Five Reasons Your Landings Suck

Landings are typically the pilot’s biggest challenge, presenting great frustration when we screw them up even as recognition of doing it right is as rare as $2.00/gallon avgas. Apparently, the act of returning to terra firma is one we simply can’t seem to master consistently. One of the reasons is each day’s conditions are different from the previous flights, and applying what we remember from them—if anything—won’t always work. Another reason is the pilot may not have enough experience to know how to gauge conditions and modify the pattern and approach to compensate for today’s conditions.

Key Takeaways:

• Consistent good landings require thorough planning, starting miles from the airport to account for conditions and traffic, and configuring the aircraft early in the pattern (e.g., flaps, gear, trim) to allow it to stabilize.
• Key to successful execution are precise airspeed control throughout the approach and over the runway threshold, maintaining the correct visual "sight picture" to judge alignment and descent, and positive directional control during the flare and rollout.

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