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Fencer

Fencer

Experimentalist
Gents old student here do not beat hard :) Switching from low to high wing now. Looks like I am having problems with judging the round-out height. If my instructor has concern so am I. The problem seems to be where I am looking at. He reminds me to hold off then I start looking farther the runway. No we do not hit it flat or bounce. Neither he is touching the controls.
When one should transition the view? Would appreciate any recommendation or reference to an educational resource. Thanks.
 
something that helped me was flying the approach, the instructor would then take the controls and show me where the round out was and we would hold that position down the runway. I would also glance at the wheel so my brain could associate the front view picture with exactly how high off the runway we were.
 
Hi Fencer,

I find it helps to know specifically where to look and why you are looking there. For instance, why are you looking down the runway and what specific information is such a picture supposed to give you? Do you know? Don't feel bad if you don't, many pilots can't detail this for you. Myself included, even after having my CFI ticket.

I suspect because ever since man made instruments we didn't need to know how to interpret that outside stuff anymore, that is what our GPS is for. :sarcasm:

Anyways, here is what you are looking at and why:

  1. Look down the runway. At what? The horizon. Why? The horizon tells us our aircrafts attitude.
  2. Peripheral vision. Why? Altitude information. You can see how this works by finding a chair or bench outside. Stand on the chair/bench and look out at the horizon. Now slowly step off of your pedestal and watch as the surrounding environment protrudes into the horizon as you sink. The height of surrounding objects seen in your peripheral vision, relative to the height of your aircraft, gives you distinct altitude information.
  3. The wind sock. Don't forget that the wind will effect your ground track until you are on the ground. Knowing the wind you must compete with during the final flare/touchdown is imperative.


The primary source of the above list is the book Stick and Rudder.

I also second what TWP recommends and require my students to watch me perform the round out and flare as part of my teaching regime. I add only one final thing, discuss flying in flared flight with your instructor. That is, instead of landing when you round out and flare, add power and fly just above the runway to a predetermined point before executing a go around.

Good luck,

~Brian
 
Thank you TWP and Brian much appreciated. I will talk to my CFI about flared flight this coming weekend. I have Stick and Rudder book and I will hit it hard during the week.
 
Congrats, glad to hear it and thank you I hope you find it useful. If you have something you'd like to see added just e-mail me and let me know.

~Brian
 
shdw said:
[*]....The wind sock. Don't forget that the wind will effect your ground track until you are on the ground. Knowing the wind you must compete with during the final flare/touchdown is imperative.....
[/LIST]


~Brian
Click to expand...

One should know what the wind is doing, however, the wind sock does not need any attention on short final. If one does any sort of mountain flying at all, he will quickly learn that one sock will have a completely different wind situation than where your currently at.
 
I used to have a terrible time transitioning to different airplanes. I now fly almost every type of single pistons including taildraggers on a regular basis and the one thing I do is sit in the airplane for a while when its on the ground and memorize the sight picture. Memorize how high that nose is from the horizon. Then on the flare out just gradually pull that nose up till its just slightly higher (or a lot higher depending on how slow you want to land) than the sight picture you memorized. Only be pulling back on the yoke if your sinking. If your not sinking then just wait with that nose attitude till you do start sinking then continue pulling back.

Also I found that students that look to far down the runway tend to not do as well, maybe look halfway down the runway?

If I was you, Id go sit in the airplane for an hour (with the engine off) and just look at the sight picture until you can imagine it in your sleep. It will work on any type of plane you fly, high or low wing, jet or ultra light. (ultra lights seem a bit harder for me because there is no dash)
 
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