Originally Posted by
PearlPilot
I seem to have trouble in performing the 180 degree power off landing. My instructor demonstrated it a couple of times over the last few weeks and did an outstanding job. Soon after he cut the power, I tend to take my time in making a very shallow turn (shallower than normal) towards base and final and end up not making it. I don't have trouble with maintaining best glide, getting the gear down, and doing all the troubleshooting and securing engine procedures. I am having a hard time doing s-turns, slips, and steep turns (to lose altitude) below 500 feet AGL. I feel like since the margin for error is very slim at low altitude, I would rather not risk it. ...
You are trying to put us in the airplane with you to see this using a 100-word post which is kind of tough. It sounds to me as if you are afraid to aggressively handle the airplane to put it where you want it because you are afraid it will stall. You may not know when it will stall plus your instructor has you running the emergency checklist when you should not.
1. Take the airplane out to 3000 AGL and do coordinated, power-off high bank angle turning stalls. You will find the airplane stalls at a reasonable airspeed in turns less than 60 degrees of bank. 60 degrees = 2 gs and it only adds a small margin to the stall speed. There may be a table in the POH telling what the stall speed is in various banks.
2. You do not need to run the off-airport emergency checklist to do it to standard. It is not an off-airport landing simulation. Why he is having you do this is questionable, because it is neither required nor recommended at less than pattern altitude for obvious reasons. Confront him on it and ask what wants you to add this step if it is not listed in the PTS or any of the maneuver handbooks. It is not an emergency simulation for an off-airport landing. It is a power-off 180 to landing to develop skill and accuracy. It does have application to engine out emergencies, but that is not the primary purpose of the exercise, it is to develop landing accuracy without help from the prop.
3. If your instructor insists on your adding an off-airport emergency checklist to this maneuver he is wrong but if he insists, then get the checklist down so well you can do it in a hot second and then get back to what you are really supposed to be doing- landing accurately. With some practice you should be able to do both.
4. Never drop the gear until the runway is made. If your instructor is insisting on a GUMPS and gear-down at some early time, he is simply wrong about that. You are wasting valuable glide range with the excess drag and it is way more sensible to drop the gear when the runway is safely made. There is no official mandate as to when you must drop the gear on this maneuver- you can drop the gear whenever you feel it is safe. All you need to do on the checkride is say "I am waiting to extend the gear because it reduces gliding range and I intend to extend the gear when I have the runway made".