Making a Good Landing
 

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 myself 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.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I generally shoot for a couple of feet past the start of the runway. For me it is the easiest to control that way. As the plane is coming towards me I will see if either wing starts to drop off, (stall) and easier for me to line up. I also have the whole runway to use. I generally cut to idle on the the final approach turn and add throttle as needed to keep the glide path good. I guess everyone has his/her own routine that they are comfortable with. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...ular_smile.gif

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I also like to aim for just past the start of the runway.. I like to come in under light power and chop the thottle right before the threshold. The speed generally doesnt matter unless I came in way too hot to begin with. I will place the wheels of the plane at about 6-10 inches above the runway and begin adding elevator enough that it doesnt begin to gain but also doesnt get down too early.. after a short period of that, I will let the plane settle down to a couple inches and then keep adding elevator until I am happy at which point I slightly relax the elevator and set the wheels down gently, then watch the nice short roll out..

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Living in Oklahoma we have to pretty much get really good at flying in wind, or we get very few flying days. I have flown a bunch of times in gusty winds that throw the plane around a lot, like you mention in your question. I don't think there is any "magic spot" to land that is better than another. What I think is more important is simply practice, practice, practice. IMHO it's really more a matter of being able to react quickly to the changes caused by a gust of wind. The more you practice the more it becomes second nature to react to changes in the plane as it lands.<div>
</div><div>As to where I land when I fly?? It changes depending on the plane I am flying and the mood I'm in. A lot of times when I am flying I will pick different areas of the runway and try to land there. By changing the "spot" I am shooting for I think it improves my skills at landing as I have to adapt to different aspects of view, aiming for a different landing location, and varying conditions. I think it makes me better. Another thing that helps me out is something a buddy and I do. We like to fly together and we will shoot formation landings. In doing this we try to land at the same time on the runway. What we do is we divide the runway and we each try to land on our half of the runway. this really makes me work for a landing because now I have half of the runway that I'm used to. It's a ton of fun to do this and I think it really helps me improve as well. And yes, we both realize that eventually we are going to hit each other when we do this. We accept that risk. Knock on wood, we've been doing this for about 6 or 7 years now and we've never tried to occupy the same point in space that the same time yet!!!! ;)</div><div>
</div><div>But to boil it down, I think that practice is the key to consistent landings!!! :)</div><div>
</div><div>Ken </div>

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Awesome! My dad and Ido that with our planes sometimes!.. we haven't hit on the ground yet but we have slapped wings before flying in formation.. was a good laugh!!

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

One way to judge airspeed when flying towards yourself is to note how much elevator you are holding. The more elevator the slower your airspeed.<div>
</div><div>Most R/C pilots don't land correctly; they fly the model into the ground and wonder why it bounces. The key is to hold the model just off the runway by steadily increasing elevator input. Ideally, you run out of elevator and stall just as the wheels touch down. No bounce.</div><div>
</div><div>Crossswind? No problem. Lower the upwind wing slightly to prevent gusts from causing an uncommanded roll. Keep the model tracking coincident with the runway with gentle rudder input.</div>

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Like Ken said, It will be different for different aircraft. There is no one way to land unless you break it down to the old addage, "any landing you can walk away from..." or in our case " any landing you still have a flyable plane after..." My biplanes come in at neer their slowest flying speed and are rolling wheels in the grass before the throttle is dropped to idle. My Funtana on the other hand will glide and float so long I land it much like Nathan describes. I had a Seagull Extra 300 75 size that I was so afraid of tip stall that I landed that plane faster than most people fly theirs at.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I have different techniques for different planes. The Bipe and P-47 I keep power on until they just about touch the ground, the 4 * you can coast in from a way out, the Astro Hog is heavy, and I use the grass to brake it in. I try to bring them down to about 2 ft off the runway within 50' of the threshold, and fly them in from there. Some days, the wind is not my friend, most of the time I am on the lookout for crosswind turbulance that flips a wing up in the final moments before I can stick it to the runway.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Ken, I love to fly in formation with my friend, and it seems that whenever we fly together, we could not hit each other if we tried, but if one tries to avoid hitting others, that is when midairs happen :) )))))))

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

The point that I am trying to emphasize is that the human body ability to estimate the safe air speed of a model decreases drastically the closer the plane is to flying directly toward you. Many believe that your depth perception will help you. If you google Depth Perception you will find that it is about 17 feet. Yes, feet. When the plane is landing near to directly in front of you, left to right or right to left, you have the best view to help you estimate the safe air speed. I have stalled it into the ground HARD many times in my 39 years of flying RC, and have noticed that this usually happens when the plane is very far from me; the angle between my line if sight and the plane path is very small.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I need help with my landings. I get your point Villa, I'm going to try it a lot. I think most of my trouble is tall grass and ME.

