Landing Problems

[SirMoo]

Hello,

im new to flight simulator. Im playing the basic flight lessons in the game. But now im stuck on the landing mission on the Bremerton airport. I prolly tried landing the cessna like 40 times now (me getting sick of the trainers comments how well the fish tastes there). It always says it crashed and flight is over
I've read all the theory about it. The trainer says i need a speed of 75 knots, but he flies the cessna at 80. Also he says i should have 1900 rpm, but i fly too high at this rpm. So i fly at about 1800 rpm to get a good angle (2 red and 2 white lights).

Can someone record a replay of this mission for me so i can see what im doing wrong ?

Thanks

[Nav]

I'll have a look later when I've time, SirMoo.

Mix of red and white is correct.

Generally, though, maybe concentrate more on what the aeroplane is doing, rather than specific rev settings etc.  If you can get it trimmed level and descending on a steady path at about 500 feet per minute, that's correct, whatever the IAS and revs say.

And don't forget 'inversion'.  If you're descending too fast, add a touch of power; going too slow, lower the nose.  And get the trim as right as you possibly can.

I'll have that look and get back.

[JBaymore]

SirMoo,

Hi and welcome to SimV.

If you have realism set to high in the settings that is going to make learning more difficult.  More realistic... but more difficult.    

Do not forget the flare procedure just before touchdown.  That may be the issue.

Just before you are about to have the wheels touch the ground your engine power should be at idle and you pull back on the yoke/stick slightly.  This raises the nose of the aircraft slightly and results in a slowing of forward momentum... which also decreases the lift (if you are at the correct speed), and causes a slight decrease in the vertical descent speed.  It lets the aircraft "settle" onto the asphalt gently.

If your airspeed is a bit too high however.... raising the nose will have the effect of causing you to "float" down the runway a long way.  If airspeed is really high.... the nose up for the flare causes you to abruptly climb.....and then because of the high angle of attack relative to the airspeed .... suddenly stall with no place to recover  :o.

best,

....................john

[Nav]

Tried the lesson, SirMoo.

I think your problem may partly BE the revs.

[garymbuska]

I would suggest you fly a touch and go circuit. It gives you good practice at landing and taking off.
The idea on landing is to point the nose at a spot down the runway and keep it there, cut power then try to keep it flying as long as you can this will lead to a stall and a gentle touch down providing that you are not to high.

[wji]

Crashes and Damage

Ignore Crashes And Damage
Detect Crashes And Damage
Aircraft Stress Causes Damage
Allow Collisions With Other Aircraft

Even hard landings can be interpreted by FS9 as crashes.
Select: Ignore Crashes And Damage for all FS9 flights

bill

[SirMoo]

The settings for reality are at easy/simple and ignore crashes is activated.

here u can see a sample of my crashed cessna at bremerton:

http://payne.aldervista.de/land4.zip (191 Kb)

Its a .FSR file for the My Documents\Flight Simulator folder.

its not perfect (had to adjut some speed) but it looks like a soft landing to me, but a text in the upper left corner says that i crashed  

Maybe u can take a look at it, is this a too hard landing ?

Thanks for your answers and your help.

[Nav]

Sorry, Sirmoo, I don't know how to make videos work on FS.

Are you sure that you aren't getting too 'carried away'  with this 'flight analysis' thing?  Next time, just call up 'replay', switch to an external view, and look at the last 60 seconds of the flight.  If the wheels stay on, the landing was OK!

The fun of this business is 'flying'.  I suggest you take garymbuska's advice, and set up your own flight on which you can do 'circuits and bumps'.  Then take my advice, and save it at crucial points - like turning on final approach.  Just half-a-dozen landings and takeoffs and I guarantee that it will start to come right.

[Graycat8524]

Heya SirMoo,

I reviewed your video.  I found your final to be well done overall.

Your Glideslope was well done.  You watched the VASI and had your aircraft trimmed well (having the Visual Flight Path Hoops active didn't hurt either).

Your heading also intersected the runway at the proper angle.

A few things that you may want to work on:

Your nose was about 3 deg. down throughout the final.  I trim my aircraft so that my Angle-of-Attack (on Glideslope) is about 3 to 5 deg. nose up.  This insures that my aircraft settles down on the runway just by cutting power as I cross the runway threshold.  This also keeps me from having to pull the nose up much on my landing flare.  Just a little dab will do 'ya!

In my opinion the airspeed was a little high on final.  Your airspeed maintained about 80 kts.  I would have maintained about 70.  This will also serve to bring your nose up a little.

Your flaps were at 12 deg. on the entire final.  Myself, I will reduce speed to about 70 with 12 deg. flaps then when I get about 7 or 8 miles out, drop the flaps to 25 deg. and slow to about 60-65 kts.  (or slower depending on prevailing wind speed).  Remember that your full-flaps stall speed of your Cessna 172 is 48 kts. so 60-65 kts. is fine for 25 deg. flaps.

In my opinion the touch down was gentle enough not to have caused a crash.  Something that you may need to check on.  Like JBaymore suggested in his post you may want to adjust your Realism Settings for Easy.

Good job!

[Chris_F]

I find that you really have to hammer the Cessna's gear in to the ground to crash it on landing.  If Graycat says you probably touched down gentle enough then you may have a problem lurking in a file somewhere.  Maybe you should re-install FS9?  I certainly don't think a couple degrees nose down on approach would cause you to crash (provided you flared properly).  If you come down on the front gear though it may not be as forgiving...