Lesson 30ish : More circuits and perfect landings (not!)

[Extra260]

Hi All

My lesson on Tues was canceled due to lack of aircraft (I was half way to the airport when I got the call  ), and I was supposed to have one booked for 9am this morning. After the 35 minute drive to the school, I discovered there was no record of my 'booking' and the aircraft was out and my instructor was no where to be seen

Fortunately another instructor (Damien) came to the rescue, we just had to wait 30 minutes for TAW to return. The plan for today had been to head out to the Barton training area, turn around and come back and do some circuits. Since the cloud base was a bit low I opted for just doing circuits instead. Like Wirraway, I've also be struggling with the landings in the 172. In the 150's we used to fly, I had them under control, I wouldn't say perfect but still pretty good. I've found the 172 to be very different, much heavier on the controls, especially the rudder during the flare and also after a few months of not flying I seemed to be flaring too high, pulling too hard through the flare and ballooning.

Operating off Rwy 12 today, wind 090/6 kts, although it changed to 060/8kts after the first circuit.. just what I like, a crosswind \

We managed 6 circuits in the hour.. had to share the circuit with a 150 and a Metro (instructor Robbie moving up in the world!). My first two landings were not too bad, however my 3rd was now officially my worst landing ever :'( I managed 2 bounces, I was about to go around when Damien took over and sorted things out. I was annoyed at myself for that landing, I was distracted by an intermittent headset problem (noise canceling turning off/on). I'm still not sure if the fault is with the headset of the aircraft. The rest of the landings were ok, and my best landing was a flapless one.

Apart from the one bad landing, it was a good session. Damien commented that my work around the circuit was very good, radio calls good, approaches good (finally getting a handle on stabilising the approach in the 172), speeds over the fence were good and landings ok. The crosswind turned out to be quite light and variable, but I dealt with the directional control a bit better.

Next lesson booked for 8am next week Wed, out to the training area to do some stalls and steep turns revision. Back to work on Monday so I will have to scale back the flying a bit.. and knuckle down and study for the BAK. 

Vincent

[John Bosch]

I heard about Robbie finally getting to the Metros. That is good news given that they are about 2 years over due on when they told him he'd have a job there. Apparently Brindabella lost 3 of their north based pilots to Virgin over the christmas break!

[Ausiguy]

Let me add a couple of things to what I recommended to John earlier. Ask your instructor if he is OK with you only using 2 notches of flap instead of 3. You really only need 3 for a short field landing. With 2 the aircraft will naturally have a more nose up attitude (less chance of landing flat) and is less inclined to slow too quickly. This gives you time to sort out flying level above the runway before easing down by reducing power. Lastly, as you are reducing power look to the end of the runway and keep saying to yourself 'hold it off' but not so much that you cant see over the cowl. You should end up touching the mains at about 50-55 knots. It's OK if you dont hear the horn. After all you lift off at 65 so there is nothing wrong with touching down at 55.

The real goal is to establish flying level about 3-5 feet above the runway and THEN reduce power to lower yourself down. It's a much smoother way of landing when compared with pulling the power over the threshold and flaring. All that does it upset the aircraft. All jets use this technique and I see no reason small aircraft can't use it. Also, using 2 notches of flap makes for one less thing to do on a go around. You can easily add full power, trim a little nose down and then remove the flaps. With 3 notches in you need to remove one notch before attempting a go around. You may forget and that could spell disaster.

I'll be interested to see how you guys get on. Just remember to add a few turns of trim before the threshold and then 2 more over the numbers and then slowly easy back the power and keep saying 'hold it off' to yourself. You will see that you can land comfortably every time. And when you get a crosswind you will have more time to concentrate on correction when you don't have to worry about your flare.

Good luck,

Peter

[John Bosch]

Thanks again mate. I usually only use 2 notches of flaps here at Canberra anyway. There's usually some form of crosswind blowing and, I agree, the 172 just seems to prefer landing with only 2 notches, not 3 or 4.

I also found the full 40° quite hard to deal with! The decent is quite steep, the nose quite low, and you loose a lot of speed in the flare.

[Extra260]

Thanks again mate. I usually only use 2 notches of flaps here at Canberra anyway. There's usually some form of crosswind blowing and, I agree, the 172 just seems to prefer landing with only 2 notches, not 3 or 4.

I also found the full 40° quite hard to deal with! The decent is quite steep, the nose quite low, and you loose a lot of speed in the flare.

Likewise.. I usually save the 3rd notch to rescue a too high approach    I guess my only concern about using the trim that way is when doing touch and goes, it's just another thing to check.. there have been plenty of takeoff accidents due to the trim setting    I'll give it a try next week as I probably won't be doing circuits.

Vincent.

[Extra260]

I heard about Robbie finally getting to the Metros. That is good news given that they are about 2 years over due on when they told him he'd have a job there. Apparently Brindabella lost 3 of their north based pilots to Virgin over the christmas break!

Yeah, I think it's long overdue.

I heard today that they may be getting another 172, but it's supposedly another N model  \ There is also a rumor that Geoff is planning on some 162's, but obviously that won't be for a year or so as cessna only just started delivering the one's already ordered ( > 1000 on order!). They desperately need a bunch more aircraft imho.

Vincent.

[Extra260]

Let me add a couple of things to what I recommended to John earlier.

....

Peter

Thanks Peter.. always good to get some usable advice.

Vincent.

[John Bosch]

I heard today that they may be getting another 172, but it's supposedly another N model  \ There is also a rumor that Geoff is planning on some 162's, but obviously that won't be for a year or so as cessna only just started delivering the one's already ordered ( > 1000 on order!). They desperately need a bunch more aircraft imho.

Agreed there! I assume Cessna solved the nasty aggresive spin problem that caused two 162s to crash then 

[Extra260]

Agreed there! I assume Cessna solved the nasty aggresive spin problem that caused two 162s to crash then 

Yes, more vertical fin area cured that problem, and aileron differential to reduce adverse yaw to make it harder to spin and easier to recover. Just to be sure, the cessna ceo took it up and spun it himself! The reviews are starting to come in, pretty good be all reports so far. 

http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/aircraft/pilot-reports/cessna/cessna-162-skycatcher-its-here.html - Note the fin extension below the fuse

Vincent.

[Dexter Dog]

Extra260, a great report and thankyou for sharing this sort of stuff - I really like the information you provide!