I'm going to put in a runway maybe. It will be 200' long. How wide shall I make it? I only fly high wing 35-45" wingspan electric planes right now.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Make it as wide as you can. If you don't use it all, no big deal. Sometimes people here use the full width (100+ feet) on windy days, or when they are just cutting their teeth. If you make it wide enough, you can use it for take offs on days where the wind doesn't line up with the runway, a crosswind.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I CAN make it as wide as I want , but space is a premium because what I don't use is used for corn or beans. If dirt works out ok I will end up having very tall trees at one end and the crop on the other end. Along the other sides would be the crop and opposite would be my lawn.

I can imagine that dealing with corn is going to be much worse than beans because of the height. I know the tall trees are hard to deal with if I want to approach from that direction.

You made me have another idea: I don't think I would make 100' wide , but I could make an L shaped runway (2 of them really at 90 degrees from each other) That way I can land in any one of 4 directions. Maybe that would allow me to keep the width down to a minimum. Ha, the North/south one could be 600 ' long.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I was taught by a pattern pilot and was taught that landing and take off was part of the score. My wheels touch ground close to where they lifted off on take off, about ten feet to my side and about 10 feet in front of me. Wind doesn't factor into it. I don't do a lot of that thinking stuff when I fly, it just happens?? It may have something to do with what Ken mentioned, that pracitce stuff?

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

just keep practicing, and dont let a lil wind scare you, its like honing a knife, it will keep you thumb eye coordination razor sharp and ready to react to the wind......the day you fly in lil or no wind, all that practice will pay off and you'll appreciate those days a lot more....if you're not happy with an approach you can always go around...ive seen too many disasters that could have been avoided if they would have only gone around.
remember to flair and if you find yourself running out of elevator it might be nose heavy

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

There are just 3 rules which will guarantee that you always make the perfect landing.

















Unfortunately, no-one knows what they are!



.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Well, since you didn't specify those three rules, I'll do it for you.

Rule #1: Practice.
Rule #2: More practice
Rule #3: Even more practice.

Hmmm.. seems I've read this somewhere before.. (see pretty much all of the above posts).

Nothing succeeds like success. The more you practice your approach and landing techniques the more you will learn about your plane and the better you will be. This means practice during all conditions.

As Gray Beard said, pattern scores you on both the take off and landing. That's where I started practicing my landings, was as I was learning the basics of the Sportsman Category of Pattern flying. Although I don't compete, I took a lot away from all those drills my instructor gave me and, even today, run my first tank of fuel doing nothing but honing up on my approaches and landings as well as doing some "emergency" procedures.. ie: climb high somewhere in the sky and drop the throttle to idle and bring it in to a good clean approach to landing.. apply power on final, go around, and do it again somwhere else in the sky.

All this does two things: It keeps you sharp in your approaches and gets you in tune to when (not if.. it will happen to us all) that engine quits.

CGr.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Guvar, put a wind sock out in the area you want to put your runway and watch it for a while (weeks, months) and cut your runway in the same direction as the prevailing winds in your area.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

That's exactly what one of my clubs in Calif. did. The runway was perfect for the prevailing wind directions. Then during the turn of the season the wind would come in from the opposite direction. I was both shocked and amazed at how many people couldn't land from right to left. You do tend to get into a habit. One day I took a pilot that couldn't take off or land in what he thought of as the wrong direction across to the other side of the runway, problem solved.;)

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Touch and Go's are helpful.
I don't know why, but I really enjoy them - the hint is to practise them on days where the wind keeps you from any sort of precision flying, such as pattern aerobatics. I was initially hesitant to fly in windy weather, entirely because of worries on the landing approach and takeoff, but a few days of non-stop touch and go's in gusting conditions eliminated this!

