I am a self taught rc pilot.I learned on gliders,and only recently got a .40 sized glow engine trainer(Hobbico Avistar).I am flying pretty well,but my landings are too bouncy(asphalt runway).I believe I will solve this problem with practice,and it is not really what my question is about.
My question is about proper landing technique.Is there a right and wrong way to get it down?For example,the Avistar will not lose altitude on it's own fast enough to do a landing approach,unless you throttle all the way back to idle,or use elevator to dive it.The way I have been landing is to make my final turn over the runway,then drop the throttle to idle.The nose drops a little and the plane dives to pick up airspeed,then I flair it out before it touches the runway.This way,I do not have to give down elevator and dive it under power(i'm afraid of bringing it in too hot).It drops right out of the sky on it's own.
Is this correct,or are you supposed to deliberately dive to lose altitude and try to flair out under power?Perhaps it just depends on the model?

I'm still learning on the buddy box so take it as you will...I fly an avistar with a .46 LA on it.

Before I make my turn to final I cut the throttle to idle. Make the 90 degree turn - fly a bit on the short leg and then turn 90 degrees again to get lined up on the runway - all with the throttle at idle.

Say your standing at about mid point of the runway flying a standard pattern where you go past the end of the runway, make a turn - fly a short leg - turn - fly past the other end of the runway - make a short leg - turn, and fly back by yourself in the middle of the runway.

You want to cut the power as you pass yourself on the downind leg of the patter - maybe that helps I wish I had a picture. Meaning you are still heading 180 degrees from the way your wanting to land - and you have to make 2 more 90 degree turns to get "on" the runway.

You just have to learn how to eyeball it. But basically I'm in the air a long time at idle on the downwind leg, the short leg before I turn to fly into the wind for landing.

The whole time I'm loosing altitude with the nose just "slightly" below the horizon (as if you were really in the plane). The purpose is to hold the nose up from a true dive and therefore bleed airspeed.

About 3 feet from the runway I start to level off with the engine still at idle and the plane will start to sink if your flying slow enough. Let it sink down to about a foot or so from the runway which is when you flare JUST A TAD - BARELY touch the up elevator to make the plane land on the main wheels and then let go and it will settle on the nose wheel and you won't have the speed necessary to actually bounce because the plane won't fly anymore.

Don't use the elevator to loose altitude on an approach because all you basically do is add airspeed and what you want is to loose altitude and airspeed at the same time. Cut the engine to idle or almost idle and keep the nose up (just like a real plane) if you start to come in too steep add a touch of power and when you get about right again cut down the power again.

Sounds perfect to me. Practice over and over again. You'll get better, I promise.

First, check your CG and make sure that the plane is not nose heavy. A Nose heavy plane will be hard to slow down.

Next, try throttling back sooner, or setting a slower idle, think about this... Have you ever been in a commercial airliner that over-shot the runway? Probably not. HOWEVER, most commercial planes that I have been on had to do a slight power-up when they were a few miles out.

RC pilots tend to think they just chop the throttle and let it settle in, but you can't tell exactly how high you are, or how far away you are, or how the wind is affecting your plane.

So kill the throttle sooner... BUT... be prepared to add a little throttle as needed to get you over the threshold.

If you are doing that, and it still lands hot, go back to what I said about the CG

the way i do it:
cut the power where you want to start decending from downwind,
then turn back and let it decend
line it up add power as needed to set up proper approach,
get close and flair to grease it in every time

but in a full scale i never chop the power completely, you always leave it in on the back side of the power curve, until you need to chop it, or add some

I know what you mean when the plane does not want to come down. You have to set the idel really low. If there's some wind, it never wants to loose altitiude. Just practice and you will get it.

It will slow down if you idle your engine low enough tho.

Just this weekend I was buddy box landing with my instructor (we both have experience in full scale planes) and the wind was blowing pretty good but it was right down the runway.

After a few I said "I bet I can set the plane down vertically". I almost pulled it off - it came from 15 feet down to about 3 feet from the runway vertically in a strong wind. The slightest elevator changes made a large pitch difference so low rates was the way to go.

