Landings question

"Eric Greenwell" wrote in message
news:JaMMg.924$FS.290@trnddc04...
Private wrote:

It is said by many that the route to good landings is practice, practice,
practice. The key is not to keep practicing your mistakes. Learning to
land in gliders is difficult because it is hard (and expensive) to do
enough of them.

I didn't find this to be true when I was an active CFIG; in fact, our tow
pilot (an airplane instructor) once remarked at how quickly glider pilots
learned to land compared to a student in airplanes. I think the biggest
difference, at least when I was teaching, was we had a 5 to 10 minute
discussion after every landing as we pushed the glider back to the launch
point, and sometimes continued the discussion at the launch point, even if
the tow plane was back and ready to tow. This discussion was very
important, because the student had some time to think about the previous
landing, then learned to identify what when wrong and why, and decide how
to correct it.

Most students could do a decent landing in our Blanik after 15 flights,
starting with deciding when to break off the airwork and return to the
airport, entering the pattern, and finally, the actual "landing". I say
"landing" because I think the landing starts with the decision to land,
not the flare.

Contrast this with the "airplane" method, which often involves landing
after landing (touch and goes), with little discussion or time for
reflection. Eventually, the student is able to manage a landing, but isn't
really confident that he/she knows what is right.

I was advised against making touch and goes as they rob the student of
needed practice in the rollout which is the most important part of a
tailwheel landing. I was advised to do stop and goes, and while my stops
were seldom complete they did give me time to reconfigure the aircraft
properly for takeoff. I often notice that pilots doing T&Gs land too fast
and are unable to hold the nosewheel off in a proper (improperly named, full
stall) mains first landing. Some say this is the difference between
tricycle gear (a perfect approach but where the pilot quits flying when the
wheels touch) and a tailwheel (where the wheels touch and then the pilot
gets busy). I did find that the best practice was chopping power on
downwind and making a curving 180 to spot landing (with only a brief power
burst for engine clearing) and using slips for altitude control. At a
controlled field it is called a simulated engine failure and (if approved by
ATC) can allow slipping in front of other aircraft on a typical long
circuit.

Tows are expensive and we seldom make more than a small number of
landings in a training day. IMHE the best way to learn to land is with a
GOOD CFI, in a light tailwheel aircraft and at a small quiet airport.
This will allow you to make many landings in an hour and is much more
cost and time effective than purchasing tows.

I haven't tried this technique, so I can't compare it to the glider-only
method, but the $$ will depend greatly on details of charges for the tows,
glider, and CFIG.

Agreed. Many club operations have very resonable glider rental rates and
the CFIG is often a volunteer but some would suggest that 'you get the
quality you pay for'.

Gliders require ground crews for assistance and it is hard to get more
than 4 landings /hr.

We did it with the student, the instructor (me), and the tow pilot, using
unassisted takeoffs. Easy in the Blanik on 75'-100' wide pavement. The
first 3 launches were usually with a wing runner, though.

An aircraft needs no assistance and can easily make 12 or more landings
in an hour, and the cost per landing will be a small fraction of the cost
of gliders + tows.

If the discussion and reflection take place between the landings, I think
this would be effective. I know Derek Piggot thinks a motorglider is ideal
for initial training for the reasons mentioned.

I did not feel that I had really learned to land properly and consistently
until I had made several hundred solo landings in several types of aircraft
and in a wide variety of wind and weather. Both the mistakes and the
improvements are now smaller but I am still learning and every landing is
self critiqued.