flying tail wheel planes then instead of releasing the elevator to neutral right before touchdown, I pull the elevator full back and pin the tail to the ground. This seems to help prevent ground loops.
I don't know if this is technically correct but it works for me. Also, maybe there are some differences between rc planes and full scale (pilot in cockpit) airplanes.
This 4 minute video taught me everything I was doing wrong on my landings nice
Great video. Never check forward too with the yoke after touchdown … always let the nose wheel fall onto the runway by gravity .
Thanks for this video. I love landing planes because of the beauty of the process. It was nice to see it succinctly condensed.
yes. stick and rudder landing is poetry in motion.
I took a course in fluid mechanics as part of my engineering degree program. My prof was a retired USAF colonel who had flown P-51s in WWII and thereafter was a test pilot.
He explained landings a just letting the plane stall, sink, and gently touch down. Yet I don’t think I’ve ever been on a commercial airliner where it seemed that was the practice. I’ve wondered about that.
It seems that full stall landings are natural for taildraggers such as the DC-3, P-51, and Piper Cub. A nose high attitude that puts all three wheels parallel to the runway would stall the wing as speed bleeds off. My prof described that as the way to get a very gentle touchdown. Perhaps not so much for tricycle gear?
I've heard about stall landings before. This gave me a lot of insight on how to do it :)
Very good presentation. The only thing I would add is: to stabilize your approach try using pitch trim to stabilize your airspeed, use power to keep your aim point in the same place in your windshield. If the aim point is “moving” down in the windshield, you are going to overshoot it, reduce power just enough to stop the aim point movement in the windshield. If the aim point is moving up in the windscreen, you are going to undershoot it, add power- do not pull the elevator back. Of course careful attention should always be be given to airspeed to make sure it is remaining at the desired approach speed. If you have properly set the pitch trim, speed shouldn’t change much, only minor power changes are necessary to maintain proper descent to the aim point. I fly heavy piston twin aircraft where power management on descents are mandatory, “power off” landings are not used because the descent angle would resemble that of chrome plated hammer. Even flying heavy twins, the landing process is exactly what has been described in this video. Nice job!
Every pilot must be competent to perform power off landings the first time every time.
Never trim to slower than best glide speed no matter how much power you are using.
Excellent video examples of what you were talking about. Very well done. Thank you.
a friend of mine cured my landing difficulties in my Citabria real simple one afternoon . . . sitting behind me, we pulled onto the runway, and he said "Ok, see out the front? this is how it's gonna look when you get back" Sure enough, that pretty well solved it for me!
This video is awesome! I'm saving this for my students, the visuals are great!
best video I've ever seen explaining how to land a GA plane
I feel like this one video helped me improve my landings
Keep the throttle friction lock loose and don't hesitate to add a little power if sinking too fast.... A good practice is to fly the airplane about 1 foot above the runway at "slow flight". Use the Lindbergh reference (side of the windshield) to judge depth perception as a nose high attitude will often affect your vision over the cowling during the flare/touchdown.
I was watching without sound and at first couldn't figure out what "stall queues" were. Finally realized, it probably meant "stall cues."
After nearly 250 hours of dual control lessons in an Ercoupe, I wanted to fly my instructors Cessna 185 (P&W 400 HP radial engine!). J.G. said "Fine" and I got in the left-hand seat and take-off and flying was GREAT. Now it's time to land, and in the tiny Ercoupe, I had a tree at the start of the grass strip that was my "flare-out" point to stall land at about 30 Knots, 33% flaps. The big 185 is 100 knots FASTER and weighs 6-8 times what the Ercoupe does, and starting my "flare" over the tree, put me halfway down the strip, and at 120 Knots, when I needed 70 knots MAX! PS: The 185 is a "tail-dragger" instead of a tricycle geared Ercoupe. After 8-10 attempts, J.G. says 'Let me have her" and dropped her onto strip so gently, he coulda cracked an egg! I marched back to my beloved Ercoupe, that four guys could CARRY! But climbing out to 13,000 feet in six minutes in the 185 was something! I have 23+ minutes in the right-hand seat of the B-17G-45 "Sentimental Journey" and the "Queen" is EASIER to fly than any other airplane I've even flown! We were at about 65,000 lbs. take-off, and at 7000 feet and 270 knots trimmed up, you can fly her with one finger. Turn-on AFACE and she flies herself, stable as a cruise ship. Four big Wright Cyclones sound and feel like FLYING. I creped her up to 9300 feet but I was freezing the "ducks" (passengers), so I dropped her back down. I paid $1000 to co-pilot her, and today, $5000 for a third of an hour wouldn't pay for fuel and maintenance!
