How to Perfect Your Airplane Landings with Slow Dutch Rolls - Private Pilot Training Online

Landing is the most challenging maneuver most pilots will ever perform. Not
surprising, it is the most dangerous few moments of any trip. I stumbled on an
exercise that shortened the time that I needed to teach landings and dramatically
improved my students landing skills far more than I ever thought possible. I call it the
'Slow Dutch Roll.'

The original Dutch roll was a rhythmic maneuver that most instructors agree is about
as useful as patting your head while rubbing your tummy. In contrast, the Slow Dutch
Roll proved to be a very powerful tool.

When executing an ordinary Dutch roll, you keep the nose of the airplane pointed at a
speck on the horizon while rapidly wagging your wings with your ailerons and
holding the nose steady with your rudder pedals.

When you move the stick to the left, the nose wants to swing to the right forcing you
to step on the left rudder pedal, but not quite as much as you would in a turn. Then, as
the bank increases, you have to step on the other pedal to keep the nose steady. And
so the exercise continues. But to what purpose?

My colleagues and I don't like this exercise for two reasons. First, aileron - rudder
coordination should be focused on keeping the ball in the center. To put it differently,
a good pilot could put a cup of coffee on the instrument panel and go through a series
of turns in both directions without sloshing the coffee. He or she would have to
coordinate the ailerons and rudder properly to succeed. During a Dutch roll, the coffee
would be all over the cockpit. Our second objection is that, in addition to teaching bad
habits, there is basically no region of normal flight where the pilot would execute a
traditional Dutch roll. We view an ordinary Dutch roll as somewhere between
worthless and counterproductive.

In contrast, the Slow Dutch Roll (SDR) teaches you skills needed in almost every
takeoff and landing as well as some other very useful skills.

I don't hold a patent or copyright on the SDR. It wouldn't surprise me if some other
flight instructor discovered it before I did. But it makes better pilots. I would like as
many pilots and instructors as possible to know about it and use it.

SDR, much like the traditional Dutch roll, requires you to aim the nose at a point and
keep it there while changing the angle of bank. By executing it very slowly, it teaches
you, among other things, precisely controlled crosswind landings and takeoffs.

To get the maximum benefit from SDR, you should practice it at constant altitude and
various airspeeds including slow flight with wheels down and flaps extended. Then do
the same thing while gliding rather than at constant altitude, eventually practicing
SDR at speeds just above a stall with the airplane configured for landing. Depending
on your skill, you might start SDR practice by simply trying to keep the airplane's
heading constant as you change the angle of bank slowly.

I recommend not only changing the angle of bank slowly, but holding bank constant
for as long as 30 seconds or more. You might be surprised at what happens during
these periods of constant bank. With a wing down but the airplane not turning, the
wing's lift will start to move the airplane in the direction of the bank. As it accelerates
to the side, the relative wind direction changes. This wind shift requires you to change
the position of both rudder and aileron controls to keep constant bank and heading.
This continuous change in control position while maintaining a constant attitude is the
added bonus of SDR. It teaches that essential skill that all good pilots have. To be a
good pilot, you must be able to fly the airplane by putting it in the right attitude
regardless of where the controls are. If you must move the controls continuously to
maintain the proper attitude, you will neither know nor care; you simply focus on
maintaining the proper attitude. With SDR, you can practice this skill at a safe, lowstress
altitude rather than during landings.

Having mastered SDR, you have mastered 90% of the skill required to make safe,
precise landings. In a light plane in particular, you must keep the airplane pointed at
the far end of the runway while keeping the wind from blowing you off the runway.
By mastering SDR, you have mastered the controlled sideslip required in the vast
majority of landings. By mastering SDR you have also mastered the art of attitude
flying. You have learned to put the airplane in the attitude that you want and hold it
there regardless of wind shifts and diminishing airspeed - an absolutely essential skill
in safe, smooth and precise landings..

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Douglas Daniel, long time flight instructor, invites you to visit at http://PrivatePilotTrainingOnline.org for more flying articles like this one. You may also feel free to contact Doug by visiting his website.