User Guide

Learning To Fly with Rod Machado

Your First Landing

1. Press P to activate the simulation.

2. With power set to idle, adjust the pitch (about 10

degrees nose-up) to maintain 65 knots as shown

in Figure 1.

3. Trim to maintain 65 knots airspeed and fly that

speed all the way to touchdown.

In other words, don’t allow the pitch to vary one

bit. Do not attempt to raise the nose before

touchdown. Watch what happens.

4. When the airplane is firmly established on (or off!) the runway, press P to pause the simulation.

There you have it. The touchdown was a little rough, but you landed the airplane with only the

help of the wing leveler. Even if the airplane didn’t end up on the runway, it still landed

successfully (conked groundhogs notwithstanding).

5. Press Ctrl+; to reset the simulation, then try the landing two more times.

6. Press P to start the simulation, and press P again when you’re done. Then we’ll talk.

Here’s the skinny: the secret to a good landing is to keep from working too hard. This airplane almost

landed itself. You hardly did a thing. That’s the point. If the airplane’s trimmed for the proper airspeed,

there’s little else to do other than keep the wings level and make small adjustments in power to vary

the glidepath. Now for the details.

Landing Details

Why did I choose 65 knots as the speed to fly the

final approach? (Final approach is the portion

where you’re lined up with the runway.) Pilots

typically use a final landing speed that is 30%

above the airplane’s stall speed. In our case, the

airplane’s “no flap” stalling speed is 50 knots (this

is where the green arc begins on the airspeed

indicator). Thus, our “+30%” speed is 65 knots. Fly

a little faster than that and the airplane will tend to

float and resist touching down on the desired

landing spot. Fly a little slower and the airplane is

uncomfortably close to the stall speed. Controlling

your airspeed is perhaps the most important quality for a successful landing.

Additionally, for our simulated airplane, 65 knots keeps the nose gear just a little higher in relation to

the main gear as shown in Figure 2. The Cessna 182 is a tricycle gear airplane. It’s designed to be

landed on the two main gear wheels first, after which the nose gear is gently lowered to the ground.

Figure 1

Figure 2

NOSE

GEAR

MAIN

GEAR