“Operating helicopters onboard ships is extremely complex, due in part to the difficulty of landing a helicopter on a moving platform, but also due to numerous practical engineering issues.”In what is perhaps the most harrowing helicopter landing I’ve ever seen, test pilots land a Lynx Mark 90B helicopter on a pitching and weaving Knud Rasmussen class Patrol Ship. This is part of a limitations test by Prism Defence, a company specializing in Ship Helicopter Integration.

Any pilot with a few years experience can tell you that good landings come and go. Your landings may be picture-perfect every time, but then you suddenly find yourself in a dry spell. You can’t nail the landing to save your life. It doesn’t matter if you fly every day for a living or if you’re the valiant weekend warrior: we all struggle with this. At times like these, it’s time to get back to basics.

Before we begin, it’s important to understand just what constitutes a good landing. Is it all about a smooth touchdown? Hardly. I’m more concerned about landing in the proper pitch-attitude at the intended landing point. For light airplanes, my criteria is as follows:

• Proper pitch (main wheels touch down first)
• On runway centerline
• +100/-0 feet from intended landing point
• Proper crosswind technique with no landing gear sideload

Admittedly, we all bust these criteria at times. But if you find yourself consistently outside the margins of a “good” landing, then it may be time to re-educate yourself on the basics.

Remember those days as a student pilot. Your instructor broke every maneuver into simple bite-sized steps for you to execute. Now that you’re a pro, those steps may be long forgotten. If you want to do a steep turn, you simply do a steep turn! And when it comes to landing, you simply land the plane. It’s easy and there’s almost no thought involved.

Herein lies the problem. By not thinking about the landing, you are actually forgetting how to land.

Try talking through the steps to landing the airplane. Are you right on speed crossing the threshold? Did you remember to transition your eyes towards the end of the runway? Do you flare too early or too late? It’s troubleshooting like this that can help you get back on track to making stellar landings each time.

If you still can’t figure it out, grab your favorite flight instructor and ask for help. That’s what they’re there for!

Operating in and out of towered airports requires a landing clearance prior to touchdown. Pilots do occasionally land without a clearance. Depending on the circumstances, this could become an FAA violation: something every pilot should want to avoid. The solution? Almost every airplane has a built in advisory system to alert the pilot as to the status of his/her landing or takeoff clearance. You just have to know how to use it.

Always taxi with the landing light off, using only your taxi light as needed. Once you hear the magic words “cleared for takeoff,” you should instinctively switch on the landing light. It doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, just turn the light on. Your climb checklist should have you turn the light back off once on your way.

Landing light is off, which means we must not have been cleared to land yet.

Follow the same discipline with your landing clearance. The landing light should not come on until you have been cleared to land. On short final, take a quick glance at the landing light and verify that it is on — that’s your reminder that you have in fact been cleared to land. This is also a good time to double check “three in the green” for retractable landing gear pilots.

It may sound crazy, but airplanes land without clearances more often than you might expect. Sometimes controllers get busy and forget to issue the landing clearance. This happened to me the other day, but because the landing lights were still off on short final, I caught it and asked the controller for the clearance myself.

At other times it is the pilots fault: we forget to contact the tower in the first place. Before you laugh and say “I’ll never do that,” what if approach issued the following?

“Cessna 12345, cleared for the ILS 36R approach, contact tower 119.7 crossing MGHEE.”

It’s almost a set up, isn’t it? Now you’re cleared to shoot the approach, but not to land. Worse, you have to stay on the approach frequency for a few minutes: just enough time for you to forget to call the tower. If you operate in and out of controlled airports enough, you will mess this one up sooner or later. And if you use the landing light trick, you just might save yourself a world of trouble.

Pilots have some sort of machismo complex when it comes to making a smooth landing. I know it feels good to grease it right on the money. Not to mention that the landing leaves a lasting impression on each and every passenger. But a smooth landing is secondary to the primary goal of landing the airplane safely. Gusty winds and high crosswind components can quickly turn a beautiful flare into a scary situation. Best to err on the conservative side: just plant it! 

Sideloads are put on the airplane by landing in a crab (sideways). Pilots are trained to correct for this by entering a slip and landing one wheel at a time. The problem is that many airplanes start to get squirley on roundout in a crosswind. Control pressures are constantly changing, and the wind can quickly become too much to handle. You suddenly find yourself being blown sideways across the runway, which increases the chances of landing with a high sideload, or worse: getting blown into the ditch!