I'm glad YT recommended this, just commenting for the algorithm.
This video is so educative that this contains most of core knowledge for landing cessna
This is such a good video 🫨 thank you for clearly explaining things! 😭
Just nail your approach speed which is very important because you will float down the runway (or worse). Look down to the very end of the runway with the engine at idle and keep her flying for as long as possible; this will make her land on her main wheels first.
Keep punching big holes in the big blue. If in doubt, go-around!
This is very good. One thing though.... I was taught 'pitch for airspeed' and 'power for rate of descent' not 'power for altitude'....
It’s a good video for landing technique, but none of these are a full stall landing. A full stall landing is very dramatic and difficult to get right, most all of your energy is spent especially forward momentum, so most of all the energy remaining is in the vertical axis so a large portion of any energy left is dissipated in the landing touchdown. Your height above the runway at this time dictates how firm the landing will be and thus how much or little energy is left after touchdown, and the Hereford how little the ground run will be. But just because the stall warning is sounding, or you have a high nose, this is not a stall landing. A full stall landing will have very little forward movement before the touchdown, and a very small ground run if any at all.
No rollout when the full stall of the wings is somewhere around 50-80 knots? Hmmm. I just don't see it.
NOTHING LIKE SOME GOOD OLD INFO ABOUT PLANES BEFORE SCHOOL!!! i love ur vids btw
Well done! Very good video! You packed a lot of great information into a very short and concise video!
You use pitch for airspeed and power for altitude/descent rate in a normal visual approach. But if you are on an ILS glideslope or on the virtual glidepath of an RNAV approach, for example while using the autopilot, it works the other way: you will have to use power to accelerate if you get too slow.
As someone interested in being a pilot with limited piloted experience from summer camps I really like this video- although long term I don’t think I’ll be able to get a license any time soon because I have ADHD meds and the FAA doesn’t like that.
Best easy to understand training video. Simple, easy....nice!
Its amazing how pitch for speed power for altitude changes to pitch for altitude power for speed when you progress into commercial flying :)
Very nice video on full stall landings. Thank you.
Nice vid. Great delivery of solid information. Next time, please address differences in the final landing stages between a tail dragger and a tricycle gear setup.
Also, please address how newer pilots tend to confuse ground effect with 'true' lift. Too many times newer pilots tend to overly increase sink rate when they first experience the feel of ground effect. It's also good to note that an airframe will tend to speed up when entering ground effect due to the reduced drag from wingtip vortices, reduction of downwash, and increased lift.
This conversation is a testament to the power of women coming together to share knowledge and experience.
Amazing. This video will help me tons with my training. Thank you so much!
The summery at the end was perfect. Exactly how I required students to fly.
you should make more videos like this! you are amazing at teaching
As an Australian RAAUS pilot, brilliant vid!
Thanks man, glad people are still enjoying it over a year later!
Love the sound of that stall warning horn !!!!! Home again .. !
Excellent video and short and concise as well. Surprised you didn't mention what the stall horn is doing as well as that is always interesting and adds another input to learning. Well done!
Full stall landings are limited on most aircraft by the angle of attack which would need to reach about 15° before the airplane stalls in Ground effect and with such an angle, the tail typically hits the ground at the moment of impending stall.
The preferred phraseology over roundout is more known as the flare.
Once you understand how everything in your airplane equates to gaining, holding, or losing energy, your competence level as a pilot instantly _tripples._
Ground Effect is a key component that deserved explanation…
Fair point. Would have been nice to at least get a mention in. Oh well. Wasn't expecting quite as much visibility when I posted it.
@@chapmanflying7632 … you did a great job. Wish I had this kind of visual when I was learning. I’m 70.