Locking up just before touchdown

PilotMick83

PilotMick83

Filing Flight Plan
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Apr 6, 2016
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Terry
Hi everyone,

I restarted my training this year after a long hiatus and am just about to solo. In fact, my CFI had the endorsement sticker and was ready to sign me off yesterday but I kept making more and more mistakes on my landings. I can fly a good pattern and stable approach, but as we cross over the numbers and start into the round out, I lock up on the yoke. This is super frustrating and causes either a hard landing, off center, or slight bounce, etc. I think yesterday it may have been more mental that anything else as I kept thinking "if I can just nail this landing I'll get to solo..."

Anyway, I'm looking for any advice from you all on here on how I can get over this hump or if this is a completely normal thing to work through. I've tried thinking about wiggling my fingers and toes a few times during final to ease tension, but it seems that as the ground comes up even if I move my eyes down the runway I can't stay fluid on the controls.
 
PilotMick83 said:
Hi everyone,

I restarted my training this year after a long hiatus and am just about to solo. In fact, my CFI had the endorsement sticker and was ready to sign me off yesterday but I kept making more and more mistakes on my landings. I can fly a good pattern and stable approach, but as we cross over the numbers and start into the round out, I lock up on the yoke. This is super frustrating and causes either a hard landing, off center, or slight bounce, etc. I think yesterday it may have been more mental that anything else as I kept thinking "if I can just nail this landing I'll get to solo..."

Anyway, I'm looking for any advice from you all on here on how I can get over this hump or if this is a completely normal thing to work through. I've tried thinking about wiggling my fingers and toes a few times during final to ease tension, but it seems that as the ground comes up even if I move my eyes down the runway I can't stay fluid on the controls.
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Are you normally a pretty nervous or stressed out person?
 
You have to fly it all the way to the tie down. I understand what you are saying, you want to get it close and then let it settle....but you are stopping flying in essence while you are too high, make the airplane go where you want it to go. You have to keep flying, cant be a passenger the last 3 feet.
 
Haha...yeah I thought that as soon as I saw the post after mine. Nice to know I'm not the only one with this problem!

James - No, I'm not really at all, and not when we're airborne or doing maneuvers or stalls, etc. It just seemed like yesterday that it was all I could do was lock up when I told myself to stay loose. Might have been I was trying too hard to force it down instead of bleeding off speed and using the runway.
 
Are you using the trim to lighten stick forces? "Lock up" is not a term I am familiar with, but I do know that a properly trimmed airplane will maintain its trim speed without any human help. Try letting go of the yoke once in awhile.

Bob
 
Not sure what to tell ya bud. Sounds like a problem you’re going to have to overcome on your own.
 
Sometimes breaking the landing down to logical steps/phases of landing helps. 1) establish stabilized approach with trimmed airplane, 2) when short final slow to 1.3 Vso, 3) when runway is made pull power, 4) level off roughly 6 inches above runway, 5) flare to slow and touchdown. Maintain directional control during each phase.
 
Concentrate really hard on not letting the airplane go anywhere you don’t want it to. Even minor movements that are undesired, move the controls and fix it.

You’ll overcontol it at first. That’s fine. The instructor is there to keep you safe while you figure it out.

Most people who freeze are exhibiting some sort of emotional response to being afraid they’ll over-do it.

Trust me, you can make an iffy but workable landing out of overcontrolling it. Other students do it all the time. :)

You’re doing the opposite of many who wag the controls like they’re flying an air show in a gusty 30 knot crosswind when the wind is dead calm. :)

Just push through it. Make yourself fly the airplane.
 
denverpilot said:
Concentrate really hard on not letting the airplane go anywhere you don’t want it to. Even minor movements that are undesired, move the controls and fix it.

You’ll overcontol it at first. That’s fine. The instructor is there to keep you safe while you figure it out.

Most people who freeze are exhibiting some sort of emotional response to being afraid they’ll over-do it.

