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2. Teaching
Teaching
Landings
Landings:
:
General Aviation:
100 Years of Safety
Experience

3. What’s a landing?
A landing is the successful transition of
an aircraft from flying … to a stop on the
surface where the pilot intended.

4. What’s a good landing?
• Helpful definitions:
• If you can walk away, it’s a good landing.
• If you can reuse the airplane, it’s a great landing.
• Alternate definition:
• Airplane on ground. Crew alive. Mission success.

5. Why am I here?
• Reduce the number of landing
accidents, and
• Reduce the number of fatalities
• Exchange ideas
• Improve teaching

6. Landings Number Four on the NTSB List
• Landings are 30.3% of Accidents
. . . and are 4.7% of Fatal Accidents
compared to
• Climb phase accidents are 2.9% of Total
. . . and are 4.7% of Fatal Accidents

7. How dangerous is landing?
Year 2009 per 2010 Nall report:
•348 landing accidents
•Only 6 were fatal.
•TOO MANY FATALITIES!!!
•TOO MANY ACCIDENTS!!!

8. Why fatalities? -- NTSB
Year 2006 per NTSB 2010 report:
• Botched crosswind approach, hit tree on go-
around at approach end
• Bounce, PIO, VMC roll on go-around (multi-
engine)
• Botched water landing (seaplane)
• Wheels-down water landing (seaplane)
• Broken crankshaft, off-field

9. Who’s most likely to have an accident?
Accident Pilot Total Time in Aircraft Type 2006
184
35
20
36
24
34
44
71
111
176
565
93
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
>1000
901-1000
801-900
701--800
601-700
501-600
401-500
301-400
201-300
101-200
0-100
0-10
Flight
Hours

10. Which is more important,
long life or check ride?
• Saving lives should be our first concern.
• It’s more important to teach safety than to
prepare for the check ride.
• Do we agree?

11. Skill Retention Scores
Private Pilot Task Checkride 8 mo 16 mo 24 mo
Approach Stall 98 84 80 76
Forced Landing 95 74 67 76
Traffic Pattern (Uncontrolled Field) 89 70 52 56
Landing (Uncontrolled Field) 94 68 55 51
Short Field Landing 90 67 54 51
Crosswind Landing 93 81 58 68
Go-Around 100 90 85 78
Landing (Controlled Field) 94 68 65 54

12. Forum Priorities
• Primarily, we’ll talk about preventing landing
accidents.
• How to teach the necessary skills so they
won’t be forgotten.
• Afterwards, we can talk about making
beautiful landings.

13. If landing is safe,
what is dangerous?
• A badly executed approach
• A botched go-around
• In 2008 one fatal undershoot
• In 2008 three fatal overshoots

14. Two elements of landing
• Directional Control
• Energy Management

15. What are the results of bad
Directional Control?
• Directional Control problems lead to
bent airplanes and bruised egos, but
generally, not to fatalities.
• We’ll return to this topic

16. What is energy management?
• Use of
• Throttle
• Elevator
• To get the aircraft down to runway
• At the right place
• At the right speed

17. What are the principles of energy
management?
• Landing will not occur if the airplane is
going too fast.
• Arrival will be rough if the airplane is
going too slow.
• Damage is related to kinetic energy.

18. What does it look like?
• “ . . . a constant angle glidepath towards a
predetermined point on the landing runway.”
• “. . . during a stabilized approach the
apparent runway shape does not change.”
What is a Stabilized Approach?
Reference Airplane Flying Handbook page 8-8.

19. Where should you aim?
• Aim 1/6 of the way down the runway
• The descent angle should be controlled
throughout the approach so that the
airplane will land in the center of the first
third of the runway.

20. What is the right approach speed?
• What the manufacturer suggests
• Or in its absence, 1.3 x VSO

21. What is the right approach speed in
gusty conditions?
• What the manufacturer suggests
• Or in its absence
• 1.3 x stall speed plus
• Half the gust factor

22. Do you agree?
If you fly a stabilized approach at the right
speed, you are unlikely to hurt yourself.

23. What do bounces and PIO
have in common?
• Are they the result of a preoccupation
with landing?
• … rather than maintaining a landing
attitude at the runway ?

24. Secrets to the Perfect Landing
• There are three secrets to a perfect
landing.
• Unfortunately, no one knows what they
are.

25. How many crosswind approach
techniques are there?
The Airplane Flying Handbook describes two:
• Wing-low (sideslip) method
• Crab method
Which do you teach? Why?

26. How many crosswind touchdown
techniques are there?
The Airplane Flying Handbook describes
one:
Wing-low (sideslip)
Even if using a crab, the approach must be
converted to wing-low before touchdown.

27. What about special situations?
• When, if ever, do you retract flaps on a
short-field landing?
• What is different in an engine-out
situation?

28. What about particular airplanes?
• What is different about retractable
landing gear?
• Do we need to talk about conventional
gear?
• Any ski plane instructors here?
• Any seaplane instructors here?

29. Any closing advice?
• Every takeoff is optional; landings are
mandatory.
• NOT SO.
• Every landing is optional, unless you are on
fire or out of gas.
• If in doubt, GO AROUND.

30. Summary
Summary
• Retention of pilot skills
• Energy management
• Stabilized approach
• Different crosswind techniques
Landings
Landings:
:

31. WWW.SAFEPILOTS.ORG
WWW.FAASAFETY.GOV
Best in Flight Morristown
WWW.BESTINFLIGHT.net
Thanks
Thank you to Robert Hadow, BEST in FLIGHT,
for his insight, time, and expertise in
developing this Forum.
Please give credit to these organizations
when using the presentation or material
from the presentation.