Villa

Hi oldfartpilot and a70eliminator
At age 77 I'm an oldfartpilot also. The following may help both of you: Every now and then I hear someone at the field mention that they crashed during a landing because “THE WIND GOT THEM”. This looks like a strong downdraft pushed the plane into the ground. That ever happen to you? Since I always insist on determining the cause of every one of my crashes, I kept questioning that “THE WIND GOT ME” reason, since I used it also. Then I realized that these types of crashes always happened when the plane was very far away, or when I was landing at a much different angle to me than usual.

I am now convinced that these types of crashes are due to the wing stalling. Yes, stalling. The plane falls straight down because the wing lost lift. And the reason is that the plane is so far away and almost coming toward you, that you have lost your ability to estimate the air speed. So it stalls and crashes. My answer is to land the plane directly in front of you as much as possible, going right to left, or left to right, only. In that location you will be better able to judge the air speed of the plane, and how far off the ground it is. Use the throttle and the elevator during the full length of the landing approach to position the plane to touch down near to “in front of you”. Throttle extends the landing point, while elevator shortens the landing point. I usually hold a little throttle during the landing and only go to idle in the last foot or two of elevation. Please give this idea some thought. I would appreciate hearing any input on this.