Avoiding the Landing Accident

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• Dick Hitt
• Safety Program Manager, Operations
• [phone], ext. 112
• Columbia Flight Standards District Office
• e-mail richard.l.hitt_at_faa.gov
• Web site www.faa.gov/fsdo/cae

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• 9/28/00 to 9/28/01 - 70 loss of control accidents
• According to the AOPA
• 48 of Wx related accidents, between 1982 and
  1993 involved wind!
• 1/2 of these were caused by pilots losing control
  in a cross wind landing
• Between Sept, 2000 Sept 2001, 50 of all
  accidents in this district occurred
• DURING THE LANDING!

• The antidote to this is knowledge and practice!

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• Good pilots have crashes.
• No one intends to crash.
• Most crashes come from an unexpected malfunction
  of the pilot, not the aircraft.
• Lets look at, and talk about, landings.
• Maybe there is something that we can do
• to keep this from happening to us!

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• We should have some well thought out SOPs that
  fit our airplane
• (Standard Operating Procedures) things that we do
  
• All of the time! Every time!
• For Example DOWNWIND
• Always enter the traffic pattern at the same
  altitude and airspeed (1.5 Vso or the POH
  recommended a/s)
• Always make the traffic pattern the same size!
• Always position the airplane so that it is the
  same distance from the runway on downwind.
• 1/2 the length of the strut or the wing

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• While still on downwind, pick a go-around point!
• One that will ALLOW YOU TO MAKE A GO-AROUND
  without conflicting with any trees, terrain,
  poles,etc.
• One that you can see easily from the flare
• If you use flaps, use them the same each time.
• Turn to the base leg when your spot of intended
  landing is 45 degrees behind you.
• Make a coordinated turn to base

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• BASE LEG
• Air speed 1.4 Vso or POH recommendation
• Adjust speed and altitude (add gust factor if
  necessary)
• KEEP THE PATTERN SMALL !!!
• You should be able to land from ANY point in a
  traffic pattern, in the event of an engine
  failure !!!
• MAKE A COORDINATED TURN TO FINAL
• Plan turn to final so as to roll out aligned with
  the centerline (Do not try to correct it with
  rudder!)

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Avoiding the Landing Accident
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Avoiding the Landing Accident
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Avoiding the Landing Accident
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Avoiding the Landing Accident
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Avoiding the Landing Accident
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Avoiding the Landing Accident
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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• FINAL (1.3 Vso or POH recommendation)
• Make final flap setting, if required.
• Make final airspeed adjustment (if necessary)
• Make final cross wind adjustment
• Crabbing is ok now, but you must start slipping
  before you round out!
• Re-evaluate airspeed, altitude, and centerline
  alignment

• REMEMBER! THE APPROACH IS ALWAYS MADE TO THE
  GO-AROUND, NOT THE LANDING!!!

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• OVER THE FENCE
• If you have the proper airspeed, altitude,
  centerline alignment, decent rate, and ground
  track -- -- then you may continue, If not, GO
  AROUND !!!
• Naval aviators chant - - line-up, speed, ball,
  flaps, hook, gear
• I would liked each of us to have our own chant.
  
• Centerline, Drift, Airspeed, Altitude

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• ROUND OUT
• Stop the decent - enter the flare
• Have the longitudinal axis of the airplane
  aligned with the centerline
• Remember, you are flying to, and planning on, a
  go-around.
• The landing only comes if everything is just
  right!

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• IN THE FLAIR
• Are we over the center line?
• Is our airspeed proper?
• Where is that Go-Around point that we picked out
  on downwind ?
• Are we drifting? If we are, do something about
  it!
• FIX IT OR GO AROUND !
• If everything looks good, dont quit flying!

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• In a properly executed, cross wind landing, the
  longitudinal axis of the airplane is aligned with
  the centerline of the runway and there is no
  drift and no crab.
• When do you release that tiny bit of back
  pressure to allow the wheels to touch? Or do you
  want to do a full stall landing? (Stall speed is
  much slower, due to ground effect.)
• (How close are you to your go around point?)