Trust me, you can make an iffy but workable landing out of overcontrolling it. Other students do it all the time. :)

You’re doing the opposite of many who wag the controls like they’re flying an air show in a gusty 30 knot crosswind when the wind is dead calm. :)

Just push through it. Make yourself fly the airplane.
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The bolded is what I was trying to say up thread, but this is better. OP, think about how much you have to move the controls when you are practicing slow flight..........in the flare, you are in slow flight, you have to make pretty big moves to get the airplane to do what you want it to do, but in the end, you HAVE to make it go where you want it to.
 
PilotMick83 said:
Anyway, I'm looking for any advice from you all on here on how I can get over this hump or if this is a completely normal thing to work through. I've tried thinking about wiggling my fingers and toes a few times during final to ease tension, but it seems that as the ground comes up even if I move my eyes down the runway I can't stay fluid on the controls.
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I think its completely normal. I know I experienced the most frustration just prior to solo :mad:.

You kid about wiggling toes and fingers. I actually do something similar but way more. On downwind I will say outloud "wake up feet" and then cycle the rudder pedals a few times. Its a good last minute reminder of how much you might be using them in another 45 seconds.

You could be overthinking too. On downwind, check your speed, tracking distance from the runway and where you will turn base. On base, next flaps, next speed, and dropping that first 500ft. Turn final and think about descent rate, speed, last flaps and getting to that spot right over the numbers or just a bit before. Then shift your brain to landing mode as you move your eyes way down the runway and lock them there. I realized I was too worried about landing during the downwind, base and long final. By breaking it up mentally its hard to overthink it.

One other thing that helped me. We had did several unsuccessful sessions. I was getting pretty down. I told the CFI I needed a break. Reassured him I was not going to quit. Just get my mind entirely off of it. Took a few days off. Was very well rested. Watched some movies. More sleep. Zero pilot **** on those off days. Soloed on my first day back :) Maybe getting the conscious brain unloaded gave the unconscious brain time to process all those subtle sight picture differences, slightly different sounds, etc.

Or just go out tomorrow and nail that m'fer :cool:
 
It's hard to make small, fluid corrections if you're gripping the stick or yoke too tightly. Maybe try a little less pressure.

Also, concentrate on keeping that nose-high attitude in the flare. Don't feel anxious about planting the plane on the runway...it'll do it all by itself with power out and nose high.

Most of all, just keep doing lots of landings. The comfort factor will come with experience.
 
Not sure what lock up means, but in my first few flights/landings I had the tendency to be too active on the yoke, with like a death grip. I had to get a light touch and rely more on rudders to stay lined up and stabilized. Over active on the yoke and you can get too much back and forth.

If you’ve got it trimmed to be basically hands off the yoke and right at your approach speed with no power or the power setting you need for your plane, then you just keep that same descent level until you feel the plane start floating in ground effect over the runway. Then you just pull slightly up to get the nosewheel a little higher but not enough to lift off again. As the plane loses lift and starts settling down on the runway pull back harder to keep weight off nosewheel. Eventually it will just click.
 
I think nearly everybody has learning/training plateaus. Remember to relax and work your way through it. I've sorta chuckled at the fixed pitch for landing typical for students for awhile now. The really funny thing is that it seems to be the way more of pros are being trained since it gets weight on the wheels faster for better control on the ground. So anyway the students are doing it right and all of us that try to "kiss it on" are doing it wrong.

Hang in there and keep working at smooooooooth landings.
 
By the way. I went through a short period during primary training where my stress level got higher as solo approached. Also came back just prior to the checkride.

One day my CFI karate chopped me mildly between my neck and shoulder after he saw my shoulders head for my ears during a gusty landing.

While nowadays I wouldn’t think about doing that to a student unless I knew for sure wouldn’t sue my ass for touching them (hahaha), what it showed me instantly was my shoulder muscles were responding to the stress and tensing up, which limited my range of motion. I realized I almost couldn’t move my arms properly like that. My arms were also clamped to my sides.

The only range of motion I had was jerky and tense through the main muscles of my arms. No feel to it at all. No small motions possible. You can imagine what this does to landings.

