Question on Landing
Posted by oy1616@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 8 comments
Hi fellow aviators,
I started my PPL training about a month ago and I'm currently working on landings. I came across a YouTube video today, and at around 1:53, the instructor mentioned that if you flare too high, you can add a little bit of power and maintain a climb pitch to ease the plane down.
I'm trying to wrap my head around this. Wouldn't adding power cause the aircraft to climb? How does this technique actually work in practice?
Appreciate any insights. Thanks!
voretaq7@reddit
A lot of power, yes.
A little power, not necessarily. It will just reduce your sink rate.
Try it at altitude: Get yourself in slow flight, and pull power.
You will start to descend in a nose-up attitude. If you add a little bit of power you can reduce that rate of descent and cushion the landing.
It can be a useful alternative to stalling 10 feet off the ground, or letting the nose drop and landing on the nose wheel instead of the mains.
That said like most other people here are saying if I realize I’ve fucked up the flare badly enough that this would be an option in my toolbag I’d reach for the go-around first.
BigJellyfish1906@reddit
You’re not adding enough to climb away. I’m just gonna make up numbers, but let’s say at that speed and angle of attack, you would need at least 40% power to climb away. He’s saying to move the throttle up to maybe 20% (without touching the elevator) and softening your touchdown that way.
The point that he’s getting at is the last thing you wanna do is pull back on the yoke more, because then you’re just gonna stall and the plane can cartwheel into the ground.
Pseudo-Jonathan@reddit
In the flare you are going to bleed off speed. The longer you are in the flare without touching down, the more speed is going to bleed off until the plane doesn't want to fly anymore and plops you down. Hopefully you aren't too high off the ground when this happens. If you flare too high, this can be dangerous because you don't want to bleed off that much speed that far from the ground. So, if you realize you flared too high, you might want to consider giving it a bit of throttle (not a ton) to arrest the rate at which you are bleeding off speed so you can continue to control your descent to the normal flare altitude and then let it bleed off as normal.
Mike__O@reddit
You CAN do this, but it's best to go around and try it again. Keep it in your bag of tricks for the time you NEED to get on the ground and have already mastered landing with proper flare techniques.
If you become too reliant on a bailout like that you will start accepting it as normal. It's not. A technique is just extending the envelope beyond normal. If you get too used to operating outside of normal, one day you'll be too far gone to bail yourself out. That's the day you knock the gear out from under the airplane or worse.
bhalter80@reddit
when you flare you have less lift than you need to sustain level flight, how much less determines your descent rate. If you add a little more power (with accelerates the wing through the air and generated more lift) you decrease the descent rate. If you add a lot more power you have a negative descent rate and go around (yes it's a double negative)
IM_REFUELING@reddit
If you have a slight balloon, you can add power for a bit to keep yourself from getting into a high sinking flare, but the situations where that would be appropriate are pretty narrow. Worst case you get stuck in ground effect well below normal flying airspeed or buy a hard landing. I'd rather see guys just go around if there's any doubt.
mflboys@reddit
If you flare too high, you run the risk of of running out of lift/stalling and landing too hard. If you're in this situation, adding a touch of power can help ease you down more gently.
rFlyingTower@reddit
This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:
Hi fellow aviators,
I started my PPL training about a month ago and I'm currently working on landings. I came across a YouTube video today, and at around 1:53, the instructor mentioned that if you flare too high, you can add a little bit of power and maintain a climb pitch to ease the plane down.
I'm trying to wrap my head around this. Wouldn't adding power cause the aircraft to climb? How does this technique actually work in practice?
Appreciate any insights. Thanks!
Please downvote this comment until it collapses.
Questions about this comment? Please see this wiki post before contacting the mods.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. If you have any questions, please contact the mods of this subreddit.