Landing SECRET your Instructor won’t tell you [How to Land] 

Great video, despite the other comments saying it’s the same old information maybe yes but your use of simple explanation and very clear visuals is going to make it easier to internalize the information for student pilots, well done

My instructor was a Marine pilot during Vietnam. Precision landing on a carrier deck is a must. He taught me to use the approach lights till close then , (terrain permitting), us as much of the runway as possible. Situational awareness is the key. After all these years, I still hear his voice every time I line up on final : " on the numbers..... please". I still try to make him happy.

Very well done... Been flying for 40 yrs. I was trained by an ex military instructor. Been landing like this since day-1 Its always wise to learn or re-learn during your flying career or hobby

Love your style and professionalism. 11,000 hour retired small aircraft pilot here. Perfect presentation in every way. Thank you for doing what you do. Have not watched your crosswind video yet. No doubt just as good. Before preflight, I'd stand 50 feet directly in front of the seated student. Then walk staight to him and put a piece of plastic tape on my C-150 cowling to have an obvious referance marker to 'point the noise' parallel useing thier feet. (Actually I taped three arrows). Seemed to help. We'd also practice at altitude where they would keep their hands on their lap, I'd bank up to 15 degrees left and right, they'd point the nose at a distant spot. Made a game of it switching jobs and trying to get the other to not keep the nose on the target. Great times!

This video is proof that click bait titles are the norm. I got my CFII in the 80s and this is just standard, aviation 101 landing instructions given by pretty much any competent CFI. You did a good job of using graphics. In that regard, this video did well. Good explanation of the typical approach (pun intended) to teaching patterns and landings. Gets 4+ stars for content, 1 for the title

Use the airport runway numbers pasted on your windshield depending on left or right crosswind component and let it just grow. If its bouncing around, your not in a stable glideslope. Adjust trim and power accordingly with your final landing airspeed.

I'm a fan of practicing forward slips to correct for extra height/excessive headwind on final and no more than 20 deg flaps. The forward slip is a great tool for that day you have to spot land without power. 20 deg flaps is more ideal for overshoots than full flaps and still allows forward slips.

Once you have instructed for a few hours, you learn to teach energy management instead of pitch/power for speed. I've had many students fail stage checks because their instructor taught pitch for airspeed, instead of teaching that it depends on your energy. Power add/subtracts, and pitch converts. What you use depends on your situation.

I am just starting with flight lessons..I really appreciate the way you made every term understandable.I will use this video for reference. Thank you

Really appreciated the explanation of the nomenclature associated with a landing approach "downwind", "base", "final", "flare" etc. I'm not a pilot but have an interest in aircraft nevertheless. The way the aircraft is positioned, speed, flaps setting, when to turn base (left or right), checking speed and adding flaps, turning final and aiming for a spot whist controlling speed and angle of descent. Great stuff.

Pretty good video and generalized tips for good landings. In the late 60's my CFI would often chop the power abeam the numbers, then say, 'make the field'. Always considered a power on approach useful in certain sitations - other traffic, controlled airport, winds and other variables that DID require power and pitch. Though I've never forgotten the basics and assume you're engine just quit - Make the field is paramount training for most everyone. Makes you much more aware and pre-planning. Still use that technique today in my J3. Every landing almost becomes a spot landing - making the field where I want it to.😀 Used to fly with a new startup FBO guy with background in the airline biz. The 172 would be on a 2 mile final all dirtied up, lighs on, full flaps and used engine to muscle it on almost all the time.. Had fun with him over that *LOL*

Great video, great explanation of the landing process. Glad I found your channel.

Very informative and accurate you must have many hours excellent training procedures and a good instructor has a good attitude towards his students.

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Thank you again so much for making this! from taking my written to now being in flight training, I really wouldn’t want to be going through this process without your videos.

I'm going flying Sunday and cant wait to put this info to use, Thank you!!!

wow, your right! landing was something my instructor never went over with me, thanks for the video

My procedure to roundout is: wings level, look downrange, roundout (rudders as necessary), then control slip and nose attitude as needed. Having said that, in a strong X-wind I'll choose an aim point upwind of the center line. That way, when I level wings I'll see the extent of X-wind drift, correcting with slip before reaching center line. This is especially useful after a slipping turn to the aim point.