I woulda pulled a perfect vertical landing but the wind died down when I was about 3 feet above the runway and the plane stalled but it was a pretty easy drop and the engine didn't even die.

One thing to do, take your plane up high, and do a series of slow flight passes and straight ahead stalls. Work on seeing just how slow you can fly and maintain altitude, and how slow you can fly and manage a moderate decent. If the airspeed you get this way is noticeably lower than your landing speeds, then you can slow the plane down more. If not, then check the CG and maybe move it back a bit and try slow flight again. Oh, don't fly your approach quite as slowly as you do in the above exercise. You want to leave a little reserve for wind gusts, turns etc.

I had a student who was having trouble slowing his plane down do this, and it really made a huge improvement on his landings immediately. He just didn't beleive me when I said "slower, you can fly it slower" until he took it up high and saw just how slow it would fly. It also reduces the "fear of stall" a bit.

I cut power(idle) right in front of me, and start turning, then on final approach I give it a little bust (2 or 3 throttle clicks) if the plane is loosing too much speed(like when is very windy), when I'm over the runway go to idle and let it lose altitude keeping a proper attitude (flare), when is like 1 or 2 inches above the runway give it a little more up elevator to slow the descent and touch down.

With time and practice you probable develop your own landing stile, but this is what usually works for me; no more 6, 9 or 12 point landings, no bounces.

all my landings today required 1 click of power to be added right b4 roundout.

When the trainer slow down too much it start dancing all around, a tad of power and problem solve, it get a lot more stable.

One point that you are missing here, is that you should actually be using the elevator to control the speed during the landing, and the throttle to control the touch down point (TDP). Borzak has it right when he says "don't use the elevator to loose altitude".

Basically, you need to pick your target speed (a little bit above stall-speed, plus a little more safety margin in adverse weather), and adjust the aircraft's pitch until you get that speed. If you have the throttle too low, then you'll find the aircraft now heading for a TDP that is short of the runway, so you add a little power to move the TDP forward. The added power will probably affect your airspeed, so you then adjust the pitch again to get the speed correct.... repeat as necessary.

This is actually much easier to learn in full-size aircraft where you can watch the ASI and use the stick to get the right speed and then see whether the aircraft is pointed at the piano keys or not & make the power adjustments as necessary to make sure that the point where you run out of altitude is right where you want it... but with some patience you can understand and employ it on your models too.

I know this "elevator controls airspeed" concept sounds intuitively backwards, but the big advantage in learning to do this, is that when you associate elevator with airspeed (instead of throttle with airspeed), you will find yourself much better equipped to deal with a deadstick situation rather than only being able to do good landings when you have a running engine.

Good luck,

Gordon

Thanks for the input.I simply need to practice,but yesterday I had 2 perfect landings in a row.I stiffened up the landing gear with a crossbrace which helped some,and I am trying to flair it so it will touch down on the 2 rear wheels first.I discovered that if the nose wheel even slightly touches first,the nose will pop up increasing the angle of attack and causing the bouncing to start.I still bring it in with the throttle at idle and flair it out just before touch down.But I will practice your ideas when I get time,and try finding the point where it mushes out without stalling.

To reall grease it in, try to avoid landing for as long as possible. In other words, come down your approach, then start your flair and try to keep the plane from touching down as long as you can. You should float along just inches from the ground and settle right in on the mains before the nosewheel touches. As you've discovered, on trike geared planes, you need to get the mains down before the nosewheel. On grass it's a bit easiler, you can do all at once, or even the nose first by a hair and get away with it due to the breaking action of the grass.

That's almost exactly how i'm doing it Montague.......and doing surprisingly well at setting it down close to me,where it rolls to a stop 20 feet past me or less
This last flying session,I had the wind coming straight down the runway,so that helped alot......but i'm hoping i'm really getting the hang of it,and it wasn't just the wind that made those last 2 landings so beautiful
The wind was really messing with my flying this day though......on the ground it seemed windless,but up high it was a different story,It would drift through turns,and loops looked a little funny.....i have a lot to learn,i'm not real coordinated on the rudder.