You can work to prevent a dangerous situation by doing your best to get the airplane down. Don’t try to make it pretty, just stick the airplane on the ground and accept a harder-than-normal landing. Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not telling you to fly nose-first into the runway. That would be a bad thing. Just don’t “milk it” and aim for that satisfying “chirp-chirp” of the mains in a blustery wind.

From the early days of instrument training, we are taught to expect to go missed at the conclusion of an instrument approach. I think we all understand why: the point is not to get too cocky, and to remind yourself that minimums are just that: minimums. Point well taken, but when things get real are you actually prepared to fly the missed approach?

To do all of this on the fly is to ask for trouble. Instead, plan ahead for the missed approach. Professional pilots make this part of a complete “approach briefing,” and it’s a good idea for private pilots to do the same.

During your initial approach preparation, take a good look at the published missed approach procedure. Get familiar with the chart and compute your holding pattern entry. Check out my post on Holding Patterns Entries Made Easy, it should help.

During the final segment of your approach, take a quick peek at your chart and memorize the first step of the missed approach. Usually this is just a heading and an altitude. Now would be a good time to set any altitude or heading bugs as a friendly reminder.

If you do get behind the airplane on an actual missed (hey, it happens!) do not just wing it! Confess your situation to the tower and ask for a vector and altitude. Remember: safety is the name of the game here. Contrary to popular belief, controllers do not carry pitchforks. They are there to help so ask for it if you need it.

This one’s been circulating around the web for a week now. On May 31, a piston twin ran off the 2,100 foot runway in St. Barthelemy Airport (SBH) in the Carribean. What makes this video so interesting, aside from the surfer-dude commentary, is that the pilot opted not to go around even after floating for nearly three fourths of the runway.

When should you execute a go around? As one of my first flight instructors said: go missed anytime the approach does not look perfect. Seriously now, increase power and go around if there is any doubt in your mind as to the safety of your upcoming landing. Continue on to the video.

An MD-11 operated by Fed Ex Express crashed and burst into flames during landing at Narita International in Tokyo, Japan. The pilot and copilot of Fed Ex Flight 80 were killed in the accident according to a CNN report. The video shows the airplane bouncing twice and rolling left before landing inverted next to the runway.

Earlier this year a Fed Ex ATR-42 operated by Empire Airways crashed after landing short of the touchdown zone on January 27, 2009.

It looks as though the nose came down hard, leading to a bounce. The airplane pitched down aggressively, leading to a nose-first landing, followed by a second bounce. The airplane then rolled left into the ground.

With the ditching of US Airways 1549 and crash Colgan flight 3407, this is turning into a rough year for aviation. Be careful up there, and fly safe.

When operating into controlled airports, tower will occasionally ask you to maintain “best forward airpseed” with your landing clearance. This is especially common for pilots of slower piston-engine airplanes. As common as this request is, it is not required (and rarely covered) by the flight training curriculum.

ATC will ask for best speed on final in an attempt to expedite arrivals and maintain spacing. As a pilot, this means that there is something coming in behind you. Quickly. These fast-movers tend to come in two varieties: turboprops have a final approach speed between 100 to 120 knots, and jets, with an approach speed of 130 to 160 knots.

Keep in mind that “best forward airspeed” is not a mandate, but a request. If in the judgement of the PIC, a faster than normal approach will compromise safety, it is the pilot’s responsibility to notify ATC that he/she is unable to comply. Bear in mind that you may be vectored and resequenced behind the faster aircraft. At no time should a pilot feel obligated to compromise safety in order to “help out” air traffic controllers. It’s your butt on the line! That being said, maintaining best forward airspeed on final is a perfectly safe maneuver provided the pilot plans accordingly.

My Best Forward Airspeed Approach Technique:

1. Delay the use of flaps / gear
2. Maintain a high power setting
3. One mile final:
   1. Gear: Down (if applicable)
   2. Slow to maximum flap extension speed (top of the white arc)
4. Crossing the airport boundary:
   1. Throttle: Idle
   2. Flaps: Full

Due to excess airspeed, the airplane will have a tendency to float. Level off above the runway and fly the airplane until it is ready to land. Know that the approach and landing technique will vary from airplane to airplane. Consult an instructor for specific information regarding your airplane.