Thanks for the landing tips buddy I am gonna use this in my PPL training.

Get good at flying down the runway without touching down. This keeps you in control and that's the key. This helped me greatly.

I recently soloed and I highly value your videos for breaking subjects down into simplified components. Your style works for me and is a great supplement to my CFI’s instruction. Here’s my question: how can I possibly know where 15’, 3’, and 6” are above the ground without sacrificing my attention to the many other things I’m trying to control?! Not to mention the amount of time to re-orient my eyes and brain back down the runway?

Hey- Love your channel and how you simplify the process. I’m a 57 YO student pilot and watch this video frequently and pick up something new each time. My CFI teaches many of the ideas but not with near the depth and detail. My big question is how many “potatoes” after setting power at the Perch point until turning base :) Great content! Keep it up !

First time here. I find your trainings excellent. Thorough, clear and easy to understand.

Excellent job on explanations. Thank you 💪

25 hr student here, long break in training. Agree, stabilized approach is key to landing. My instructors teach 70 kts in the pattern downwind and base. I hold that airspeed into final, and pull back to idle once I have the field made. I prefer to add power (100-200 rpm) if low on final, to intercept the glide path again (then drop power back 100-200); and I will forward slip if high without gaining air speed. If I'm low I need energy, but if I'm high, I have energy to spare. Most difficult part for me... is knowing my height above the runway as I round out. I know I need to develop my peripheral vision more for the round out, but I've struggled with the phase where I shift my vision to the end of the runway and hold attitude to let it settle . Occasionally the end of the runway will go under the cowl and I lose the reference point. What pointer do you give to correct that once it's happened? My usual procedure when I first get in is set the seat and to crank up the seat height until my knees come to the dash, and then drop it back down so I have freedom of movement on the rudder pedals without hitting the dash with my knees. This gets me up as high as I can get, and I stay there for flying and for that phase in landing. I'm 6'1" ... flying 172. I like you pointer for aim point in the windshield, 1 fist above the dash. thx

I’m pretty sure most every instructor has taught how to make a perfect landing. In fact, all that is in the free FAA book

Excellent video! Airline guy here with GA roots and Cessna 421 owner. Only one thing I would teach differently, just my opinion…. For those who aspire to transition to instrument flying or larger airplanes, teaching speed control with pitch doesn’t translate well when on a prescribed vertical path like an ILS glideslope or VNAV path. The pitch for speed concept is great when power is not a variable, such as a forced landing, or in our large jets, (I am a 787 Captain), when using FLCH in Boeings or Open Descent in the Airbus. In those cases pitch controls airspeed and usually idle thrust is being commanded by the autoflight system. Keep up the great work and keep those videos coming!

Great Video....look at the end of the runway when you flare... Yes Sir!!

While all this is covered in MOST textbooks and FAA guides, the greatest problem I ever found with it (PPL since 1984, several ratings and certs since then) is that your smallest craft and trainers (Cessna 152, for example) do NOT have the power to have a full-range of 'power resources' to overcome bad positioning. You mention the good 'rule of thumb' on placing your downwind at your 45, but you didn't mention your beginning altitude of the maneuver. Am I at 1,000 AGL, 2,000 AGL, 4,000 AGL? Uncontrolled airport, I've seen all these happen...followed by 'flaps to stall + 10' (which, thankfully for a 152, ripping off flaps is not going to happen with such oversight). OR...you have someone on low altitude downwind, 20-degrees flaps, maybe 500-AGL, literally trying to maintain 'controlled flight' at stall + 10 in level flight for half-a-mile to get TO the runway. Personally, the best advice I ever received was from my PPL instructor...he said 'once you are on downwind, trim your power back while (terrain permitting) you accomplish 1,000 ft AGL by the turn onto runway approach (no more than 1,500 for the 152's and generally 172-class piston engines), apply 10-flaps STARTING AFTER you have completed your turn, keep your power comfortably above stall, take into consideration ground effect winds and general weather conditions (hot, etc.) and (as you are in VFR), take it in with 'aim alignment' (much like using VASI), additional flaps as needed (winds, etc. which may cause stall near-ground). I've ALWAYS had good landings by following this...and his last words always set with me, over the years I've ridden with other pilots...he said, 'NEVER APPLY OR MAKE TURNS in light single-engine piston aircraft while under flaps! If you do this, you are using flaps as a crutch for proper flying!' Flaps not only change your aircraft flight characteristics for airspeed, but they impact how your plane behaves in stall and as it approaches stall, sometimes in ways you can't anticipate and almost always in ways you do not desire. Add to this, no more 'available power' means you're already working with all you've got! It is NOT an F-14 you're dealing with. Did I mention he was a former Blue Angel pilot?