As for the original question - it sounds like the real problem isn't because the pilots are loosing perception on their groundspeed, but because they are landing at an odd angle. A proper crosswind landing, with either a low wing for a "kickout" style approach or crabbing will keep your aircraft under control and at a safer attitude. Maybe it's just me, but flying towards the pilots and spectators sounds a bit scary.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

You are so right. At first, I had difficulty making right turns, of all things. But doing repeated figure eights cured me of that problem. BUT, what I DID do one day was somewhat embarassing... I started out flying my good old trusty Skylark 70. I took off, the take off seemed long, but what the heck.. I flew around and then set up for a landing. The darned landing was long too, but I managed to get it on the ground.

My answer to that was it was because I hadn't been out at the field in a couple months and I was just getting back into the groove so my timing was off and my approach was a tad rusty.

I did this a few times and noted that I just had to reduce throttle a bit sooner.

Well, after I landed for the, oh, 5th time, I was discussing something with one of the instuctors when he said "Hey.. good deal practicing downwind landings.. you never know when you will really need to do that".

Well, I believe he was being nice.. rather than saying "Hey idiot, why don't you land into the wind?"

So, I smiled, thanked him for his astute observation, and turned the thing around and began to take off and land INTO THE DARNED WIND!!!! :eek: :D

What was more embarassing was that I was staring right at the darned wind sock!!! [X(] ;)

CGr.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I learned to fly at a field that had a runway on a knoll at the top of a hill.  You flew in level and the ground met your wheels at the highest spot.  In addition, there was a tree-line and a dirt road just behind it.  Between the wind eddys and the heat off the road followed by a down-draft from the cooler trees and swirling wind rolling across the knoll it was a notorious spot for those that liked a long and low approach.  Funny thing is the calm days were worse because you didn't have the headwind to reduce your speed over ground.

I'll add to the discussion that landings ate like hammers: you need different styles for different jobs.  Yes, a trainer is throttle dependant for elevation and, ideally, you run out of air and throttle at the same instant with a level elevator.  Not so sport models.  Or most biplanes.  I land most of my low-wing sporty models as good or better with a dead stick than I do a powered landing.  And with biplanes yopu geep up more power and fly them into the ground carefully . . . at least I do.  Then get on the elevator to keep them from nosing over.

Here's a practice drill for those of you with simulators.  Set your rudder trim full to one side or the other and then land.  Responses will be similar to a cross-wind landing in a good breeze.  There is nothing as pretty as a good Cub pilot who crabs in his model gracefully in a sidewind.  You can do it with anything but the slower ones show it off more.

Then there are take-offs.

I also had an old curmudgeon of an instructor who was a pattern flyer and he insisted on a scale take-off at about 25° angle.  Most of my models have bocu power and I have to conciously force myself to do that; but it is still my habit because it looks nice.  Next time at the field watch how many ballistic take-offs you see vs. a steady roll-out and climb to gain airspeed and height.  The warbird guys get to be experts at this: tail "flying" while the wheels are still on contact with the ground.  Also watch how many guys "cheat" and take off across a runway rather than use the rudder to keep it down the center.  Sure, you can do a torque roll, but can you take off properly?</p>

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

That is so true that my instructor made me overshoot the final turns just before start final approaching to the landing strip, making a big semi-circle, so I could see the attitude better.

Turning into final leg too early is the main cause of undesired stalls.

When forced to approach toward myself, like during dead sticks, I try to focus on not to exceed the critical AOA (around 10 degrees) by looking at the top of the wing.

Stalls only happen for excessive AOA, never for insufficient air speed.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

That's why I miss the little red flag on a 72mhz Tx...:D

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I can see how laning at a distance can be a problem. It definitely much harder to judge you rate of descent and airspeed from a distace and I have learned this the hard way with some bad deadsticks ealy on in my RC flying career. The one thing that helped me more than anything has been intentional deadstick landings. This is not to be done with a plane you care to much about. A old trainer works well. I used my Tower Hobbies trainer.

I started out by pulling to idle at some point in the down wind and just practicing hitting a pre determined spot. I still hd the engine if I needed it but tried not to use it. When I could land right in front of me consistantly I started killing the engine in the downwind and putting in the same spot. Pretty much the same but no insurane if I misjudged the glide slope. After I got comfortable with that I started killing it much higher in the sky so I had to make some S turns, spirals, or slips to judge my energy to still hit the spot. Once I got a handle on that I had my buddy fly the plane and a random he would kill the engine and hand me the radio. From there you have to think quickly and make good decision to use the engergy you have avaible to put the plane safely down on the runway.

I now do a slightly less dangerous (for the model) version of this with all my planes. When I first get a plane I spend a great deal of time doing touch and goes and deadsticks just to get a good handle on the glide slope and slow speed hadling for each plane. Keeping the plane closer to you as the pilot is critical in the take off and landing phase of flight.

