So, how do you land?
We were at the field yesterday to assess a new member for his turbine waiver flight sign-off. I had performed the first flight of his model, set it up to my preferences and coached him through the buddy-box phase over the last few weeks.
It was a challenging day as there was zero wind, making good circuit planning essential to achieve a neat landing. After the first waiver flight, we spent a flight just shooting approaches with verbal coaching for the appropriate positioning etc. before final successful 'solo' to achieve his waiver.
Afterwards, we discussed the various landing methods that we tend to use, so I thought I'd open it up to the wider community.
For all my models I use 3 Flight Modes; Flaps Up, Take Off Flap and Landing Flap, with the model fully trimmed in each Flight Mode.
After a mid (take-off) flap, gear down gear pass for a gear check, I select Landing Flap about mid-way along downwind, and control any transient ballooning with elevator to keep a level flight path. I let the speed bleed off and then select a power setting to maintain level flight for the rest of downwind. Once this trimmed 'hands-off' condition is set, the model is trimmed at the nominal final approach speed, and I fly the rest of the pattern to the flare at this speed with minimal elevator inputs.
I use the base and/ or finals turn to initiate the descent to intercept the final approach path and then use power to maintain the correct glide-slope, essentially hands-off the elevator the entire time apart from any major 'gross' adjustments to the flight path, which are immediately followed up by a power correction. At the appropriate time, power is then pulled back and the elevator used to initiate the flare to touchdown.
Other pilots commented that they prefer to hold elevator (up or down, not sure) to 'feel' the model on approach, but I find that tends to result in a very variable approach speed.
Just like full-size, given that elevator controls Angle of Attack and hence speed, and power setting controls flight path you can end up with a very consistent approach speed by flying a correctly trimmed approach. If you are sinking, don't use elevator to flatten the approach, just add a few clicks of power until you re-intercept the correct flight path.
On a windy day, just add more power on finals to compensate for the slower ground speed. Also add a few clicks of down trim to increase the trimmed speed to account for wind gradient and gusts if necessary.
So, how do you land???
Paul