When I used to fly, I trimmed the plane to maintain 1.3x the stall speed on final. If my aim point moved higher in the windshield, I was going to undershoot, so I’d add a little power. If it moved down, I was going to overshoot, so I’d reduce power a little. I don’t recall pushing or pulling on the yoke. Doing so would have changed my airspeed.

@Free Pilot Training. Very good video. Keep the tips coming! Good job!

I know many students don’t like crosswinds landing, yet I find it pleasure of landing experience. Again, great video mate.🤙🏻

It wasn't until my final check ride that a visiting field examiner explained the art of the perfect landing. The rule is, of course, in all cases fly the plane but the only power adjustment that should be needed is to reduce power on final. So at the beginning of final set your flaps establish your aim point and reduce power as needed to keep that point but always keep sufficient power so as not to drift lower than your aim point point You will usually continue to reduce power along the path while keeping sufficient speed to stay nicely on path Once across the threshold pull the power off and finish with a nice flare. Doing this reduces the work load at a critical time while on final and your not having deal with jockeying your power back and forth to stay on slope. That is unless your head wind craps out then like I said, first fly the plane. Oh yeah! Never slam your power in. There are no accelerator pumps on our carbs (Lycoming, Continental) Smooth even power addition when needed is the rule. Even on take off.

Title is right on! Throughout my 1700 hours of being a flight instructor I always made sure to keep these simple tips like making sure your approach is stable and being aligned with the centerline secret from the students...life is simply more exciting that way! Anyways...Happy Landings! Regards, someone tired of clickbait youtube titles.

always good to have a different perspective

Thank you for this, it helps!

Great advice! For normal landings: Learn a good procedure and follow it every time. Do the same thing at the same point every time. Some thoughts... 1) Use taxi/landing lights to increase your visibility to others. 2) If you have trouble with when to turn to base, note that you will need to lose a total of 1000' of altitude to land. So, you should have lost about 300' of altitude by the time you start the turn to base. 3) Look for unexpected traffic on final just before you start your base to final turn. Make that turn a tad early and use a slightly more SHALLOW, coordinated turn while controlling the airspeed precisely. This is the most dangerous part of landing (steep turn, low) with a lot going on. 4) Once on final, do one more GUMPS check. This habit will serve you well when you transition to retractable gear aircraft. 5) I taught people to mostly ignore the VASI/PAPI because slope indicators won't be there a lot of the time and I noticed it became a crutch for some folks. Instead, on final, pick a bug on the windshield and put it on your desired landing spot. Keep it there while controlling your airspeed/direction. You'll be fine for glideslope/aim point. 6) USE YOUR RUDDERS, especially on final and rollout. Keep it coordinated with your feet. This will also help with your tailwheel endorsement. 7) 1 mile for the legs is too much for most training (slow) airplanes. Keep it a bit tighter; if your engine fails in the pattern, you should easily make it no matter where it happened. This also keeps your patterns quicker and keeps you in sight of other traffic. Dragging out the pattern with power is a bad habit. Experiment by pulling the power to idle as soon as you're abeam the numbers on downwind and see what it takes to make a nice, calm, controlled landing. 8) As for radio, my pet peeve is you didn't announce your intentions: 'touch and go,' 'full stop,' 'stop and go,' 'low approach,' etc. That is by far the most common problem I've seen develop in 46 years of flying and it is a bad habit to leave that out. It makes it much harder for someone else to plan his departure/approach. Hope this helps someone!

