What makes a safe landing?

Kim, although I got my PPL in 1999, I'm a relatively low time pilot due to the long break from flying. I'm slowly creaping up on 200hrs.:lol:

One of the things that really helps me is recording my flights and reviewing the video later. I'm probably just as hard on myself as you are however, when I replay my videos I discover that my landings are way better than I thought at first. Since returning to the cockpit, most of my flights have been solo. My first flight with passengers, I bounced a couple of times due to too much speed and a sucky flare. After dozens of landings, now all of a sudden I bounce:dunno:. I know for a fact it was due to the pressure to perform well for my guest. My last two flights with passengers went much better and ended with nice landings. Back to my original point.... If you can record and study your flights, it might help. It's also very helpful to hear how bad I sound over the radio sometimes:rofl:,... forces me to try improving my transmissions on my next flight.
 
Jeanie said:
Why were they putting handcuffs on that U2 pilot at the end of the video?
Can't say I've ever seen one of those... seems a bit off to have it configured like that.
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Because the best landing of the bunch was the gear up:rofl:
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Me too she told me a story of getting invited into a Lear jet and the captain was her client. He invited her up front and she declined. She was so scared to be on that plane. He called her a white knuckle flyer.

Though I do not believe her, she says if I do this flying thing long enough she may one day get in a plane with me. Her health is not the best right now and she is in some pain so I doubt this will happen.
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My grandpa would stroke out if he knew I was a pilot.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
I wonder if I would know what bad was and go around? Obviously when I veer to one side I'm not going to add full power since I'd end up in the grass.... so that was one I needed to fix on the runway and not in the air.
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Good question. I think unsafe happens when you let the airplane do what it wants to do and not what you want it to do. Not that that will always lead to trouble on landing. Trainers are sturdy and they usually come out all right but that, to me, is a big part of "unsafe".

But you have to really be sharp and know what you want the airplane to be doing and spot when it is not doing that. That is a big part of tailwheel training, spotting little problems and correcting them before they become big problems.

I think that so long as you are making the required corrections and the corrections are having the desired effect then it is OK to continue the landing; it does not have to be perfect all the way down. If it gets out of shape, you spot that it is, make a correction, see that the correction is having the desired effect and continue. If not, then gather it up and go around.
 
Jeanie said:
Why were they putting handcuffs on that U2 pilot at the end of the video?
Can't say I've ever seen one of those... seems a bit off to have it configured like that.
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It was a joke over the landings being so bad they were 'fly it like you stole it' criminally bad landings.
 
redtail said:
Kim, although I got my PPL in 1999, I'm a relatively low time pilot due to the long break from flying. I'm slowly creaping up on 200hrs.:lol:

One of the things that really helps me is recording my flights and reviewing the video later. I'm probably just as hard on myself as you are however, when I replay my videos I discover that my landings are way better than I thought at first. Since returning to the cockpit, most of my flights have been solo. My first flight with passengers, I bounced a couple of times due to too much speed and a sucky flare. After dozens of landings, now all of a sudden I bounce:dunno:. I know for a fact it was due to the pressure to perform well for my guest. My last two flights with passengers went much better and ended with nice landings. Back to my original point.... If you can record and study your flights, it might help. It's also very helpful to hear how bad I sound over the radio sometimes:rofl:,... forces me to try improving my transmissions on my next flight.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I have made plans to record my flight (audio only) this Sunday since it will be almost $500 with a CFI and two or so hours of flying (with even more ground). I hope this will help me, I plan to listen to the play back in my car until it "sinks in". I'm excited to meet yet another new flight school, new plane, and new CFI (though I've met him before). This will be the very first time since I got my cert last August that I'm "hiring" someone to work on my landings. I thought they were OK but really they aren't. I need help.
 
kimberlyanne546 said:
Thank you. I have made plans to record my flight (audio only) this Sunday since it will be almost $500 with a CFI and two or so hours of flying (with even more ground). I hope this will help me, I plan to listen to the play back in my car until it "sinks in". I'm excited to meet yet another new flight school, new plane, and new CFI (though I've met him before). This will be the very first time since I got my cert last August that I'm "hiring" someone to work on my landings. I thought they were OK but really they aren't. I need help.
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I decided to make my tailwheel endorsement a priority after my last landing in a 172 after shooting an instrument approach ended with a disgusted "What was that?" from my CFII.

And I did not know what went wrong either until I did my tailwheel training. 17 hours worth in a Luscombe in crosswinds with a fantastic instructor.

It is all about stick and rudder (and elevator and throttle) and nothing is going to fix that faster than a tailwheel airplane.
 
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