The Approach-Landing

Woe to the pilot who doesn't know it is velocity squared. From now on, I shall recite " velocity squared" just before touchdown, and like the guy who gets 15 mph reduction from VGs, my stopping distance will be reduced more than it ever was. Come on, you two - I was the one who posted that I thought minimum rollout would result from minimum touchdown speed. How can you do better than that?

Of course you are correct on the physics. I believe a pilot can be a great pilot without knowing sixth grade algebra, even though I appreciate its beauty.

Bob, get some VGs and write down "velocity squared" on your landing checklist, and that J3 of yours will land so short it won't be fun anymore! You DO use your written landing checklist every time, right? Haha!

My whine is simpler than all this. The author of the otherwise very fine video explicitly said in the video that landing distance depends on momentum, and wrote the formula P = mV. He invoked an inappropriate mathematically expressed physical principal. All I'm saying is that if you're going to get explicit about teaching the physics and/or the math of flying, do it as correctly as is reasonably possible. Even high school driver training class (held in my classroom after school, so I see it every year) shows the students a QUADRATIC shaped graph, with numbers included, for stopping distance vs speed in a car.

Of course the reality is there is a heck of a lot more going on with stopping a plane than a hypothetical "constant braking force". So "correctly" saying that stopping distance equals (mv^2)/(2*braking force) is still only an approximation. But the v^2 thing is so fundamental I don't think it should be sidestepped in teaching about flying, especially when the topic is how to land short.

I believe a pilot can be a great pilot without knowing sixth grade algebra

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I agree. So I'll forgive you if you occasionally forget to recite "v^2" when you land, but please do clarify the matter for your students!

Sorry - I did not watch the video. I thought you were picking on somebody for just mentioning momentum. Of course the formula is incorrect - it is always energy dissipation you are dealing with.

Students in the past were well versed, but mostly these days I am dealing with non- scientists. Only one is an engineer, and he is so sharp I need not mention energy management.

Eyes glaze when math formulae are brought in to the discussion. I have them in only one lesson plan - pylon eights - and am careful about how much emphasis I place on them.

little wing said:

LLShort,

Also, some have said something to the effect of line it up and see what happens, this in regards to 3 pt vs wheel landings. Yeah, we might all do this from time to time at the 3000' home field, but I would think that in order to be thinking ahead of the plane, there would be a necessity of having a plan. Sure, this may change once you find yourself a few feet above touchdown as dictated by the many variables one may encounter once committed, especially if opting to land into a one way situation. My mentors have advised me to be as far ahead of the plane as possible, but I'll state again, we have to be ready to "make it work," especially if a go around is not an option.

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Thanks for the kind words they are much appreciated. There is an often overlooked factor that I have come to realize over years teaching. Being comfortable usually equates to safety. Ill pick on my Girlfriend since she never reads this stuff (sorry SJ). Despite being high time and a professional pilot she is fairly intimidated by super short off airport stuff. She does it, but only at her comfort level. She is comfortable 3 pointing and not much else when in rough stuff, despite learning from me to wheel land so she can see where she is going (she is only 5' 4"). It took me a while to realize that her comfort was more important than technique. Is she going to go win valdez…no. Will she land on a 300' sandbar at 6000 MSL… sometimes. Would she be landing there if I forced her to do it my comfortable way... probably not.

She isn't really unique; I have learned over many years that someones comfort zone also equals safety. If a student is more comfortable landing 3 point they generally are more effective that way. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't be versed in both, but what I have seen are the majority of people that I have taught were maxed out when landing off airport and tend to revert to what they are most comfortable once at that level. As an instructor my goal was to take that edge off so they could utilize their plane to its fullest. In many cases it isn't what I would have done, but it works for them and forcing another way may end poorly. Truly mastering a craft means you are comfortable doing whatever it takes. Lots of people don't have the time or occasion to really really master their craft and somewhere in the middle is often a stopping point for many of my students. Learning to be ok with that took me a while. Learning to let the students comfort level dictate what we do was very hard for me, since with all other types of instruction to this point we were using hard set principles that were relatively easy to master. Off airport instruction is different there are no set goals, only concepts that are part of a bag of tricks. I like to think these videos give some new comers something to think about, but the reality is there are so many different ways to skin a cat that there isn't one way, but many different ways depending on so many variables.

Thanks again for taking the time to watch and comment. It means a lot to me and the friends who have helped me make these things.

I think teaching someone to be a more versatile pilot is like teaching music. you can make them better but not everyone is going to make it to Carnegie Hall.

Glenn