Flight Training - September/October 2023 - 51

Hands and feet
Now the sensory information must connect to
physical movements by the hands and feet to make
alignment, airspeed, and glidepath corrections
during that final 300 feet. I cannot remember an
approach-VFR or IFR-where I never had to make
some sort of correction to the glidepath, airspeed,
or alignment. Energy management is a skill that
requires both hands and feet working together,
complementing each other's action if one is to
develop good landing technique.
There is an instructional line of thought that
once on final, the throttle is the primary control
for glideslope. This is the CliffsNotes version of
landing technique, and there is more to it than just
throttle input. If there is not a corresponding and
appropriate response on the yoke or stick to adjust
the elevator, airspeed and attitude will be affected.
Your scan must be consistently active to catch these
subtle changes.
Your hands must work
in concert with each other
whenever a correction
is required. If a power
reduction is required with
one hand, an appropriate
movement of the controls
with the other hand will
likely become necessary.
This sequence must quickly
be followed by a scan
inside to analyze how that
correction affected your
airspeed. Movements on the
controls during this time are
typically small, subtle, and
controlled.
Finally, whenever your outside/inside scan
detects that a correction is required to get back
on glidepath, there must be another resultant
correction of smaller magnitude to then stay on
glidepath. An example of this would be if you found
yourself above glidepath (four white lights on a
PAPI). You make an appropriate throttle reduction
and yoke correction followed by a quick scan inside
at the airspeed indicator. Your descent rate will
increase slightly, and as the red lights begin to
appear on the PAPI you see you are reestablishing
yourself on glidepath. Great.
If you leave in the correction you made to get
back on glidepath, you'll go right through the
glidepath and out the bottom end. You need to
anticipate this and add in half the power you took
out with one hand and adjust the attitude with the
other. Remember, the funnel leading to landing is
quickly getting smaller, and these corrections are
typically flown with subtlety.
The last 100 feet
When all has progressed well down to 100 feet agl a
new set of skills must be addressed. The scan pattern
continues-alignment, aimpoint, airspeed-but a shift
in the scan begins to focus farther down the runway.
Hopefully proper airspeed has been bracketed by a
couple knots at this point, and line-up is within the
margin of safety with runway centerline coming at
you between the main mounts.
If the eyes continue to focus at close range in front
of the airplane, expect a flat or nose low landing. By
moving your outside focus farther down the runway
(1,000 feet or more) you begin to sense velocity,
descent rate, and the ability to gauge the proper
altitude to slowly, smoothly transition to the roundout
and touchdown. This roundout maneuver is another
subtle input to the controls: power and yoke. Flare too
fast or too aggressively and you'll end up 5 feet in the
air, out of ideas and airspeed.
Too many times I've sat through landings wherein
the student pilot impressed me by doing a great job
of getting to 75 feet agl on speed and glidepath only
to utter the words, " I've got the runway made " and
wipe power to idle with a resultant nose drop to " put
it on the numbers. " I understand this in the context
of short-field procedures, but what happened to the
beautiful landing profile that got you to 100 feet?
On the other hand, if the last 100 feet yields a
trend taking you above the glidepath, you have two
options: Go around or take what the runway is giving
you and land a couple hundred feet farther down the
runway. No harm, no foul. Of course, runway length
is the primary consideration in this decision. How
one gets past the learning plateau of making consistently
good landings is one of the great challenges for
the student pilot-and the CFI. You, too, can make it
through this flight training rite of passage.
SCOTT RUPPERT is a flight instructor in Harpswell, Maine.
FLIGHT TRAINING SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2023
51
Flight Training - September/October 2023

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