Cessna571 wrote:I think the main thing about landings is that every single one is different.
It’s about having a box full of tools that get you onto the ground in one piece and able to use the plane again.
It’s not about perfecting a single sequence of actions. It’s about using the correct tool at the correct time.
Exactly right. When I was struggling to land, though, I not only had zero appreciation of this, but even if someone had told me, it wouldn't have made anything any easier.
Landing is taught as a sequence of actions, isn't it, and for most people, this works out ok.
I have just one data point on this topic - I taught someone to land my aeroplane after 3 instructors had given up on her. She could fly the approach perfectly well, it was just the last few seconds that she couldn't get.
So what I did was take her up to a safe height, and get her to fly level in the approach to the stall. Then, initially at about 10 knots above, accelerate gradually away, still in level flight.
We got closer and closer to the stall, but what she was practising was controlling the attitude of the aeroplane as the speed dropped. This of course is exactly what you do in the 'trying not to land' bit, except that the ground is very close and it's not nice if it bangs down.
Having developed the coordination required, and, more to the point I suspect, seen the process unfold several times with no pressure, she was able to apply the same technique to landing (which of course involved just not accelerating away again), and it worked out quite well.
Sadly she didn't go on to get a PPL, but she ended up believing in herself a bit more, I think. I certainly found the teaching experience very satisfying.