Can't get landings

B

bendisanto

New Member
Hello all,

I am a 44 year old student pilot with 24 hours, I can't seem to get landings. My CFI tells me my pattern work and approach are fine but I am losing it when I cross the numbers. I either flare to early or to late and bounce or land very hard. We have spent the last two lessons on nothing but take-offs and landings. My CFI has been great and very patient. I come to each lesson prepared except for one a few weeks back, due to a death in my immediate family my head was not into the lesson. Though my instructor keeps encouraging me and keeps it positive. I have not gone up solo yet and starting to think I never will. As a CFI, would you ever tell a student that they might need to reconsider getting a pilot certificate?

Your comments are appreciated

Thanks
 
Try flying with someone else for a lesson. Sometimes that helps people break through a wall or find a problem that the previous instructor wasn't catching.
 
what aircraft are you flying?
Agreed. Try flying with someone else and get a different view on landings.
No CFI should tell their student they shouldn't be a pilot. If they do, that person shouldn't be a CFI. Keep going and stay focused, you WILL get it. Landings are one of the hardest parts of flying.

If your approach is stabilized and you are at the specified leg airspeeds the landing will become easier allowing you to make little or even no corrections needed upon crossing the threshold. Once you cross over the threshold, (you should be at your Short Final speed) retard the throttle(s) to idle, level the aircraft, and as airspeed decreases, make small inputs to flare. Play the game of keeping the aircraft off the runway but allow the aircraft to slowly decend to the runway. Abrupt control inputs will cause you to balloon or have a rapid decrease in airspeed and you will in most cases smack the runway.

Slow and smooth controls, keep this in your mind every time you fly.
 
24 hours and no solo yet isn't that bad, so I wouldn't start thinking about quitting just yet. The problems you are experiencing are very common and perhaps the most difficult thing to master in primary training. I had a student who did not solo until about 40 hours, but once he got it everything was fine and I am pleased to say he passed his checkride on friday with 65 hours and is now my instrument student. Try having your CFI fly the plane while you teach him. Tell him what/when/how to do everything all the way to touchdown, that really makes you start thinking about what YOU are doing when you fly. Also, make sure you are looking down towards the end of the runway, not just off the nose. This brings more into view and allows you to judge your height above the runway better. Another trick is to try NOT to land. Fly the airplane just above the ground in ground effect, without letting it touch down, all the way down the runway and go around. This helps you learn how to control the airplane in ground effect. Hope this helps.
 
A friend of mine was told by his CFI that he should reconsider another career because he was having problems as well. After hearing that, my friend got really motivated to prove to his instructor that he is capable and he eventually did. He is now flying a DC-10! Sometimes negative motivation, if used correctly, can create HUGE results. I found out i am the same way. When i get critiqued or told i need to brush up on a certain manuveur, i do not get discouraged and think about switching careers. Instead, due to my competitive nature, i tend to do whatever it takes to overcome my issues.

An example was when i was doing my CFI initial, i decided to go from Archers to 172s, and even at a Commercial level, it still takes some getting used to with the high wing concept the cessna has. Lets just say that the first couple of landings were not the prettiest and i was very tempted to go back to my Archers since i have been flying it for so long and my landings were good on it but i found out my weak spot in the cessnas were landings and instead of running away, i took a couple lessons and it eventually worked out for me.

The key to a good landing is a well stabalized approach and speed. Do not come in too fast and use that rudder! Side loading is not good for the plane. Never let the plane fly you, you always have to have control of the airplane. What is probably happening is as it comes time to flare (which is a very critical point), you are most likely letting go of all your corrections and hoping the outcome will be positive. When you look to close down the runway you tend to flare too high and if you look down the other end, you would often come flat. With some more practice and experience you'll get it. Don't sweat it.
 
pull out onto the runway and sit there. look around get a feeling for what everything looks like when the plane is on the ground. its all a matter of comfort when it all comes down to it. look towards the end of the runway and out the sides with your peripheral vision and let the plane come down to earth. it takes some fine tweaking and some mishaps but you will never learn if you dont make mistakes. keep working at it and build confidence. best of luck and keep us updated.
 
24 hours?
Don't give up too easily.

One of my students took 300 and some odd landings before he soloed.
I have another student that has around 50 hours and is pre-solo.
Then there was one of my students that soloed in 12 hours, and no he didn't have any previous experience.

IMHO at this stage, hours don't mean as much as recency of experience. Keep plugging away.
 
I have a >50 yr old student who has been quite a challenge. Landings took him quite a while. I tried many different techniques and the one that helped the most was basically the hover taxi method as some call it...basically a soft feild landing without ever touching the runway...maintain a small amount of power while in the flare and challege the student to bring the airplane down to the runway as close as he can without touching it. After several "hover taxis" he was able to do a soft feild type landing technique and shortly after that he was able to land power off because he finally could "feel" the airplane in the flare and control the landings much better. That seemed to work for him. Maybe it could for you too?
 
