New to the hobbie haven't even flown for more than a miniute or two on someone elses plane,actually,I did little more than hold the radio.Real nervious about my first landing.I've read about this technique for landing refered to as "flair",could some one please explain this as it seems like the way to go.Also how do you do it?I've read that the best way to land a plane is to try not to land it?!?could someone please explain?

Landing by "trying not to land" :
As the plane gets closer to the ground and is flying slower, you give it more up elevator, holding the wheels off the ground but NOT letting the plane start climbing. If you get it right, the plane stalls just as the wheels touch down.

The flair ( normal method):
With the plane in a shallow glideing descent, just a couple of feet befor the ground yo add a bit of up elevator to slow the plane down and make the plane's path much more close to parallel t the ground. The wheels touch while the plane still has enough speed to fly and just by adding power... it will lift off again.

You can combine the two, by having the flair point be close to the ground and out just prior to the end of the runway.

These take practice and timing toget right. The worst thing to do is to hold the plane's nose up too much while its 3 to 6 ft off the ground... it stalls and will have just enough room to drop a wng and cartwheel down the runway. (lCartwheel: land on a wingtp, then the nose then the other wintip then the tail.... tossing pieces as it goes)

FHH nailed it . I tell my students to try and keep the wheels 6 ' off the runway using only elevator.
It does take some practice but this method will land anything not just a trainer.
later daveo

I've been flying for about a month now, & have done 11 flights under instruction. My instructor has made me do low level runway passes to familiarise myself with lining up & flaring etc. On the last two flights he told me to land but I chickened out & did a go around. On the final flight he handed me the box & I lined up as usual, only when I throttled back I found I was deadstick! I screamed for help but he said "Just land the bloody thing!".
To my extreme joy I got her onto the black stuff in one piece!

When I got home that night & switched on the box, I noticed that my throttle trim was set maximum back...........

Hmmmm what a sneaky instructor.....but I'm not afraid of landing anymore!

The only way any airplane whether 1' = 1' scale or otherwise, will stay on the ground is if it has stalled and can no longer fly. When you get close to the ground, 6" or so, try your best to keep the airplane flying with the elevator, assuming you are already at engine idle. When it decides to stop flying you will be on the ground.

daveo: your thread says " 6 ' " is that correct? six feet? i'm not a very good r/c pilot but i would think that trying to flare at six feet above the ground would set one up for a potential stall yielding bad results. i think that with full scale aircraft, the cushion of air that the plane rides on above the runway (ground effect), only demonstrates effectiveness at a maximum distance equal to it's wingspan above the ground (or something like that). i assume the same applies to r/c. if that is the case, then 6' would only be effective if the model has a 6 foot wingspan, one which most trainers don't. or maybe, i totally misunderstood your thread. if so, i apologize.

A plane can land and STICK to the runway at considerably above its minimal flying speed... All you have to do is have the LG set up to give sufficient - AOA to the wing with the wheels on the ground.
(this can make rotation for takeoff difficult if the mains are too far aft of the CG... but it works 100% of the time.)

I've even seen a scale Cub landed in a headwind that required the pilot to maintain 50% throttle and full down elevator to make the plane STOP. Definitely was on the ground and stationary at well above stall speed...

FHHuber - i'm a bit confused by your thread. i don't think the stall speed of the cub probably change since stall speeds are constant at specific flight configurations (i.e., clean, dirty, g-load, etc.) (i think, please correct me if i'm wrong). any plane will appear to land at a very slow ground speed with a strong headwind but the plane's airspeed is still relative. in other words, let's say, hypothetically, that a scale piper cub's stall speed in the dirty configuration (gear down, full flaps, though i don't thing any cub models would have retractables) is 10 mph and it's attempting to land in zero winds. then the pilot, attempting to do a perfect landing, would have the engine at idle, would flare and then touch down , at 10 mph both airspeed and ground speed. now, if there is a 8 mph headwind, then the pilot will still have to do whatever is necessary to keep the airplane flying at 10 mph to avoid a stall before touchdown. that means the pilot would have to either nose the plane approach steep for airspeed, add throttle, or both, to keep the airspeed above 10 mph. but from the ground, if the plane is flying at a 10 mph airspeed, the plane will appear to be flying at only 2 mph (10 - 8 = 2).

i don't know if i addressed the issue you raised. it may be apparent that i'm using this forum to post an over abundance of info., hoping to get as much input and criticism as possible, so that i may be as knowledgable as possible.

No, you're missing the point. The stall speed is the minimum speed at which it's possible to generate enough lift to support the plane. At higher speeds, with the proper AOA, the wing can generate extra lift and cause the plane to climb. If you decrease the angle of attack from the usual level flight value, the plane sinks. When it sinks long enough it lands.
Usually you slow the plane down to (or near at least) stall speed when you land but you don't have to. You just keep the angle of attack a little lower and the plane will happily sink down and stick to the runway.
If you wanted to you could land at the plane's top speed. It just wouldn't look very pretty when the gear rips off [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

That's my bad Red. I meant 6" not 6'. Thank god I fly better than I type. Also the wing loading on a model is so light compared to full scale the groud effect is a lot different. Example, on a slow & low pass with my Pizzaz
on a sunny day the plane will sometimes gain a liitle air when it crosses from the grass to the black surface of the runway. The thermals really get a hold of these little planes. The missing Ultracoat on top of my rudder
can atest to that. later daveo

The above case of the Cub landing example... the full story:

The plane was being used for competition at a local Pattern Aerobatics contest.
(The Cub is competitive at Sportsman level. Darn near anythig that flies is competitive at that level...)
The stall speed of this particular model was appx 15 mph.
We had 20 to 25 mph wind when he took off, and the wind speed increased to appx 35 by the time he landed. (He had to hold it down to make a "pattern style" take-off...)
In order to make a decent approach (as required for competition) he had to hold considerable down elevator and keep relatively high power.
It became apparent quicly after touchdown that the plane wanted to fly, even if allowed to roll backward with the wind... so to avoid a downgraded landing score, the pilot held full down elevator and managed the aircraft's ground speed with throttle.
When the pilot indicated his landing "complete" (for judging purposes), we told his caller to go get the plane before the wind flipped it. (He got a perfect landing score too...)

*****
A Piper Cub has fixed gear and no flaps... so its ALWAYS flying in "dirty" mode...

As i expected, i was enlightened by the continuing threads. i have so much to learn about the terminology (it took me a second glance to realize that AOA meant 'angle-or-attack') and cyber-ettique that i get babbling before i've fully digested the information. thanks for the clarifications. i'm new to this forum and really getting a kick out of how passionate and knowledgably helpful members are. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]