Compare Cruise Lines - Three Most Dangerous Landing Mistakes Pilots Make and How to Avoid Them

Mistakes that are easily to correct - but not necessarily in a way you might think. Are all symptoms of mistakes made BEFORE the pilot touches down. . . Wing tip strikes , loss of directional control, under-shoot, over-shoot.

I had just made the three biggest (and most common) mistakes a pilot can make when landing. I mumbled some excuses to my passengers that I didn't believe, red-faced. I couldn't look him in the eye as we went past. The pilot taxiing in the opposite direction was kind enough (or perhaps stunned enough or frightened enough) to hold short of a turn-off so I could move over to the parking apron. Then a wind gust picked me up and I landed a second time on a parallel taxiway. One of those landings that you could hear but not feel, it was a very smooth landing. I felt pretty smug. I landed at the Nuttree Airport in a Cessna 172 in 1968.

We should look at their causes, but first. It is time to introduce some little known techniques that help prevent these accidents. I believe it. The NTSB says that a full 45% of the weather-related accidents are caused by crosswinds and gusts. I spend a great deal of time in the intervening 40 years thinking about how to avoid these mistakes, determined to never let that happen again.

That way you will land at the right speed. Hold that attitude until the airplane lands. But hold the airplane a foot or so off the runway until the airplane nose has rotated up to the landing attitude. And controlling the PGP until you land, picking a safe projected glide point (or PGP), the solution is to fly a consistent approach at the same airspeed. Landing too fast is caused by flying the approach too fast or trying to force the airplane on the runway before it is ready.

This guarantees that you will keep the airplane moving straight down the runway after the wheels touch. Cross controlling is using the rudder to keep the long axis of the airplane parallel to the long axis of the runway and using the ailerons to keep the airplane positioned over the runway, to put it simply. Flying over the infield and landing on a taxiway, in my case, or, wing tip damage, being blown off the side of the runway (the MOST common cause of accidents in the United States), failing to cross control in a crosswind leads to ground loops.

Its solution is good flying habits. Its cause is lack of concentration. Quit flying the plane before the plane is through flying is one of the most dangerous mistakes that a pilot could make.

Then it will an unusually strong gust to put it in the air again, positively will not fly any more, also remember that if you keep the airplane just above the runway until it absolutely. Remember that just because the main gear is on the ground does not mean that there is no 'fly' left in the airplane. I could have been blown into a canal, if the crosswind had been coming from the opposite side. I was lucky at the Nuttree.

So the question is: how to keep these bad habits from developing? All will be forgiven, when the wind is gentle and the runway is long. It is easy to be lulled into the bad habits that lead to these mistakes.

Both simplify and strengthen any pilot's ability to land. Neither is difficult or dangerous. They are the 'very slow Dutch roll' and the 'controlled projected glide' point. I want to tell you about two exercises that have helped pilots more that I could have ever imagined.

The pilot learns how to cross control the airplane in the most extreme circumstances, and second, first the pilot learns to continuously move the stick and rudders to control the airplane as conditions change. It teaches two very important skills. The very slow Dutch roll is a simple exercise done at a safe altitude.

The pilot must move the flight controls continuously as the airplane accelerates to the side - an unanticipated benefit of this exercise, during this time. The cross controlled airplane slowly accelerates to the side for a minute or two. This is the angle of bank for the maximum crosswind that the airplane can handle. Continue to increase the angle of bank until either the aileron or the rudder is pushed to its limit. Change your bank very slowly. Maintain constant altitude. Airspeed and flap configuration, pick a point on the horizon and hold it steady as you change the angle of bank. Here is how to do a very slow Dutch roll.

I never heard another flight instructor talk about it but I am sure that many pilots use this technique. This is an extremely valuable concept that can save you many hours of landing practice. This is the point that you would glide to if you never made that last little flair to land. There is always a point on the ground where exactly the same thing happens, well. The phenomenon is much like when you are on a collision course with another airplane: it stays still in your field of vision but just gets bigger. When you approach the runway your eye will naturally gravitate toward a point on the runway that does not move in your field of vision. Let me tell you about the projected glide point or PGP.

Increase the engine's power or decrease the airplane's drag, to move the PGP away from you. Reduce the engine's power or increase the airplanes drag - usually with flaps, to move the PGP closer to you. You can control the PGP with power and drag while keeping the airspeed constant.

Consciously continue cross controlling until the airplane slows to a taxi. I recommend the runway threshold. Move the PGP to the same place every time. The rudder to keep the long axis of the airplane parallel to that extended centerline, use the ailerons to position the airplane on the extended centerline. Use the center line of the runway as your reference point for very slow Dutch rolls, once established on final. Safe landings, use the two concepts together to make consistent.

These two simple techniques will get you to the same place on the runway every time in a landing configuration that compensates for crosswinds or gusts until the airplane is going so slow that you can taxi to parking.