Simviation Forums

anyone know of a good strategy for landing a plane? i always have problems landing my planes. i would really apprecicate it if someone could give me a little walkthrough for landing a plane without crashing......thanks!!

Phil,

The most important thing is preparation.  Get yourself lined up with the runway nice and early.  Make sure your gear is down and you are flying nice and slow.  Although a great deal depends on which 'plane you are flying the principles are the same.  Practice flying the plane low and slow, just above stall speed and learn to control your vertical speed accurately.  Try and touch down on the centre line ( I have never been able to do that with any huge success )

I would also reccomend that you learn to do it with all of the realism settings on hard, doing it on easy with crash detect off is just fooling yourself.

Make small, smooth corrections with the stick, they should be changes in pressure rather than actual movements.

Will

Hi Phil, and welcome.

Firstly, what aircraft are you flying with? If you're having trouble landing, it's always a good idea to go back to the basics. Get out the ol' Cessna and practice. Maybe take the training tutorials in the sim, too. It's very easy to apply what techniques you learn in the Cessna to larger aircraft. Don't worry about using the ILS, or any of the Nav system, yet. Practice under Visual Rules so you can see what the aircraft does when you make control inputs.

Some key tips in landing the Cessna...

Trim the aircraft for straight and level flight at about 60% power.

After that, practice climbing and decending using only throttle inputs. This is the way to control your decent to the runway and a soft toughdown.

Give yourself plenty of room to line up on the runway. If you normally start your line-up and decent at 10 miles, make it 15, or 20. What ever you need to comfortably make your decent and line up on the center of the runway.

And: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

Hope this helps.

Definitely go back and go through Rod Machado's lessons.  They're an invaluable tool within F$.

My only other advice (that hasn't yet been posted) is to start your descent on time.  There's a thread back a bit that talks about the 3:1 rule.  It says something to the effect of "if you're at 10,000 feet, start your descent 30,000 feet (five miles) from the runway."

I honestly haven't gotten to fly (doing other VA stuff) in a while, so I don't remember the exact rule.  Check back about 1-2 weeks and it should be there.

In other words, don't dive at the runway.  It should be a nice, semi-shallow descent.

AND MAKE SURE YOU EXTEND YOUR GEAR!  Sooo many perfect approaches, and even more pilots/passengers have been killed by an eagerness to get on the ground.

ok thanks for all the replies....the name is Alex. I mostly use the learjet and the boeing planes. i think my main problem is when im landing im going to fast and i always cut my engine but im always going to fast. also is there a way you can you like autopilot to land or something?

Use the airbrakes / key to slow down.  Try and land as a real pilot would, prepare early.  If the prep work is done the actual landing becomes easier.  I don't know much about autoland systems as I personally cannot see the point but I suppose you could use the auto throttle to limit your speed.

Will

People always seem to want an autoland feature, but to me, landing is the most exciting part of the game!  

Its not impossible to land.  If you're going too fast, then I'm suspecting that you're descending too rapidly.

If you're in a heavy jet, you shouldn't be going faster than 200 kts, which is still a little high.  Try descending a bit sooner and shallower.  Use your flaps, they increase the efficiency of your wings at lower speeds.  And don't cut your engines!  If something happens, and you've gotta go around, you're dead!

ok i will start practicing with these tips.

Okay, I couldn't find the thread in question.

This, however, is from http://www.flightinfo.com  and their "Rule of Thumb" section.  Very cool info!

1. Take your altitude and multiply it by 3. That equals your distance in miles to begin your descent.

2. Now take half your ground speed. This is your rate of descent in hundreds of feet.

Ex.If you are flying at 12000ft at a ground speed of 150kts and you need to descend to 2000ft, the difference is 10000ft. Multiply 10*3=30 miles out you must begin your descent. Half your ground speed is 75, add a zero, and 750 ft per minute is your rate of descent.  

ok thanks i will check out the website

I agree.  Landing is the fun part.  I have approach Hold in the AP of the cheyenne 400 twin I fly, but never touch it.  Two tips:

1.  From an impression I got from your post I want to clarify something:  Use pitch to control speed (not throttle) and throttle (not pitch) to control altitude/descent.  Usually a little of both is required (e.g. when you pitch up to slow down, you will climb slightly and temporarily).  

2.  Also read the Geoff Butler tutorial at the http://www.avsim.com.  (Learning Center or something similar).  And do touch and goes.  When  I downloaded a new plane and wasn't used to it, I forced myself to do 12 touch and goes to try to learn how to handle it.

My first advice: Read the other SPLENDID answers above very thoroughly!

First of all, landings will always be the hardest thing to master in this sim, so don't worry if you fail in the beginning, that's only natural

Thanks very much for the explanation and strategy for landing. I have one question. What does ILA and VFW mean?

I think you mean ILS- Insturment Landing System
And VFR- Visual Flight Rules

ok lol i got it