If I’m really tired or really stressed, I can STILL fall prey to it in reality wild wind conditions. My memory always takes me back to that mild karate chop and I forcibly remember to relax the shoulders and let them move back down. You’ll even see me forcibly push my shoulders down and stretch my neck side to side in prep for a landing that looks like it’ll be a bit sporty.

Can’t land with any finesse with your shoulders stuck to the bottoms of your ears and your arms clamped solidly to your sides.

Reeeeeeelax. It seems counterintuitive when you think you’re going to screw up and bounce and you tense everything up. If you scare yourself enough, even your butt will be tense. Everyone reading along is now laughing because we’ve all been there.

Relax your butt. Hahahaha. There. Now you have a funny phrase you never thought you’d be told during flight training and you’ll remember to relax all of it, not just your butt.

But try not to laugh out loud too hard on final as you think of these wise words.

Relax. Your. Butt. LOL.

(I bet you’ll remember now... Hahahahhaha. All memories stick when you tie them to an emotion. Laugh. And ... Relax. Your. Butt.)
 
denverpilot said:
By the way. I went through a short period during primary training where my stress level got higher as solo approached. Also came back just prior to the checkride.
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If this is supposed to be a "you are not alone, we all go through it at some point" post, I'll join in.

I completely forgot how to land shortly before my checkride. My CFI checkride!

And it wasn't about the right seat. Flaring way too high, dropping in hard, all over the place on crosswinds, airspeed fluctuating all over the place. You name it and I screwed it up. My instructor patiently let me work through it (although I asked him to land sometimes just so I could see it done right).
 
FlySince9 said:
This getting trendy?

https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/bouncebouncebounce.111256/
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HA. Funny you mention that. I *am* actually having a similar problem to this person!

Though mine is during a transition to a new airplane type (High performance, low wing, 6 seater...). I did have issues like this when getting my PPL, but I worked them out before my check ride... They''re all coming back now that I'm leaving the comfortable word of Cessna 172s... :p
 
joycem137 said:
HA. Funny you mention that. I *am* actually having a similar problem to this person!

Though mine is during a transition to a new airplane type (High performance, low wing, 6 seater...). I did have issues like this when getting my PPL, but I worked them out before my check ride... They''re all coming back now that I'm leaving the comfortable word of Cessna 172s... :p
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A tip assuming yours is the most common transition issue I see: When you take off, notice the sight picture as your mains leave the ground. You want to reproduce that when your mains touch the ground, especially including your eyes looking out into the distance rather than right in front of the airplane.
 
yup....I always look out on take off. :yes:


I think that's my secret to not hitting anything.
 
One thing that helped me relax the tension was when the instructor made get the trim right, then only let me hold the yoke between my thumb and forefinger.
 
midlifeflyer said:
...(although I asked him to land sometimes just so I could see it done right).
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Up vote for that. I finally flew one windy day and told my CFI it was his ride, I was just a passenger. I asked him to talk through what he was doing and the choices he was making. About 40 minutes in he asked if I wanted control so I took over. It was the windiest day I'd ever flown and suddenly I was not freaking out and landing in much more control. Just because you're paying for the plane, it doesn't mean you have to be the one in control.
 
JD318 said:
Remember to breathe.
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Believe it or not I know a guy that says he sometimes holds his breath on final he's so focused, not good, might make a smoking hole on the numbers.
Don't become "overly" focused on the runway/landing and get tunnel vision, try a quick glance around for any traffic, it will break the tunnel vision if you are experiencing that.
 
Volitation said:
One thing that helped me relax the tension was when the instructor made get the trim right, then only let me hold the yoke between my thumb and forefinger.
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I was thinking I should “make” my new student try that. He does a good job trimming and obviously has concepts down, but tends to get a little excited and overcontrol the plane down short final and in the flare. Basically he is doing exactly what the OP describes. I don’t want to get dogmatic, everyone has their own style but hamfisting the yoke ain’t helping.
 
dell30rb said:
I was thinking I should “make” my new student try that. He does a good job trimming and obviously has concepts down, but tends to get a little excited and overcontrol the plane down short final and in the flare. Basically he is doing exactly what the OP describes. I don’t want to get dogmatic, everyone has their own style but hamfisting the yoke ain’t helping.
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I struggle with this a little too, but I've at CFI's tell me I over correct and get too excited when I cross the fence, and I've had my latest one tell me I don't do enough with the ailerons and rudder during the same time frame. So finding that happy medium is the challenge I guess.
 