I really dont think people spend enough time practicing landiings. It is easy to see everytime I go to the local field to fly. So really it just comes down to PRACTICE!!!!!!

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

, I do have the wind sock, just haven't put it up yet. I already know that prevailing winds come from the west (which is the tall tree side) Good for landing , but not good for take-offs. I can either have a N/S runway or a E/W runway (or opposites of course) I could have both if I wanted , but will probably settle for a 200' E/W runway and forget the N/S one. I mowed the grass short tonite and grass isn't going to cut it for my small planes.

I went walking looking for runways tonight and found 2 , the roof of the house and the street, yikes. I can settle for landing in the grass for now. I don't like hand launching because of a bad shoulder. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/js/f...ssed_smile.gif

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Go 1 or 2 sizes larger on the tires, that will help you out. Also, I cut my grass at 2" and overseed it yearly so the weeds have a harder time, and the nap of the grass is more consistent. I also use a 2000 lb roller a couple of times a year to help make it smoother. ( A slightly wet spring is best time, just not when the ground turns to bog...)

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Stall - what causes a stall and how do I want my aircraft behave in a stall.
<u>Wash Out</u> (not to be confused with prop wash) - Im I just flying an ARF or do I put washout in my wing. Any full scale aircraft has it. Just walk along the trailing edge of any real aircraft and you will see that the trailing edge rises towart the tip of the wing. Why, so it will stall at the root first, not at the tip of the wing. If it stalls at the tip first then you loose lift on that side causing the other wings lift to create on great moment arm inverting the aircraft and in an instant your reaction is to pull up, but because you are inverted, pulling up is going straight into the ground. Now, if it stalls at the root of the wing first and the stall then works it way up the the tip of the wing, the nose will drop putting you right back in a position to take control. (not inverted). Any good scale kit will have wash out tabs on the wing ribs for this purpose, Typically 2 degrees of negative incidence at the tip of the wing compared to the root.
If you disagree, I hope you find great pleasure in building or assembling losts of perfactly straight wings on wing jigs that stall! because of no Wash Out.

With new pilots I teach stick to the low wing. When the aircraft is comming at you ( stick to the low wing is opposite and will keep the wings level ). Better than turning your back on the plane. After practice it will become instintive.

Just my 2 cents worth.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

When I returned to the hobby one of the best pilots at our club, who is a super nice person, but does not train new pilots or fly their planes, Maiden or not, showed me the technique he uses and I now use as well as other flyers I have shown how to:

Select a position nearest the downwind end of runway to allow for max take off and landing roll.

When on final adjust your glide path to where the plane will touch down in front of you hint: come in slightly higher than normal then relax or give down elevator to put the plane at an angle that will touch down in front of you on the runway. Your plane will still be flying and maneuverable with enough speed to make corrections if needed.

Just when wheels are 12" or so off ground give very gentle up to break the descent for landing

release up as soon as wheels touch to prevent "bouncing" and roll out, If I miss touching in front of me I usually will go around and do it again if our pattern is not busy.

The beauty of this technique is you can adjust the height of your approach for wind conditions, lower for calm, higher for windy and maintain the same groundspeed and have control of your plane at all times (no stall landings that the wind can push up your plane etc etc Just takes practice

I don't fly warbirds or jets and I know or see they have a different technique but the above works great for my sport and acro planes

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

The point your making is 100% correct. Its also why I suggest people land within +/-25 feet of themselves (or as close as possible). If Im training someone, its a must.
I also suggest people to do a slow fly-by before attempting a landing to reset their depth perception of the model. When flying high or far out for several minutes Ive found that the brain tends to forget the relative size of any model and a simple fly-by lets the brain readjust. With my models that have retracts I use a 'gear check pass' to reset my depth perception.

The field we have is long enough that regardless of where the pilot is standing trainers and most sport planes don't have trouble with the +/-25 feet rule.
But when flying some of my faster birds, Ive been known to stand at the center pilot station for takeoff and then walk down to a different pilot station for landing.

Simply put I stand in the most advantageous spot as possible for takeoff and landings.

Cheers.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Villa, If you believe that one thing is always the culprit, ie misjudging airspeed, you are mostlikely wrong. If you believe that it is often the case, you could be on to something.