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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• After touchdown, the ailerons still control drift
  and the rudder prevents weathervaneining.
• When you land correctly, in a cross wind, the
  controls are already positioned to taxi in the
  cross wind, however you have to increase the
  control deflection due to reduced air speed.

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Avoiding the Landing Accident
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Avoiding the Landing Accident
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Avoiding the Landing Accident

• Lets review what weve talked about so far
• SOPs
• 1.5, 1.4, 1.3 Vso, or POH recommendation
• Stay Coordinated
• On downwind, pick a go-around point that will
  work!
• Always enter the Pattern at the same altitude and
  airspeed
• Always fly the same size traffic pattern (One
  that will allow you to land in the event of an
  emergency)
• Always plan on the miss, not the landing
• Chant
• Slip to a landing in a cross wind
• Dont sit in an airplane and wait for it to land.
  Keep Flying!
• Stay coordinated

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What if it Bounces ?

• What if it bounces ?
• Why would it ?
• Airspeed was too fast and we tried to land
  anyway!
• The nose wheel hit and skipped and now we are
  back in the air again. (porpoising)
• Our decent rate was too high.
• We flared too late and flew it into the runway
• We flared too high and let it drop in.

• Mismanaging our airspeed and decent rate will
  make us bounce!

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What if it Bounces ?
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What if it Bounces ?
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What if it Bounces ?
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What if it Bounces ?
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What if it Bounces ?

• How do we fix a bounce ?
• Immediately, bite the bullet and go around.
• Immediately add FULL power
• Establish level flight, using SMALL elevator
  adjustments
• You may be doing slow flight at an altitude of 3
  feet
• Always maintaining the runway centerline !
• Once you have regained control and airspeed,
  establish a climb (Never, Never, Never, try to
  climb without adequate airspeed.) (Accelerate
  first, then climb)
• A short runway demands an Immediate go around at
  the first sign of a botched landing
• YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME TO FIDDLE WITH IT !!!

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What if it Bounces ?

• IF YOU HAVE ADEQUATE RUNWAY LENGTH REMAINING
• (Where is that Go-around point that I picked
  when I was on downwind?)
• Apply power at the top of the bounce and flare
  again. (IF you have adequate air speed - you
  have to decide!)
• Make SMALL elevator adjustments.
• This usually does not result in a pretty
  landing.

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What if it Bounces ?

• When an airplane bounces, it is easy to loose
  directional control due to lack of airspeed,
  especially if you have dropped it in!
• You may not have enough airspeed to control it in
  the air, and it may have bounced off into some
  crazy direction!
• IMMEDIATELY, GO TO MAX POWER AND RECOVER IN
  GROUND EFFECT.
• THIS REQUIRES A LOT OF RUDDER AND SMALL ELEVATOR
  MOVEMENTS.
• Get a flight Instructor and Practice
• Recoveries from bounces
• Go-arounds from the flare
• Slips to a landing

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THE TRAFFIC PATTERN
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THE TRAFFIC PATTERN

• WHY DO PEOPLE FLY SUCH BIG PATTERNS ????
• POOR INSTRUCTION
• POOR PILOT ABILITY
• LACK OF UNDERSTANDING
• LACK OF COURTESY
• THEYRE IDIOTS!

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THE TRAFFIC PATTERN

• SOME TRAFFIC PATTERN TIPS
• FLY DOWNWIND 1/4 MILE FROM THE RUNWAY
• A 1/4 MILE FINAL IS PERFECTLY OKAY !!!!
• A POWER OFF APPROACH IS PROPER
• Dont drag it in with power
• REDUCE POWER OPPISITE YOUR SPOT
• Then try to land on it
• Turn base when you are 45º to your spot
• IN A PROPERLY SIZED (SMALL)PATTERN - PEOPLE KNOW
  WHERE TO LOOK FOR YOU !!
• AND, you can land from any point in the pattern!!!

