"Andrew Sarangan" wrote in message
om...
You guys are challenging my understanding of landings :-)

Challenge is good for the soul.

The landing technique, as taught by many before us, is to
progressively increase elevator deflection to maintain zero vertical
speed.

That's the ideal. In practice, it's nearly impossible to obtain exactly
zero vertical speed, and it's bad form for your vertical speed to go
positive (i.e. start to climb). In a properly executed landing, vertical
speed is always negative (i.e. a descent), and one typically reaches the
runway before reaching the critical AOA.

I suppose it is possible that you can reach max elevator
without reaching critical AOA.

Certainly once the main gear is on the ground, it is. I commonly continue
to increase elevator back pressure after touchdown, so as to allow the
nosewheel to touchdown gently, and may well reach max elevator travel before
allowing the nosewheel to touch. But this is a red herring in any case, as
there is no requirement nor even a recommendation to reach max elevator
travel during a landing.

But I think that is unlikely, because
that would mean you will never be able to perform power-off stalls in
level unaccelerated flight.

At least one plane does have this characteristic (Ercoupe). Landings in
that airplane, one in which it is impossible to stall (in level
unaccelerated flight, anyway, such as one would experience during a
landing), are pretty much just like landings in any other airplane.

A typical "normal" landing involves flying a slightly fast approach speed
(1.2 to 1.3 Vs0), and then flaring and touching down while still above Vs0.
One hopes that during the flare, airspeed is reduced to as close to Vs0 as
possible so as to minimize touchdown speed. In optimal conditions, a
well-executed landing will even be done with the stall warning going off.
But touchdown itself should still occur prior to the stall occurring (which,
of course, prevents the stall from occurring at all).

Bottom line: just as George said, "no normal landing involves a stall".

Pete