My landings suck. Especially my CX landings. I think that I might be landing too fast (65-70) kts on touch down. Any helpful hints? This is the only think that's stopping me from cross country flights. Thanks.

 

Go fly with an instructor other than the one you normally fly with. There are literall hundreds of pointers you could get from this board, but the vast majority of them probably won't help. There is, however, a very good chance that another instructor will be able to straighten you out. I'm not saying there's something wrong with your instructor, but there's an advantage to having another point of view from a different instructing style.
(By the way, what's "CX"?)

 

That's good advice. Another point of view could do nothing but help.

-Ben

 

"CX"


Suppose to be cross wind

 

Uhh...hmmm...
I would give you some advice but without a HUD I'm pretty much useless...
j/k -
I guess you should ensure you are looking down the runway at the horizon and use your peripheral view to judge your touchdown...possibly try to perfect your power on landings first and slowly move to the more difficult power off landings...buy a book by Rod Machado?

At UPT the IP would reach over and yank your O2 hose on your mask when you were doing things wrong...that seemed to make things stick in my head.

Good luck!

 

Talk outloud to yourself the proper technique "step 1.........step 2......" whatever method you choose and do a million of them. have you instructor do the first one of the day and watch or follow him with you hands on the controls.

 

Taking a short hop with another instructor is a good idea. Other than that there's no way we can give specific advice without details. Everyone has sucky landings, some more than others. There are quite a few things that could be causing your problems. See about that other instructor.

 

Everyone has the "10 hours of bad landings" sometime in there flying career. Taking a hop with another CFI sounds like good advice to me.

 

Be sure you know what a solid approach and landing looks like. Then you can ask yourself question on extended downwind, base, and final like "Am I high or low?" "Fast or slow" "Left or Right?" Say it outloud to further emphasize.

Assuming you are using proper crosswind correction you can get down to your roundout.

Upon reaching the roundout, just bring the airplane to a level pitch bleeding off airspeed. When the nose feels like it wants to drop...slowly add the back pressure (the flare) and let the mains touch down. Crosswind landings can be hard for an initial student because you are just getting the whole airplane down with 2 axes...then you add the aileron in to help correct for winds and its a whole nother ball game.

Just keep your head up. Private (in my opinion) was one of the most difficult certificates. Everyone has/had trouble with landings in their private...you'll get over the hump. Good luck!

 

I had the same "issue" years ago...Keep your head up, you will get past it, promise! Best advice I can give has already been mentioned here. Get up with a new instructor for a few laps around your local airport and, as oldveedubs mentioned, make sure you know how a correct/solid approach and landing looks like!

Once you have it nailed down, there will be ups and downs with your landings...trust me, after 5000+hrs...I know!

Good luck!

/CP