Any good landing tips while on final?

[Dan Thomas]

Not every technique will work well for everyone all the time. Some instructors are very rigid and everything has to be exactly in accordance with "their way". If for whatever reason you aren't really understanding their way you're going to have serious trouble mastering the skill.

More flexible instructors will be more successful with a larger variety of students. There's more than one method or technique that will work for most things.

This applies to many things in life.

Yes, but there are far more ways to do it wrong than to do it right, and no round-out or flare until two feet off the runway is one of the wrong ways.

 

[Flying Keys]

I don't know that I exactly use Machado's tip, but the way I use the runway widening illusion doesn't actually change with the width of the runway. I'm not waiting until it's a certain size or anything like that. I've landed at several different widths and lengths as well, and there is always that moment where you are getting close enough to the runway that in your peripheral vision, the runway begins to widen rapidly. Some get really, really wide, and some just get wider, but I've never landed where that didn't happen, so in my personal experience, the width or length doesn't prevent the "cue" from happening.

I think Machado’s tip goes farther into explaining what a lot of us already do, rather than what we should start doing. Most of us are already there - we have an ingrained knack for rounding out at the right time because of whatever techniques we were taught or instincts we correctly used (edit: and practiced over and over). But in the end, Machado is simply putting what’s happening with depth perception and peripheral vision into academic words.

 

[Flying Keys]

In the early 1970's, my instructor who was always smoking a cigarette in those days, sat in the right seat with his arms crossed and said " try not to kill us ".

Asking for landing advice on the internet is like asking how to become a better musician...lots of practice until you figure it out.

What’s interesting is that (outside of classical music) modern music education is basically people applying academic study and rigor to what they perceived previous generations of musicians doing for years. Many of those earliest generations of rock and jazz musicians never had the academia, they just had a knack for it and worked their tails off practicing, honing, and just doing it until their perfected their craft. Then we come along and go, “this is what Jimmy Page (or whoever) was doing” and replicate it until it’s part of our subconscious and it starts becoming our own.

Modern aviation education developed in similar ways - we figured out what worked (with a little survivorship bias) and applied the physics and academic rigor later, especially once the tools became available. High-definition video and social media provide a lot more insight than we had access to years prior, if you can filter out the bs (which is no easy task for a beginner).

Either way, both provide a “shortcut” to bypassing all the trial and error of our predecessors. In terms of cutting down on death and destruction: advantage, aviation. Going back to my previous comment, that’s what the academics like Machado are trying to do. Sometimes connecting that academic insight to what we think we already know can be an “aha” moment.

 

[Crashnburn]

Not every technique will work well for everyone all the time. Some instructors are very rigid and everything has to be exactly in accordance with "their way". If for whatever reason you aren't really understanding their way you're going to have serious trouble mastering the skill.

More flexible instructors will be more successful with a larger variety of students. There's more than one method or technique that will work for most things.

This applies to many things in life.

Agreed. Teaching runs in my family. A 3-year-old niece is reading to a younger cousin. My mother taught for many years. She always said you needed to use a variety of techniques because not all people learn the same way.

 

[O2 Birddog]

Yes, but there are far more ways to do it wrong than to do it right, and no round-out or flare until two feet off the runway is one of the wrong ways.

I'm not suggesting otherwise at all. What I was talking about is judging your height to begin the round out and flare.

 

[O2 Birddog]

I think Machado’s tip goes farther into explaining what a lot of us already do, rather than what we should start doing. Most of us are already there - we have an ingrained knack for rounding out at the right time because of whatever techniques we were taught or instincts we correctly used (edit: and practiced over and over). But in the end, Machado is simply putting what’s happening with depth perception and peripheral vision into academic words.

With any physical activity from swinging a hammer to, hitting a golf ball, to judging height/distance and where that sweet spot is for your individual aircraft under the current conditions with enough practice you eventually should develop a "feel" for it and everything becomes natural.

Some folks unfortunately never get there and I'd say largely it's a matter of not really being comfortable and confident.

Of course nothing will kill you faster than false confidence either so there is that... .

 

[O2 Birddog]

Agreed. Teaching runs in my family. A 3-year-old niece is reading to a younger cousin. My mother taught for many years. She always said you needed to use a variety of techniques because not all people learn the same way.

I've been an instructor since I was 14 actually beginning with 4-H Small Bore .22 Rifle competition. I wanted to put a team together but the County Agent didn't know which end to point down range and which end goes against the shoulder. I'd had extensive professional training since I was 9 so he told me if I wanted to put a team together he'd supervise but I was in charge.

Being a bunch of redneck farm/ranch kids from the Western Panhandle we could all shoot so all that was really necessary was to work on technique.

We did very well until we all aged out. Both during my military career and after I've also been an instructor primarily in tactical/defensive shooting and self defense.

Most military programs are extremely rigid but in the civilian world you've got to be flexible especially if you are doing it professionally or you're going to wash out a whole lot of students that otherwise could be trained.

I'd rather have a lot of successful students than a rigid program.