Help my landings SUCK!!!
 

I have about 10 hours now. I know not much but hey I am working on it. Anyway, I can take off, fly the pattern and almost land just fine. Seems like at the end of my final, things go to hell. I either end up high and fast or low and slow. Seems to be no happy medium. Everything seems to go south at about 200 feet. Anyone have a magic cure that I might try? My instructor is great. I would have already hit me in the head with a hammer. I'm doing my training in a 172.

Thanks

You have to remember that a cessna 172 is a nose heavy aircraft when its flying with slow airspeed. I fly a cessna 150, I usually keep 60 KIAS on final, and when I am about 25 feet above the runway, I just pull the throttle to idle, and just glide in. Are you forgetting to flare? I hope it helps. If you have PAPI lights use them for your descent.

Well the first answer is easy....practice practice practice.

The second answer is also easy....Study. Before you spend $$$$ in the aircraft,try to have a complete understanding of the aerodynamics of flight and also pitch and power. Keep your head OUTSIDE the aircraft and get a feel of the plane.

Where are you looking during the last 200'? If it's anywhere near the nose, you won't be landing well. You need to be looking way out as far as you can. Other than that, right around the 10 hour mark is where most students "forget" how they were landing a few lessons ago, so don't get discouraged and keep practicing! Hope this helps. Good luck!

i do have a video of one of your landings...oh my

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYAVLfuUjPA

Thanks all. I am going to take a day and just do landing practice. I am looking at the numbers while getting the plane down on final and then trying to look out in font of the plane. I will try to look farther down the runway next time and see if that helps. I am 100% better than I was a week ago so I am hoing that it will all fall into place. It just ticks me off. Everything up to now has been a breeze and then suddenly a road block. My isntructor is great though so I am sure all things will come in time.

10 hours is still pretty early...

Assuming no crosswinds, the most likely thing to go wrong is fixating on the touch-down zone...it's normal to stare at the desired touch-down point while on short final, but as you enter the flare you need to transition your focal point further down the runway, like several hundred feet. This dampens your natural tendency to over-react to the impending impact, the idea is to use your peripheral vision to judge the flare (this should happen naturally if you focus down the runway). Military parachutists use the same trick...those who look straight down over-react and break their leg(s).

Simplify.

Airspeed, and aiming point are all that matter. In a 172 in a no-wind situation I instruct my students to have 85 abeam, 75 on base and 65 on final. Pitch for airspeed, power for altitude. The other advice is really good, all too often new students focus too much on the aiming point and everything else goes to poo. If you start with a nicely trimmed plane on downwind the rest will follow with proper configuration changes.

If you're flying an older 172 with 40 degrees of flaps I'd suggest not using all of it. Try 30 instead.

Also, until you get the flare to landing down try flying a faster final approach speed (75) and staying in ground effect while your instructor shows you the proper pitch attitude.

I learned to fly in a 172 as well, and it took me while to get my landings down as well. Once you get into the ground effect you just have to kick that flare in, and let your airspeed bleed off. What flap setting are you using, 20 or 30? I'm sure your instructor is telling you the same thing that we all are telling you, and with only 10 hours your landings arent expected to be a thing of beauty. The nice about learning to fly in a 172 is that you can pound that thing into the ground, and she'll keep on smiling. Practice holding your flare in the ground effect, and when you hear that stall horn go off the mains should be touching the ground. Good luck to you.

Main thing don't be discouraged. I have over 500 hours in a 172 and my landings are not always perfect and I am still trying to learn the best technique for this aircraft. Seems to change on a daily basis. I also believe and was told by many instructors during my training that your landing starts with your traffic pattern and approach. If you are fast in yor traffic pattern you will end up fast on final and in your flare and you will float or baloon if you pull the yoke back to much. So fly the pattern specefied by your instructor and fly a stabalized approach and those last few seconds will be much easier. Oh and EYES TO THE END OF THE RUNWAY!! At least thats what some of my instructors use to yell. Good luck and remember all students will hit a learning plateau so don't be discouraged and keep up the good work.

It'll come. Yesterday practicing crosswinds (10 knots), I couldn't get a smooth one to save my life. A couple of them were "carrier landings" as described by my instructor.
Today (1st solo by the way!!) I was hitting every one of them about perfectly. This is after over 50 landings though. Every time I've screwed one up though, I can look back and know I wasn't looking "Down the runway!!!". It really does make a huge difference!

The key is energy management (airspeed and momentum) and pitch control. When you make your initial power and pitch adjustment (typically abeam) make sure you have reduced the power enough, doesnt have to be precise at this time. Actually screw it, just pm me with an email address and i will send a document to you on landings that I wrote. Its about two pages long, piper warrior specific (you could use it for the cessna just disregard the speeds as they will be slightly faster), i dont feel like typing the damn thing out on here.

When my students are having trouble with the flare I usually take the controls and fly a low approach in the flare attitude so they can SEE the picture and find references down the runway to use with out worrying about hitting the ground. It seems to work most of the time maybe have your instructor show you something similar.

Good Luck and remember to just have fun the rest will happen eventually..

I have done the same thing with mixed results, its almost easier to make the student do it, tell them to do everything the same but DO NOT LET THE AIRPLANE TOUCH. Obviously best to do this on a long runway. And it will help them with their soft field technique as well.

Thanks for all the help folks. Yesterday I had 8 landings. 5 were so so 2 were greased on and 1 you couldn't tell that we had landed it was so soft. I am hoping that they will all be great with more time.