Just keep reminding yourself during the whole landing phase...Pitch for speed/power for altitude and to Fly the airplane, don't let the airplane fly you. As long as you stay ahead of the curve, you'll have a good day of flying.

A Bravo Zulu job. I wish I had you as my instructor. Calm/Cool-headed, perfect enunciation, repetition...repetition promotes retention.

Thanks for the time and effort on your video. First one of your to pop up in my feed. I have been toying with the idea of getting licensed for quite some time, and never made the time or dedicated the resources. I actually live very close to Vinita. Caught me by surprise to recognize it. Have subscribed and who knows your channel may be what it takes to get me over the edge. Thanks again.

The best policy is to be above the glide slope. Use flaps as brakes. Don't depend on power for landing all the time because you have to be prepared for power loss on landing. If you're under the slope, slow, and lose power you're lost. Above the slope you're OK. Altitude is energy. Speed is energy. A little high, and fast gives margin for trouble. Burn it off with flaps prior to overshooting. Don't depend on the geometry of a pattern for stabilizing. Most likely you'll have to go long on downwind for traffic on final. Then you have to pick up the glide slope cold straight in. Learn to recognize it when you intercept it. Don't depend on the angle. It''s unlikely to ever be the same. Wind makes it different every time. Same with VASI. Use the drift technique mentioned in the video. If the aim point is drifting up you're low, Drifting down you're high. Set up right you shouldn't be bankin, and yankin on final for centerline. You should be close to center enough to steer with rudder. Steer with rudder as if you're already on the ground. That makes it easy. Wings level. Then concentrate on your speed, and slope. If you're low consider it as close to a failed landing as you ever want to get. Add power but your mind should be thinking go around. You may be able to get there but you're going to be very busy to do it. Why take a chance? Go around, do it again, and practice doing it right. You don't have the right stuff yet but you got behind the wheel of a plane which puts you above 99% of everybody who never did.

I was taught just to keep the aim point at the same position on the windscreen and that it should just get bigger. If it moves up the windscreen add power. Reduce power if it goes down. No secret there. How is a student pilot expected to judge when their nose wheel is 6 inches above the level of main gear without hanging out of the cabin on the flare for heavens sake?

I loved this. GREAT VIDEO!

Thank you so much for this explanation! You give us perfect apporoch to land,! nobody tell perfectly this like you!👍🙏!!

What was the SECRET? I missed it, it was all common knowledge

Been instructing since 1980, this is I taught it. Good info!

Good information. I enjoy watching you and learning and I'm going to do my discovery flight next month at 63 thank you

Very well done ..... I'll be using this for my PPL students

I'm just using this to fly sim, but thanks! Very helpful!

Thanks for all the recomendations ✈️👍

Thanks for the video. Well done

I flew EMB-145 50-seat Regional jets for an airline and the "pitch for airspeed, power for altitude" mantra still applies there. At least that was my mental thought process and it worked well.

Great VDO. Thanks for the Tips!

Great tips. very helpful...thanks!

Thanks for the help...:)NICE ONE

Thanks for your content. Text book approach and landing. Now practice, practice, practice. Repetition is the second ingredient in efficient.

Thank you. This helps me with my upcoming flight review since I'm a bit rusty.

You are a great instructor- thanks a ton!

I'm a UK private pilot. Just found your site. Got to say Mate, I've enjoyed all of them. Keep up the great work. Radio comms vid was great. Thanks for all of your efforts and stay safe. Russ F.

Nice to see military wisdom and keeping the pattern tight. "The Perch" is actually where you start the descent and final turn (or descending turn to base if someone has the odd desire to make it square, although I've never seen a Pitt's Special make a square pattern. And even a B-52 can do a VFR pattern inside most civilian Cessna square patterns. Lets keep it tight), as in a bird coming "off the perch". It's about 45 degrees from the numbers, inline with the overrun chevrons for an easy reference. But it could be abeam the numbers for a tight pattern if that's where you're starting the descending turn to final (with wind). Over 1700 hrs as an Air Force T-37 IP, 1.3 hrs at a time. Gawd that sounds tiring. Enjoyed it all. 26,000 total now.