After landing, quickly clear the active runway by turning off at the next available taxiway. If there is some distance to be covered, it may be prudent to delay braking until just prior to reaching a runway turnoff. See my article on planning your after-landing taxi route.

A Word On Safety

Best forward airspeed on final approach is a bit of a contradiction. The pilot is being asked to speed up at the one time when it is critical to slow down. This is perfectly safe, so long as you always respect your personal minimums and aircraft limitations.

I strongly suggest that you practice a few best forward airspeed approaches at your local airport to elevate your comfort level with a faster than normal approach. This is also helpful in understanding the drag charactersitics of your airplane. It may be prudent to take a CFI along to learn any airplane-specific tricks.

Related Links

Forum discussion on best forward speed.
Blog entry about planning your after-landing taxi route.

On take off roll from Charleston, SC, the pilot of a Long EZ experienced a rough bump before taking into the air. Upon landing at the destination airport, the pilot discovered that the nose wheel was flat and that the left brake had lost all hydraulic fluid.  The NTSB determined that the nosewheel had struck a military arresting cable on take off and blamed the pilot for inadequate preflight planning in the probable cause analysis.

Runway Arresting Cable

Runway arresting cables are usually located between 1,500 to 2,800 feet from the runway threshold and may be raised up to three inches above the runway surface. They are marked by yellow circles spanning the width of the runway.

These cables are meant to be caught by the tailhook of military aircraft, but have been known to cause damage to civilian aircraft. Nose gear, tail wheel, and belly-mounted antennas are the most likely areas to receive damage from crossing cables at high speeds.

Avoidance is the best policy to adopt with respect to these runway hazards. To put it simply: land long and stop short. Imagine that the runway begins at the arresting cable, and ends just before the cable at the far end of the runway. When making the decision to land long, be sure to factor the remaining runway into your landing length considerations: you don’t want to run off the far end!

When possible, avoid taxiing over the cables. Where avoidance is not an option, taxi slowly and use full back elevator to minimize the risk of a prop-strike. Keep in mind that it is perfectly permissible, with tower’s permission, to taxi just beyond the arresting cables prior to power application for takeoff.

Pilots can determine the presence and position of arresting cables by referring to the Airport / Facility Directory, or by checking the taxiway diagram or instrument approach plates for the active runway. NACO charts depict cables as a zig-zag line with arrows crossing the runway.

Arresting cables as depicted by a NACO taxiway diagram

Off-Site Resources

NTSB Accident Reports Relating to Arresting Cables ( 1, 2, 3 )
Runway Arresting Systems for Commercial Operators by Boeing
What Is EMAS? (Emergency Materials Arresting System) at AskACFI.com

You just landed on runway 12R at San Antonio International (KSAT) and haven’t so much as peeked at the taxiway diagram. As you roll out, tower hurriedly says, “turn next taxiway and taxi to parking, monitor ground point niner”. As you approach taxiway Sierra, you realize that the controller has failed to indicate whether this will be a left or right turn off the runway. Which way do you go, and furthermore, how do you find your way to parking? This highlights the need to have a game plan for exiting the runway.

Although we often talk about staying ahead of the airplane at all times, pilots tend to forget that they cannot take a break when the wheels touch the ground. This is particularly important at large airports with complicated taxiways. It is critical that the pilot have a plan for exiting the runway and finding their way to the FBO, regardless of the presence of an operating control tower.

So how do we stay ahead of the airplane and build that runway exit strategy? Start thinking about your landing runway and taxi fifteen to thirty minutes out. After listening to the ATIS, you should have a good idea as to what runway(s) you are likely to land on. Now pull out that taxiway diagram (VFR pilots, you can find this in your Airport / Facility Directory).

San Antonio Taxiway Diagram

Going back to our San Antonio example, suppose you are approaching KSAT from the west, and ATIS reports that the visual for 12L and 12R are in use. We can expect 12R since ATC rarely crosses traffic between parallel runways.

Having done our homework ahead of time, we know that our FBO is east of 12R near taxiway Juliet. A right turn on Sierra, or maybe Bravo, followed by a right on Golf or Hotel to parking is more than likely going to be our taxi clearance.

Keep your head in the game and face those big airports without fear.