Three Most Dangerous Landing Mistakes Pilots Make and How to Prevent The

Over-shoot, under-shoot, loss of directional control, wing tip strikes ... are all  symptoms of mistakes made BEFORE the pilot touches down. Mistakes that are easily prevented - but not necessarily in a way you might think.

 

I landed at the Nuttree Airport in a Cessna 172 in 1968. I felt pretty smug. It was a  very smooth landing, one of those landings that you could hear but not feel. Then a  wind gust picked me up and I landed a second time on a parallel taxiway. The pilot  taxiing in the opposite direction was kind enough (or perhaps stunned enough or  frightened enough) to hold short of a turn-off so I could move over to the parking  apron. I couldn't look him in the eye as we went past. I mumbled some excuses to my

passengers that I didn't believe. I had just made the three biggest (and most common)  mistakes a pilot can make when landing.

 

Determined to never let that happen again, I spend a great deal of time in the  intervening 40 years thinking about how to prevent these mistakes. The NTSB says  that a full 45% of the weather-related accidents are caused by crosswinds and gusts. I  believe it. It is time to introduce some little known techniques that help prevent these  accidents. But first, we should look at their causes.  Landing too fast is caused by flying the approach too fast or trying to force the  airplane to land before it is ready. The solution is to fly a consistent approach at the  same airspeed, picking a safe projected glide point (or PGP), and controlling the PGP  until you land. But hold the airplane a foot or so off the runway until the airplane nose  has rotated up to the landing attitude. Hold that attitude until the airplane lands. That way you will land at the right speed.

 

Failing to cross control in a crosswind leads to ground loops, being blown off the side  of the runway (the MOST common cause of accidents in the United States), wing tip  damage, or, in my case, flying over the infield and landing on a taxiway. To put it  simply, cross controlling is using the rudder to keep the long axis of the airplane  parallel to the long axis of the runway and using the ailerons to keep the airplane  positioned over the runway. This guarantees that you will keep the airplane moving  straight down the runway after the wheels touch.

 

Quit flying the plane before the plane is through flying is one of the most dangerous  mistakes that a pilot could make. Its cause is lack of concentration. Its solution is  good flying habits.

 

I was lucky at the Nuttree. If the crosswind had been coming from the opposite side, I  could have been blown into a canal. Remember that just because the main gear is on  the ground does not mean that there is no 'fly' left in the airplane. Also remember that  if you keep the airplane just above the runway until it absolutely, positively will not  fly any more, then it will an unusually strong gust to put it in the air again.

It is easy to be lulled into the bad habits that lead to these mistakes. When the wind is  gentle and the runway is long, all will be forgiven. So the question is: how to keep  these bad habits from developing?

Let me introduce two exercises that have helped my students far more than I could  have ever imagined. They are the 'very slow Dutch roll' and the 'controlled projected  glide' point. Neither is difficult or dangerous. Both simplify and strengthen any pilot's  ability to land.

 

The very slow Dutch roll is a simple exercise done at a safe altitude. It teaches two  very important skills. First the pilot learns to continuously move the stick and rudders  to control the airplane as conditions change, and second, the pilot learns how to cross

control the airplane in the most extreme circumstances.  Here is how to do a very slow Dutch roll. Pick a point on the horizon and hold it  steady as you change the angle of bank, airspeed and flap configuration. Maintain  constant altitude. Change your bank very slowly. Continue to increase the angle of  bank until either the aileron or the rudder is pushed to its limit. This is the angle of  bank for the maximum crosswind that the airplane can land in. The cross controlled  airplane slowly accelerates to the side for a minute or two. During this time, the pilot  must move the flight controls continuously - an unanticipated benefit of this exercise  when I thought it up.

 

 

Let me tell you about the projected glide point or PGP. When you approach the  runway your eye will naturally gravitate toward a point on the runway that does not  move in your field of vision. The phenomenon is much like when you are on a  collision course with another airplane: it stays still in your field of vision but just gets  bigger. Well, there is always a point on the ground where exactly the same thing

happens. This is the point that you would glide to if you never made that last little  flair to land. This is an extremely important concept that can save you many hours of  landing practice. I never heard another flight instructor talk about it but I am sure that  many pilots use this technique.

 

You can control the PGP with power and drag while keeping the airspeed constant.  To move the PGP closer to you, reduce the engine's power or increase the airplanes  drag - usually with flaps. To move the PGP away from you, increase the engine's  power or decrease the airplane's drag.  Put the two concepts together to make consistent, safe landings. Once established on  final, use the center line of the runway as your reference point for very slow Dutch  rolls. Use the ailerons to position the airplane on the extended center line, the rudder to  keep the long axis of the airplane parallel to that extended centerline. Move the PGP

to the same place every time. I recommend the runway threshold. Consciously  continue cross controlling until the airplane slows to a taxi.

 

These two simple techniques will get you to the same place on the runway every time  in a landing configuration that compensates for crosswinds or gusts until the airplane  is going so slow that you can taxi to parking.

 

Private Pilot Training Online focuses on the little things that hold pilots back; dispels the myths that make learning and flying unnecessarily difficult; and makes the ‘hard’ subjects easy.

 

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.