Originally Posted by
Aviationluver
I was wondering if anyone knows any good techniques to perfectly line up from base to final?
Some of the students I teach are still overshooting and some undershoot and I'm running out of different explanations and was wondering what advice you have.
Also, I was wondering how pilots who fly faster jets or heavy iron do it? For example, I know in the larger Boeing planes there is a ground track trend vector "noodle" that you can use that helps you make a nice 90 degree turn without overshooting or undershooting.
I'm talking about doing this pure visually without using a navaid like a localizer or VOR on the field or GPS.
Thanks.
As a student and now a pilot, it has always helped me to focus on the far end of the runway I'm landing on. Once I have that in sight, my hands and feet just follow my eyes like a goalie looking into a punter's eyes to predict the ball's trajectory.
Wings level on base, end of the runway in sight, and I instinctively turn to final at the right time. Then I shift my focus to the numbers.
When cross winds are strong, I sometimes overshoot, but I got used to compensating for that.
Another thing that helps, is to instill a lot of confidence in the student to the point that their threshold for discomfort and anxiety at that critical stage of the flight is decreased. That's where practice and positive reinforcement come into play.
When that happens, time seems to slow down. It's a bit of a personal philosophy I have tried to understand as I went through my own training process.
Now when I'm on final, I'm very comfortable, I'm ahead of the airplane as it were, to the point that time seems to move at a fraction of the speed. So that relaxes me and gives me the opportunity to make small and effective adjustment that make for a more accurate lining up.
Training on high wind days has helped me hone my landing skills, too. Practice, practice, practice.