Like someone has already mentioned sink rate and elevator stick position is your best indcation of "performance" (not speed as stallspeed is relative to temperature, humidity and air pressure). I use a slight fixed back pressure on the elevator untill in ground effect then tease the ground untill touch down.

I always like to take beginners to the flight station nearest the landing threshold for their first landings. I also suggest that they use that strategy untill they become well seasoned.

I believe you are correct about landing in front of yourself as being helpful in judging your landings.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Yep thats a stall. But as most pilots never make a mistake it must be the wind.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

Agreed. I fly a final approach just like I would with a full size plane: trim the elevator for a desired final approach speed. This is an airspeed less than what most rc sport flyers trim their elevator for. And yes, elevator trim settings need to be moved for different flight conditions. Most rc sport fliers trim the elevator for full power level flight and never touch it again. Experiment with what this slower final approach speed is for your plane. Probably requiring 1/3 throttle. Now trim for level slow flight. Get used to flying the plane at this reduced power setting/slower airspeed. Limit your bank angle to approx. 30 degrees. Fly your downwind leg and base at this speed/power setting. Roll out on final and leave the elevator alone and reduce the power a few clicks. The plane should start to descent but maintain the same airspeed. Adjust the throttle until the descent rate appears to get you to your landing aim point. If it looks like you are going to land short, add a few clicks of power - not elevator. If you feel the landing is going to be long, reduce the power a few clicks. A strong headwind will require a few more clicks of power (to decrease your descent since your ground speed is going to be slower.) Don't reduce the power until your are ready to flare. If your landing speed is still too fast, repeat this entire procedure over with an even lower power setting. I can fly my stick around the pattern at approx. 1/4 power.

Just like Villa says, it is very hard to accurately perceive your airspeed when the plane is coming at you at a large distance. Instead, set the power and elevator trim to a known position which will determine your descent rate. Your descent rate will appear excessive in a headwind - so just add more power to reduce your descent rate as you fly to your aimpoint. And to piggyback on Villa's concept, I think many beginners get on final with a headwind, pull the power to idle, see the descent rate increase, so they pull back on the elevator and experience a stall.

As you might have noticed, THIS IS MY FAVORITE concept to discuss and teach, to both full scale pilots and rc fliers. It is much easier for the full scale pilots to figure it out SINCE they are SITTING in the PLANE.

Kurt

Kurt

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

What happens sometimes, when landing against steady headwind, is that the velocity of the wind close to the ground is drastically reduced up to zero next to the ground, due to friction.

Hence, the wind speed that is sufficient to sustain flight at 4 or 5 feet of altitude, is simply not there at 2 feet above ground.

In those cases, the wing does not stall, but the lift that it generates is less than the weight of the plane, and the thing just drops over the strip (remember that lift depends on the square of the air speed).

That is the reason for the advice of keeping the ground speed high when landing against high winds.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

"Igot hit! Damned radio!"

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I'm glad to see that a few of you have taken the time to understand the points that I am trying to make and agree with me. Thank you for that. The majority seem to have missed the whole thing and merely go on to describe how they land. That is life. Enjoy the sport. I know I do.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

My suggestion only applies if you don't mind doing wheel landings. Fly your model with a slight amount of down trim dialed in during your landing approach. Stay off the elevator and use throttle management to ascend or descend during the approach. Keep the wings level with airleron and the nose straight with rudder. If your short of the threshold raise the throttle and if too high lower the throttle. Your flying an imaginary glide slope and at first your approach may look like a roller coaster ride. This is normal and allow yourself for aborting a few approaches. When aborting advanced the throttle slowly and fly down the runway gathering airspeed lost during your approach. Repeat the process again until your glideslope resembles the high side of a triangle. That being a straigh line which is angled. Once this pattern is attained you will reach the point where the main gear is parallel to the ground and is losing altitude gradually. The point of landing is fixed either in front of of you or past you at a distance of about twenty feet. The mains should touch down with sufficient flying speed to keep the horizontal parallel to the ground. Reduce your throttle to idle and allow the plane to bleed of airsppeed during which the stabilizer will slowly come down on its own. Once the tailwheel touches the runway apply some up elevator to assist in braking. At no time during this wheel landing should you apply up elevator. This is easier said than done but it works for me and others.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

I think what people might be saying is they have not had the "wind got it" experience. Reading through all of them most have different approaches (ha ha). As I would assume the people at your field do. Some have a as long as I got it down in one piece, others want to be spot on.