Douglas said:
24 hours?
Don't give up too easily.

One of my students took 300 and some odd landings before he soloed.
I have another student that has around 50 hours and is pre-solo.
Then there was one of my students that soloed in 12 hours, and no he didn't have any previous experience.

IMHO at this stage, hours don't mean as much as recency of experience. Keep plugging away.
Click to expand...


300 hours? That's like $36,000 just to solo an aircraft at $120 an hour. WOW
 
Don't get discouraged. You are not the first mid-lifer to struggle with landings.

Actually at 24 hours, you're not doing too bad. You'll hear stories of those who solo at 5, 10, 12 hours...I shudder to think, and would love to meet those instructors.

I find on average, that students solo around the 30 hour mark. You're probably hitting a plateau right before it all makes sense. I think you're right in line with the average studfent.
 
Thanks for the replys, just to clarify my instructor in no way has even implied that I find something else to do, he remains positive and does nothing but encourage me. I am only afraid that someday he might because i really want to fly.

Someone asked the type of plane I was flying and it is a Cessena 172.

Thanks again

Ben
 
Douglas said:
24 hours?
Don't give up too easily.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

I wouldn't worry too much about it, 24 hours is nothing. It's kind of hard for us to give you a whole lot of advice without actually flying, but like the others said, maybe try another CFI. I know that is a sensitive subject but from what it sounds like you have a very cool CFI. I would recommend respectively telling him your thoughts and that you've read around and thought about seeing if another CFI could give a pointer or maybe see something that he can't. Only if you think that's what you want to do.

I would give it a few more hours and maybe have your CFI take 5 or so landings where you just watch/feel and get a good perspective on what a proper landing should look like. I'm sure you know what to do, but you might be psyching yourself out. Occasionally my students will say that they think everything happens sooo fast and they get flustered and make mistakes. My solution is to have them think about everything before it happens, not as it happens, then they don't get "surprised" or "rushed" when it's time to take a 3/4 ton airplane and smoothly land it on solid ground ;) I'm sure you're doing fine, just have some confidence and stick with it.
 
Hang in there. Lots of good advice such as having the CFI just fly you down the runway and you spend time looking for the 'picture' and the cues (where the nose cuts the horizon, etc). Talk the instructor through a landing (when to flare, when to reduce power). And remember to shift your scan to the horizon so you can see the sink rate. It will come and here is something not mentioned. Somewhere sometime after you get your ticket, you will lose the 'picture'. Like golf, landing is a combination of factors and you may one day bang one or flare high. It happens. Just stay safe.
 
Another trick is to try NOT to land. Fly the airplane just above the ground in ground effect, without letting it touch down, all the way down the runway and go around. This helps you learn how to control the airplane in ground effect. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

I had some of the same problems you describe. The above helped me a lot. Recently, when I went to get tailwheel training, we did that again. Helped me a lot. Especially if you can do it at a long runway.
 
Somebody else may have said it but one thing that I struggled with was where I was looking as I entered the flare. I tended to look too close to the nose rather than down the runway.
 
bendisanto said:
Hello all,

I am a 44 year old student pilot with 24 hours, I can't seem to get landings. My CFI tells me my pattern work and approach are fine but I am losing it when I cross the numbers. I either flare to early or to late and bounce or land very hard. We have spent the last two lessons on nothing but take-offs and landings. My CFI has been great and very patient. I come to each lesson prepared except for one a few weeks back, due to a death in my immediate family my head was not into the lesson. Though my instructor keeps encouraging me and keeps it positive. I have not gone up solo yet and starting to think I never will. As a CFI, would you ever tell a student that they might need to reconsider getting a pilot certificate?

Your comments are appreciated


Thanks
Click to expand...

I have a student with the same problem as you (even the death in the family). What I see him doing is getting a white knuckle grip on the controls on short final. At 24 hours, you are still "wet behind the ears" so to speak. Give it some more time. Some people solo at 15 hrs, some solo at 50 hours. Don't think you can't do it, keep trying. And trust in your CFI that if he thinks you shoulden't be a pilot, he would tell you. Also try and put a pencil between your fingers when you hold the yoke, so it will squeeze on your middle finger if you grip the yoke too tight. That might help with the last few feet.
 
Usually people don't grasp the flare part. A great tool I learned from another instructor, was for the CFI to kind of guard the yoke, so you wouldn't pull back to hard, or too soon. So you can get the idea of level out, flare, and touchdown.
 
Like others have said, hang in there and you'll get it. One day it'll all just click and you'll have reached that A-HA! moment.

It took me around 30 hours to solo. I can't believe some people solo in 5 hours. How can it be possible for their instructor to have covered all 15 pre-solo flight proficiency requirements in that time?
 
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