Any Landing You Can Walk Away From

[mec287]

Why would I increase thrust? Because when I'm approaching with let's say 180 KIAS and I apply full flaps, gear down, 40% speedbrake and 3° nose pitched down towards touch-down point, this configuration burns through speed so fast that i often drop below 120 KIAS and nearly stall. Though probably simply bad airmanship on my part due to lack of experiece i guess - but I'll keep on trying :)

 

If you're on glide slope you should be able to maintain your rate of descent with just the throttle.

[Hamblue]

Over time you won't even think of it much.

You'll find what works for you and do it instinctively, not unlike driving a car.

I like to play around with landings to avoid boredom. Things like going in hot and using max air brakes and rudder slides to speed up the landing, or max altitude/slope landing. I'd even recommend trying to land at the lowest possible speed, just to give yourself a feel for the aircraft and it's limits. The more you try and learn the more you will master the plane.

 

IRL you'll see military pilots do all sorts of things. My first exposure to this was at Dover airforce base. I watched C-5's spiral from high altitude and flare out perfectly over the runway. I thought the first one was crashing before someone there told me it was normal. They were practicing this because in hostile areas they like to descend over safe territory and away from ground fire.

[Maachine]

Why is it that you should use your throttle for altitude and your stick for speed? Seems like making an easy thing a bit more complicated for a noob like me :huh:

 

because the pitch of the plane ends up controlling speed (nose down increases speed, nose up decreases) and the throttle controls how quickly you fall out of the sky (more throttle means you land farther away, less throttle means you land sooner). its just the way the physics work.

 

you get used to it after a while.

 

edit: doh, didnt realize there were 3 pages on this thread.....haha hate it when i do that.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Maachine

[Nealius]

I have been watching a few A-10 recoveries at Red Flag on You Tube and the majority of the time they do not deploy speed brakes until touchdown. Speed brakes are closed on final.

[atsmith6]

This thread really grabbed my interest as my approach was to deploy speed-brakes on touchdown due to the nearly non-existent wheel brakes at that speed.

 

However, I just watched a few real life A-10 landings on youtube and they all had speed-brakes deployed (some full some less than half). None of these had weapons though so I'm wondering: is there a minimum landing RPM? If that's the case then if you're too clean you need to brake, if you have high drag weapons perhaps you need it less?

 

The point about the red-flag landings being brake-free is what triggered that idea.

 

Any merit? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

[Nealius]

The majority of the videos I see have speed brakes closed or less than 30% open. On touch down they are opened 100%

 

http://youtu.be/xPgqPRDZ_dU (appear closed but hard to tell at that distance)

(half open first landing, closed second, maybe 20% open third landing)

(20-30% open)

[Yellonet]

Over time you won't even think of it much.

You'll find what works for you and do it instinctively, not unlike driving a car.

I like to play around with landings to avoid boredom. Things like going in hot and using max air brakes and rudder slides to speed up the landing, or max altitude/slope landing. I'd even recommend trying to land at the lowest possible speed, just to give yourself a feel for the aircraft and it's limits. The more you try and learn the more you will master the plane.

 

IRL you'll see military pilots do all sorts of things. My first exposure to this was at Dover airforce base. I watched C-5's spiral from high altitude and flare out perfectly over the runway. I thought the first one was crashing before someone there told me it was normal. They were practicing this because in hostile areas they like to descend over safe territory and away from ground fire.

Yep, there really isn't any right way for every situation.

 

BTW, carrier landing with the hog, why not? It's just as training, but I figure that if you can make difficult landings you should have no problems with regular ones :)

Carrier landing.trk

[Cookie]

Hmm... this is nothing but 10 minutes of A-10 landings, and they ALL land with speedbrakes deployed.

[Nealius]

None are 100% deployed on final though. Usually half or less.

[cichlidfan]

None are 100% deployed on final though. Usually half or less.

 

You can't deploy them 100% unless you are on the ground.

[Nealius]

I have deployed them way more than what's in that 10-minute video while in-flight in DCS...

[Cookie]

For the approach a setting of ~40% is recommended, but you can set it anyway you want really. It´s not an exact science anyway since you have no gauge indicating your speedbrake setting (with the exception of your good old Mk.1 eyeball that is).

 

In order to deploy them 100% you need WOW (weight on wheels) with at least one of the main struts. So even if you have approached with your speedbrakes all the way out you can (and should) raise them even further once you have touched down.