I feel great about flying, even to some degree confident.
Since last September, when I took my first lesson, I have learned a tremendous amount. I have had 65 hours of instruction. I’ve been attending ground school every Saturday morning for the past few months. I’ve read books, watched videos, taken online courses. In short, I have immersed myself in learning how to fly.
At first, I had a difficult time with the entire concept of landing an airplane. It is an unnatural, counter-intuitive thing to do. The act of pointing your airplane at the ground while traveling through the sky at 80 miles per hour – well, it’s something that just doesn’t come naturally. In my first few lessons, my body and my mind were shouting at me: don’t do this! Over time, I overcame this hesitancy. I can – now – fly the airplane on its final approach from 500 feet in the air down to the ground.
It’s what happens next that is still a challenge for me. Despite the fact that I have done over 100 landings, they are the one area of flying that I still struggle with. More specifically, it is the final few seconds of the landing that are hard for me. Actual landings (meaning the last 10 feet or so) take seconds, and because they last only for a moment or so, it is more about muscle memory then anything else. Think about the pitcher in a baseball game. Prior to pitching the ball, she can think all she wants about how she is going to throw a fast strike right down the middle of the plate, but when it’s time to do it, you don’t think, you just do it. There is no time to think.
The same holds true for landing an airplane. As I turn from the base leg to the final approach, I am still in thinking mode. I tend to talk out loud during this process. I’ll say: 100% flaps. I’ll say the speed outloud. I’ll state if I think we are too high or too low. I’ll say “centerline.” The speed needs to slow to 75. The glide slope needs to line up. (There are lights to the side of the runway at most airports which can clue you in as to whether you are high or low. White lights mean you are too high. Red lights mean too low. A combination of half white and half red means you are just right.) So, while on the final approach, I am still in thinking mode. I am looking at the lights, checking my speed, aiming at the numbers on the runway. I am adding power if I need to be higher; or reducing power if I am too high. I am pointing the nose down if I am too slow; I am pulling up a bit if I am too fast.
Just as we pass the threshold of the runway, I can pull power all the way back (we’ve made the runway), and I can begin to pull the nose up slightly. As I near the ground the nose gets pulled up even more because you want to touch down on the main wheels, with the nose wheel still above the ground. I want to bleed off any speed. I want to feel the ground effect which will help us stop flying. And I want to hear the sweet sound of the stall horn as we gently touch the pavement. While I can explain this, all of this is happening in a few seconds, and it is different for each landing. It takes finesse, and intuition, and muscle memory. And, as a pilot, I am a work in progress. I desperately want to grease my landings, but I don’t. I pull up too much, or too little. I have a tendency to stop flying the airplane in these last few seconds, and I need to stay active; I need to remain the pilot until we have come to a stop.
Here’s a cool video by fellow SR 20 pilot Rick Felty of a nice landing at Southbridge airport. The video is a good landing that demonstrates what I am talking about. Rick is talking his way through the pattern, and the final, and as he passes the runway threshold, he “lands” the airplane. That thing he does – which you don’t even really see in this video – is what I am still working on.
I have set a goal for myself, which is less about getting proficient at this final piece of the landing puzzle, and more about the amount I am going to practice. I want to do 30 landings in the next 10 days. It’s just a number. And my other goal should be that I will avoid being too harsh on myself. These landings will come, it just takes practice. But it sure would be nice to grease a landing this afternoon!