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THE TRAFFIC PATTERN

• Ten top reasons to fly BIG paterns

• 10. Great way to build up the expense of having
  to fly.
• 9. Tired of looking at all of the old traffic
  pattern scenery and looking for something new.
• 8. Helps build up that hard to get cross
  country time.
• 7. Gets you ready for flying the Big Iron.
• 6. Spread the cheerairplane noise for everybody!
• 5. Helps you hide from people looking for you
  (like pilots waiting to take off)
• 4. Gives you new answers to the question, Where
  are we?
• 3. Solves the problem of landing with too much
  gas!
• 2. If the engine quits, you can practice those
  off airport landings.

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THE TRAFFIC PATTERN

• 1. Your instructor always did it to build time!!!

• AND THE TOP REASON TO FLY A BIG PATTERN

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What NOT to Do,The old Crab Kick Method

• Now that we have talked about the correct way to
  land, lets talk about a popular, but wrong way
  to land.

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What NOT to Do,The old Crab Kick Method

• Some pilots holds a crab all the way down the
  final and through the flare
• Then, at some time, best determined by guesswork,
  our inept pilot kicks in a bunch of rudder,
  hoping that when the airplane lands it will be
  going straight!
• Lots of instructors do it!
• Lots of pilots do it!
• BUT DONT YOU DO IT!

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What NOT to Do,The old Crab Kick Method

• If you guess wrong, and kick late, you land in a
  crab
• If you guess wrong and kick early, you drift (Off
  the runway)
• If you do get on the runway okay, your controls
  are not positioned properly for the cross wind

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Remember this guy?He did the Crab Kick!
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What NOT to Do,The old Crab Kick Method

• They do it because they have never mastered the
  art of slipping to a landing!
• If you are a Crab and Kick pilot, take a flight
  instructor with you the next time you fly!!
• LEARN TO LAND IN A SLIP

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How to Tune up our landings

• Even though we have been talking a lot about the
  flare -- a good landing is started in the
  approach and traffic pattern
• Get a CFI or go by yourself and practice
  rectangular patterns, so you traffic patterns
  will be better
• Go to a safe altitude and practice slow flight
• Do not allow the altitude to vary.
• This will help your flare

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How to Tune up our landings

• Practice some approach-to-Landing stalls
• Dont allow yourself to gain or loose any
  altitude prior to the stall
• Then do it a foot above the runway
• Overshooting or Undershooting your turn to final
• Practice Turns about a point
• Practice S-turns across a road
• These will help you compensate for a cross wind

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SUMMARY

• Develop, and use SOPs
• Target airspeeds
• 1.5, 1.4, 1.3 Vso, or POH speeds (with gust
  factor)
• Work at staying on the speed!
• Gust factor, if needed
• Before entering the traffic pattern -- know what
  you will do on each leg of the traffic pattern!
• Pick a Go-Around point
• Be aware that a go-around point not only
  considers the runway remaining, but also any
  obstruction such as power lines and trees.

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SUMMARY

• Continually evaluate your situation
• Airspeed, altitude, traffic pattern size decent
  rate, ball in the center, other traffic, wind
  correction, radio, etc.
• Chant
• Control drift and airspeed
• Be watchful for high sink rates
• Know that a stable approach leads to a good
  landing
• Fly to the go-around, not to the landing
• Never stop flying the airplane

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SUMMARY

• Remember
• Throttle altitude
• Elevator airspeed
• Changing one requires changing the other
• Consequently, changing one parameter requires TWO
  control inputs

• The landing is not completed until you are in the
  hangar!

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SUMMARY

• LANDINGS SEND IMPORTANT SAFETY MESSAGES
• BECAUSE THE NECESSARY SKILLS AND JUDGEMENTS ARE
  SO CRITICLE DURING LANDINGS -- ANY LAPSE
  THEREOF WILL REVEAL ITSELF IN A BOTCHED LANDING.

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AS THEY SAY IN THE MOVIES -

• Happy Landings !

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