On VFR final try to focus on keeping runway end from either moving down or up......slowly move gaze to mid runway......chop power to idle....maintain visual contact with horizon.....hold off ....touch down with stall horn.

This is one helluva channel. Great work 👍

I super love this video thank you . My instructor didn't tell me landing like this really in detail, I more understanding how to do landing. again thank you bro

Very Informative

learning to fly in my brothers 150, this was helpful ! thanks

Thank so much I learn more important idea just in 14 minutes. Thank you for bringing this video

Good clear explanation and breakdown.

Presentation is good, The military-inspired technique for spot landings on short runways is intriguing and practical. I appreciate the detailed breakdown of a stabilized approach, covering crucial elements like centerline correction, maintaining the right glide slope, and managing airspeed.

Excellent! Would only add that even more centerline focus will improve the flare every time! As a professional pilot with 20,000 hrs whenever I feel my landings need improvement I focus on centerline. Not only improves your crosswind control but I believe it adds focus on end of runway and improves depth perception. It’s difficult to focus on depth perception so focus on centerline and end of runway!

GREAT VIDEO! THANKS FOR THE TIPS!

Great content... Just love it, Thank you

Excellent vid thanks 👍🏻👏👏👏

Very well done and explained.👍

Thanks for this!

I'm thinking a lot about setup for landing right now. This video was great.

bro what a video, nicely done

Good job. Very comprehensive.

These are golden words. Just follow them and you can enjoy your flying.

Another great video. Please keep the content coming...

Very nice video! I personally use this principle, "when power is available and variable, power controls speed". With no power(engine failure) pitch controls speed and we trade speed to adjust descent. With a fixed power setting like after take off, we pitch for speed. In descent power is available and variable so we can fly like an Autopilot with Autothrottles which pitches for descent and adjusts power for speed.

Good info. Always easier to make a good landing off a good approach. You provide a great technique. I use something similar... Ex Military and Airlines Instructor.... so Personally, on final approach leg, with landing flap set, I always use pitch for glidepath and throttle for airspeed. That way, it is much easier to aim the aircraft at the numbers and correct if necessay.. On a visual approach, my scan is AAA: Aim Point, Aspect [Glidepath and Centreline], Airspeed.

👌 good information , great video. Now i just have to put it into practice. Thank you

Great info. Not a pilot, but these videos are useful for RC flyers as well.

thanks for the great video.

Uh oh! There you go starting the age old pitch vs power argument...All good stuff. I always taught the same. Never, “perch point” though. Consistent configuration, abeam point, aim point...all contribute to a stabilized approach. I found using pitch for “glidepath/aim point” power for airspeed was more effective for me - Never a pitch change without a power change, usually. Haha.

I love the slide/ladder example!

I am a flight instructor and I will compliment my briefings with your video. I agree with all points.

Hi, good content for stabilizing approach, thanks for that. I would request you to make one video with a pilot view from the cocktip. I mean how would attitude look like from cocktip for base and final.

Some Cessna seats do not adjust for height. My flying got better when I brought along a boat cushion. The extra height gives me a much better view.

Thank you i have my class today at Canandaigua Airport

I've use gliding turns to final...pitch to glide path constant adjust pwr,flaps to speed...

Love your presentation style

You can do a Slip if you are too high on final, you can put the aircraft in a shallow bank and slight opposite rudder to keep the plane center with the runway. This video applies for a "No wind" situation. " A good landing is always preceded by a good approach"

Great information and good concise information. Very understandable. I do agree with a few of the other comments though, I think pitch for airspeed can be dangerous at times. Power for pitch is a better practice i believe but again its situational. well done video though.

Amazing landing!! Thanks for the info

great help thank you

Thank you for the information

Excellent stuff bro

I remember this aimpoint technique when I was talking hang gliding lessons before I met a gal. (Way back in '85). I should get up in the air again!

Good refresher as I am a very lapsed PPL from the UK. Just Subscribed!