Ok.. Back on topic.

One thing that I always tell new folks, something that my instructor taught me when I was having some problems coming in for a landing. I seemed to keep coming in to far away from me, away from the runway centerline. It seems a natural thing to do.. don't want to get hit by the plane, now do we.

Well, the plane is usually further away than we realize but being new, the tendency is to fly it away from us. In fact, my second plane, my Tiger 60, took quite a beating when I kept landing it on or next to the berm at the opposite side of the runway from me. Since our main field is a full-scale runway, there is a bit of a down slope on each side of the runway to let water run into a ditch, more so on the opposite side of our pilot stands. I put it in that darned ditch several times causing me some problems with the nosegear.

He was watching me one day and told me "Just fly it straight towards you on final. Watch it closely, and adjust your throttle as necessary to get it to come in on a nice glide slope. Don't worry about it hitting you, it won't".

So, I tried it and it worked. My landings started to be right on the runway centerline and, right in front of me. So, aside from all the other stuff we learn, keeping things basic during our finals is something worth focusing on to get it right, and again, practice practice practice.

CGr.