Airspeed is king, queen, prince, princess and the Sheriff of Nottingham. 172s and Cherokees are very forgiving of poor airspeed management, but still have much, much better results when you fly by the numbers. Diamonds are not so forgiving, and neither are Grummans. For a very long time in training, I allowed the characteristics of the Cherokees I was primarily training on to make up for some bad habits, and it showed in the 4-5 landings I did in a DA-40. I was a safe pilot, with safe landings, but not a good pilot, with good landings. I finally started getting really, really focused on speed management when I was close in to my checkride. That day was the first where I nailed every, single landing I attempted, by the book and the numbers. Since then, I still like to fly 180 HP Cherokees, but I've preferred to fly less docile, more rewarding planes like Tigers and Arrows. Just keep those speeds solid.

Oh, and another thing. There is flaring and there is flaring. Your flare shouldn't be how you lose 30 feet of altitude or try and dump 5-10 knots. You'll stall out too early and smash bugs or float. Transition to level flight at idle to lose that speed and then give it a little back pressure to assure you touch down on the mains. You aren't flying a helicopter or transport category jet.
 
Hey, I can mess up a C-172 landing just as well as in my AA-5! For good landings, selecting and flying the correct approach speed is key. For our OP, if you are not trimming to neutral pressure at the proper approach speed on final, then figuring out how to properly flare will be hell on wheels. Trim to the proper approach speed, and the flare and settle will require only a light touch once you are close to the runway. And if you can't find the right spot above the ground to flare, then slow flight 3 feet above the runway is a good way to learn the right view out the front when you are ready to chop the power and let it settle in nose-high. On a gusty day, you have to do this anyway, as it's hard to land when you are ballooning on a gust.
 
Find an airport with a long runway, over 6,000ft. I have my students fly the full length of the runway, at 1-3ft. above the pavement, straddling the centerline. This exorcise gives a pilot plenty of time to learn the art of controlling the sink rate with power, keeping the airplane properly aligned with the centerline and if there happens to be a crosswind, hovering just above stall speed and how much bank and downwind rudder is necessary to land. When the student has gotten the hang of that pretty well, (meaning the can really control the sink rate, a n d just as importantly track over the centerline like the airplane is on rails) I let them start landing. The ultimate goal is that not only can the student land well, track the centerline after touchdown, but also land WHERE they want on the runway - numbers, thousand ft. marker, etc,. Proof of the pudding is when I take them to the narrowest, shortest runway I can find and give them a little practice there.
 
j1b3h0 said:
Find an airport with a long runway, over 6,000ft. I have my students fly the full length of the runway, at 1-3ft. above the pavement
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The instructor, that got me current after 20 years away from flying, ran that exercise with me... I thought it was very beneficial and I felt I had more control of the airplane than ever, afterward. I use it sometimes when I know I won't make first taxiway, I'll fly it down the runway until I get close to another taxiway, then drop it in. Its better than a highspeed taxi down the runway...
 
FlySince9 said:
The instructor, that got me current after 20 years away from flying, ran that exercise with me... I thought it was very beneficial and I felt I had more control of the airplane than ever, afterward. I use it sometimes when I know I won't make first taxiway, I'll fly it down the runway until I get close to another taxiway, then drop it in. Its better than a highspeed taxi down the runway...
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I do that all the time when the wind is out of the north at my home field. My hangar is close to the north end so I just hold her in ground effect until i'm past midfield before I let her land. Saves time and rubber.
 
Simple, do this with your CFI

Ask for the option. When you get down to the flare, don’t. Just keep flying. Start out flying over the runway at 50’. Then do it again at 25’. This will get you more comfortable at flying low and slow.

In fact have some fun drifting to the up wind side of the runway. Then the downwind side. Feels good eh? Good for figuring out how much crosswind correction is needed.

Do that for an hour and resume landings.
 
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