Is landing an art or a science? That's what the pilot of this King Air is about to find out as he maneuvers for a landing on a scenic runway out west, in the mountains.
Once the King Air gets down, go flying with Tom Benenson as he explores landing through the eyes of a flight instructor. There are a lot of fine points here.
Then Russell Munson, our conventional landing gear expert, will regale you with tales of how to make peace with a tailwheel. Russell should know because he is on his second Aviat Husky, which is a world-class tailwheel airplane. (The first one was destroyed on the ground by a thunderstorm last summer.)
Les Abend has been flying Boeings for a long time, and still does. As is true of a lot of airline pilots, his first gig in a jetliner was in a 727, which has always tested the landing mettle of pilots. He tells all.
Finally, Richard Collins explores landing in airplanes with tricycle landing gear. Richard thinks that where you look when you are landing makes a lot of difference. He also considers the landing in two stages.
After you read all four you'll see that there is a common thread and that none of these aces claim to make perfect landings every time. Landings are a good thing to study, too, as more airplanes are damaged during landing than any other phase of flight.
And we'll leave it up to you to decide whether your landings fall in the art or science category. Or, maybe, there's some of each in every landing.
Teaching-and Making-Smooth LandingsBy Tom Benenson
It isn't fair that people judge our piloting skills by the smoothness of our landings. But they do. If yours are like many of mine you'd rather no one watch when the rubber meets the runway. But if you review how you were taught to make landings as a student, more of your landings will be greasers and they'll be more a matter of proficiency than luck.
The trick to teaching-and performing-smooth passenger-pleasing landings is to make every landing approach as consistent as possible. They say the secret to a good landing is a good approach. I'll amend that a bit: The secret to making good landings is to make consistent approaches with a stabilized final leg.
We all learned-or should have-the power and flap combinations (and the gear-up or gear-down configuration) that result in the desired airspeeds for each leg of the pattern. Knowing the required settings gives us more time to concentrate on the approach and less time spent adjusting power settings.
It's important to review the landing checklist and complete those items possible before entering the pattern. The downwind leg should be flown at a consistent distance from the runway, neither too close nor too far away (something between one-half and three-quarters of a mile). Judging the distance can be done by knowing the length of the runway. If the runway is 5,000 feet long, then one-half mile would mean being displaced by about half the length of the runway. Traffic permitting, the airspeed on downwind should be below the top of the flap operating speed, which is accomplished by flying at the predetermined power setting.
Opposite the touchdown spot, the power is reduced (again to a predetermined setting) and the first flap extension performed. As you continue downwind select your touchdown target-the numbers are tempting, but it's prudent to select a point a bit farther down the runway. Landing short of the runway is embarrassing. During the downwind leg you should be aware of drift caused by any crosswind. Recognizing and correcting for drift was the purpose of all those hours of ground reference maneuvers.
As you turn onto the base leg, check for traffic making a straight-in approach. Not every pilot is good about announcing their position and intentions, and there's no requirement for radio contact at pilot-controlled fields.
As a general rule the turn to base, traffic permitting and depending on the strength and direction of the wind, should take place when the touchdown target is behind the airplane at about 45 degrees. During the base leg, the airplane is slowed to 1.4 times the stall speed in landing configuration (Vso) and the flaps are lowered to the next setting. Don't neglect to re-trim that airplane after each flap and power change.
