Flight Training - January 2014 - 47

INSTRUCTOR REPORT

Fanning while flying

An old (old) landing technique for your toolbag
» By Rod Machado

FANNING? WHILE FLYING? Yes, but
it is not something you do after
landing hot. Fanning is a technique
used to help student pilots learn to
land. It involves pulling the yoke
or joystick aft in small increments
during the roundout and landing
flare, giving the elevator surface the
appearance of moving up and down
just like a fan.
Fanning is a technique that was
once popular among old-time flight
instructors. When I say old-time,
I mean old-time. I first read about
the technique in a 1928 book titled
Practical Flight Training, written by
a U.S. Navy flight instructor named
Barrett Studley. The technique was
popular among flight instructors
trained during World War II but
seemed to completely disappear by
the early 1970s. That's unfortunate,
because I've used the technique
with great success over the years.
As the student approaches the
height at which the roundout
occurs, he begins moving the
yoke or joystick aft in a series of
quick, short movements. Studley
expresses the idea this way in
regard to landing a taildragger,
but the same principle applies
to tricycle-geared airplanes: The
plane is leveled off...by a series of
quick backward movements of the
stick. These movements are continued in order to raise the nose until
the airplane stalls. After each one
[aft stick movement] the stick must
be allowed to go forward again...if it
is held back even momentarily the
plane is likely to climb.
Yes, it's true that during a student's first few landing lessons,
the nose will appear to be moving
upward in small increments. No,
it's not oscillating up and down as
might be surmised from the small

aft (and release) stick movements.
The nose is being raised in small but
distinctly visible increments somewhat like using a hand-cranked
jack to raise a car and change a tire.
These increments should not be
jarring or particularly jerky if the
technique is performed properly.
Control is maintained by a slight
excess in the magnitude of backward
movements of the stick, which causes
the nose to rise in a series of small
steps following each other in rapid
succession.
The value of fanning lies in the
student having an opportunity to

the technique is much easier on the
beginner than attempting to use a
continuous, precise aft pull on the
elevator for rounding out and flaring at this early stage of training.
While learning to land, it is
simpler to keep approximate control
of motion already initiated than to
commence movement of the elevators at the proper instant and control
its magnitude precisely.
Keep in mind that fanning is not
the ultimate goal in terms of landing skill. It's simply a step toward
acquiring the desired skill of making a smooth, continuous pull on

IT'S A STEP TOWARD ACQUIRING THE SKILL OF MAKING A SMOOTH,
CONTINUOUS PULL ON THE ELEVATOR FOR LANDING.
make, recognize, and correct for
the mistakes he or she is likely to
make with the elevator during the
first few hours of training. Fanning
is ultimately a mistake-making
technique. It gives the student a
chance to see a lot of tiny mistakes (i.e., raising the nose in small
increments), and then correct
those mistakes by releasing a slight
amount of elevator back-pressure.
Seeing a lot of little mistakes all
at once accelerates learning. [You
want the student to] ...keep the stick
in more or less constant and regular
forward and backward motion. The
net result of this will be a marked
decrease of the fluctuations in the
plane's height. This tendency is normal at this time, as the student can
progress only by making, recognizing,
and correcting mistakes. Free use of
the elevators is one of the first things
that must be learned.
Fanning might appear to be more
complex than just teaching someone to make a continuous aft pull
on the yoke for landing. In reality,

the elevator for landing. Speaking
early in the last century, Studley's
words on this matter still ring true.
Fanning is suggested, not as a
method of landing, but solely as a
step in instruction.... If fanning is
used it should be commenced during the third or early in the fourth
hour. By the end of the fifth hour
the student should be able to land
consistently by its use. The excess
motion of the elevators must then
be steadily decreased until it is
practically eliminated. Otherwise
precision will be seriously interfered
with. Prior to the first solo consistently good landings should be made
without frequently repeated forward
movements of the stick.
So become a fan of fanning and
add it to your bag of flight instructor techniques. You might find it
useful.
Rod Machado is a flight instructor, author,
educator, and speaker. He has been a pilot
since 1970 and a CFI since 1973. Visit his blog
(www.rodmachado.com).

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