Hello Everyone,
I want to say thank you for taking time out to give me your advise and help. I really really appreciate it. All of you have made simply it for me. I will take each other advise and apply it when coming into land. I would not like to see my life long dream go down the drain because of my landings. I will update you on my progress. Thanks once again for your advice and your assistance.

toney.

I use this method when i'm teaching young coasties boat handling, when i believe they might be thinking to much or too little.

Try verbally saying what the a/c is doing, what you want the a/c to do and what you are doing to make the a/c to what you want it to do.

Ya gotta say it so its audible.

I've never really, totally understood this school of thought (covering up instruments). Would you mind explaining a little bit more?

I'll give you what I've thought about it... groundspeeds can give new students a feeling of being too fast/too slow - when their airspeed is right on. Visual cues are extremely important... however knowing how an aircraft feels based on airspeed can be equally important. For example... constant power descent - back pressure increases AoA and decreases airspeed, etc, etc... you can visually see this based on your airspeed indicator. A new student becoming aware of airspeed/pitch/handling correlation can be vital in other situations where groundspeed may be largely differential.

I'm not advocating fixating on the airspeed... but rather understanding what the visual cues mean... and don't mean - of course a slower groundspeed on final will require a slower rate of descent which are all visual cues from looking outside.

The more aircraft types I fly... the less I know about anything anymore!

-This is slightly irrelevant but... seaplane flying is considered all 'visual' ... yet your life during glassy water landings is completely based on your instruments even when vis. and ceiling are unlimited. Many, many seaplane accidents during landing have been based on those who rely solely on visual cues.

Hello Everyone,
I just want to thank you for your numerous ideas and tips. I have not been able to fly since i last made a comment on this post because of the weather here in Florida. I should be flying this week so I will let everyone know how my landings went. Once again, I want to say thank you for your time and your assistance. I really appreciate them.

People over think landings just like they do flying. When you step back and take a look at the basics, it's really pretty simple and nothing to sweat.

The trick is to landing well is "understanding" your airplane and knowing the fundamentals of flying. Know how the controls mush when you start the flare and become familiar with controlling the mushing airplane. Landing is no more than transitioning from a constant-rate/speed descent into slow flight and maintaining altitude just above the runway, so the first thing you need to do is learn how to make a constant-rate/speed descent that is aligned with the extended runway centerline; known as a "stable approach." This has been discussed; pitch for your airspeed, use power for altitude, and trim, trim, trim, trim, and trim until you could cross your arms and the airplane would maintain a stable approach.

Then, practice some slow flight until you have it down pat. Finally, put these two skills together. Establish a smooth descent until you pass over the runway, and then get ready to transition to slow flight. To put it "Zen-like," you land best by not landing; hold the airplane off until she insists on dropping. Let us know how it goes!

Sure.

It's not about disregarding instruments. It's about relegating instruments to their proper place. #1 on the hit parade of errors for both visual and instrument pilots is fixating and chasing.

On the visual side, it doesn't take very much experience as an instructor to figure out that most altitude/airspeed errors can be corrected immediately by forcing the pilot to develop visual cues.

Approach to landing, airspeed stabilizes when the pilot uses visual cues instead of chasing the ASI. Turns around a point, altitude stabilizes when the pilot uses visual cues instead of the altimeter. I've had Discovery Flights where the student, who has never flown an airplane before, has kept altitude within 100 feet - without the altimeter.

I only "always" take an instrument away in one situation - my students don't solo until they can land without the ASI (it usually only takes one landing). In other situations, if what I see the pilot doing suggests chasing instruments, I cover the offending one. So far, it's always worked and once the pilot realizes that the instrument is only needed to play a backup role, it can be brought back in its proper place.

It's not a school of thought that says, "fly without the instruments." It's a school of thought that says, "if you're having problems holding altitude, airspeed, heading, etc because you are fixating on or chasing certain instrument, take them away until the pilot realizes that he doesn't have to chase or fixate on them."

If a student doesn't show signs of the problem, there's no need for the solution.

If you can say what airspeed you touchdown at, you are not doing it correctly. Your eyes should be outside in the flare and touchdown, whether you are flying a 172 or a jet.

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