PPL - ground effect

Posted by Final-Muscle-7196@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 4 comments

Hey guys. Buzzing circuits in a c172. Any tips/tricks on final approach with combating/compensating ground effect? As we get over the runway markings, getting low enough that transitioning into level flight and power pulled. Pulling the power and leveling off. You loose lift. But now your close enough to the ground your into ground effect, When to flare? Final approach from 60to 55/50 kts into level flight. Definitely feel the plane,”swell up” from the ground effect… …just ride the wave level until you feel it starting to sink and ease back as you sink? I feel.. from my perspective anyway… aim point is runway numbers. Mains down on the 500’ , definitely all down by 1000’. Just practice practice practice? I’ve had some near flat landings and wanna butter it up. TIA guys :).

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Low_Sky_49@reddit

Try to make a smooth transition from approach attitude to Vy sight picture before the mains touch. If you balloon, you pulled too fast. If you land flat you weren’t pulling fast enough. You should feel a little push in your seat during a good roundout, where the Gs are briefly higher than 1.0. If you try to round out too slow, you won’t feel a push, and you aren’t rounding out… you’re sinking faster with the nose pointed higher and the airspeed falling rapidly. Once you cross the threshold you don’t need to bring your eyes back inside and the exact airspeed doesn’t matter. All the best information is outside and if you bring your eyes in you’ll miss it. The goal is to round out low enough that you arrest your rate of descent to near zero with the mains very close to the ground. If you round out too high, you’ll have to reestablish descent to get back down to the runway, and re-arrest the descent closer to the runway unless you want a thumper of a landing. That gets difficult to do with the throttle idle and airspeed bleeding off, so you have to lower the nose and add power to get some energy back in the plane (or go around).

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Final-Muscle-7196@reddit (OP)

Good call. I think I do glance back at the gauges heading into the round out… which like your saying… why? Look outside! That’s where the ground is! 🤣. I’ll try that because in theory, if the approach was good, it should be then exterior visual like you said. 👍

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wtskeedn@reddit

I mainly fly a Cherokee which is distinctly different than the 172s I trained in when it comes to HOW and when to truly flare. My recollection is that the trick in the 172 was to wait until you were in ground effect - no more than 10 to 15 feet above the runway - before beginning a very smooth but continuous pull on the yoke to have the nose of the cowling end up on the end of the runway. In some cases just before touch down the entire runway was out of sight straight ahead and you rely on your peripheral vision for the last few seconds before touchdown. If I didn’t get the nose to that point before touchdown it would be a flat and or bounced landing. Hope that helps in any way.

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TxAggieMike@reddit

Look for videos from The Finer Points… his explanations do well answering your questions