So in the case of landing, if you do not maintain speed or land correctly, yes I can see that your plane could/would just fall out of the sky. Most people do not practice landings, just the flying around part.

I read a book called "Proficient Flying", it covers landings very well. Basically use the elevator to adjust the attitude of the plane. Then use the throttle for ALTITUDE. You decrease throttle while maintaining a correct landing attitude to settle it down while under power.

The book also tells you to practice slow flight with your plane. Do this landing technique high up and see at what attitude your plane will stall. So when landing you don't stall. Some people will just come in high speed and chop the throttle. That to me is an uncontrolled landing. Come in too high with not enough power, guess what, you will fall out of the sky. Come in too low and fast, you go around or put it off the end. Maybe a gust of wind comes along just as the plane is already slowing, and at idle. Now - The wind got it!!! and it did, but due to the pilot not landing under power at a constant/proper attitude. The plane needs to be moving forward under power, nose up because if a gust comes along, it is like hitting the brakes right above the runway. Then hit the throttle and torque roll the plane into the ground.

As for downwind landings, who says you will not lose an engine on a downwind leg? You need to know how your plane handles. So it is ok to practice that. Remember to practice the slow flight up high. You can see how your plane handles the downwind leg this way. Can you keep the speed up and make a u turn? maybe, maybe not, but you can do it a few mistakes high.

Keep an eye out for how people come in. do they control their landings, or just come around chop it, and glide in while ballooning up and down. Or do they come in under low throttle, keeping the nose high and touchdown right where they want to?

One more thing it think is kind of funny. Watch for dead sticks. Most people hit the runway nearly right in front of them. Give the same guy power on landing and he is off the end, or too short. Just something I had noticed over the years.

just my .02

:)

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

This is one topic that seems to bring out more techniques than any other maneuver. It seems almost everyone has their own method of handling the final approach. Some of them seem crazy to me but if they work then by all means go for it! The one consistant thing i have noticed though from proficient flyers is consistant and accurate landings. Almost always right in fromt of the pilot. Even with skilled flyers there almost always is small variations between techniques.

This carries over to full scale as well. In all my full scale flying time I have flown with quite a few different instructors with many different techniques for flying a good approach but they all ended with the same result: a safe landing.

I have learned a great deal on these forums and in my full scale career about the art of landing. I have picked out the pieces that I like to form my own way of doing things.

RE: Making a Good Landing
 

hi
if your plane drops out on finalyou have a throttle or idle issuethe idle must be set to fly the plane to the ground ( set it with a tach-average two cycle glo engine is about 3-4000 RPMS )and varies as does the wind blowing on the plane-more wind -higher idle-no wind-lowest possible idle
mark in your mind were you reduced the throttle ( downwind-base or final ) if to fast coming in you can now go around and reduce the throttle before or after that spot to control your air speed-you will be developing a feel for the planes decent rate
after flying for years you will just know if your final -,feels right ,if it does not -do not hesitate to go around( very important judgement )so you have another chance to get it perfect (NEVER-force the plane down )
you might have the best flight possible if you blow the landing it is trashed and open to criticism from the boys ( OH NO !! )
landing in front of you will always give you the best look at your plane to land -, bringing the plane back at your feet is a must or the landing is blown that is easily done when you land in front of yourself-, less than that is not acceptable ( will need to take the long walk )
every type of plane you fly will require different type of skills that you must learn for that given plane i make notes -,with 20 planes so i know what each plane requires
i fly one plane a lot for a long period of time -so i get back into knowing the planes flying characteristics
i will only bring-, one plane, to fly in a day for just that reason( my trainers policy 20 years ago ) learned early on not to bring more than one plane out in a day-,allows you to get good flying the one you brought -instead of flying two planes so-so -get to master one
tip: most planes will start a slight rocking motion just before the stall you need to identify that motion and just- bleep the throttle -to increase your forward motion to save the plane
when a foot or two above the runway you need to be sure you input some up elevator-so your wings are parallel to the ground or just slightly nose up
due to constantly changing wind -light sky conditions and your vision limitations (glare-,plane disappears for a moment )you are always adjusting to the conditions present on a given day
spending the rest of your flying days getting your landings right -is a lot of what this hobby is about-,a good landing will always make for a rewarding flight
i am flying super successfully in this hobby for the last 20 years (had a very great trainer )
its all a great bunch of fun when you get it right and constantly challenging-which greatly prevent the hobby from ever getting boring
best regards tony