Landing is my favorite part of the entire flight. Of all the phases of flight it seems to be the most technical (except for maybe flying an instrument approach in low IFR) and the time to demonstrate the most skill. If you have passengers with you, it’s a time to “grease one on” to give them a smooth ride. I learned to fly in a Piper Super Cub, so flying close to the ground has always been a bit of a thrill to me anyways.
Each airplane has its own unique traits and quirks that you can learn over time in order to be a truly proficient pilot in that aircraft. While the Cessna 182 is a fairly easy airplane to fly, there are definitely a few things that I’ve learned over the course of 400 flight hours of owning one (as of this writing) that can separate a good landing from a bad one.
Here they are:
Tip 1: Approach Configuration and Airspeeds
They stress this in training but it’s really true – the best way to make a good landing is to make a stabilized approach. If your airspeeds are all over the place and you’re chasing altitude it’s going to be hard, but not impossible, to recover and have the airplane in the right configuration at touch down. The routine I use is as follows, and it leads to a pretty stable approach the whole way:
Abeam the numbers: Ten degrees of flaps, carb heat, and power back to a 500fpm or so descent. I really aim for 80 knots at this point but coming out of a cruise descent from 120-140 knots means you have a lot of airspeed to lose.
Base turn: After turn is complete, twenty degrees of flaps and trim the airplane for 70 knots. Be disciplined about slowing the airplane down.
Final: After turn is complete, thirty degrees of flaps and trim the airplane for 60 knots. I do my pre-landing checklist at this point: gas (both tanks), undercarriage (not applicable but in the habit of saying it which helps in complex airplanes) down and locked, mixture full rich, prop full forward, seatbelts fastened, cowl flaps open.
If you do all of this it should set you up for a nice, slow final approach where you have plenty of time to make adjustments to your altitude and airspeed. My instructor growing up would always ask me: high, low, fast, or slow, and what are you going to do about it? Power controls altitude, pitch controls airspeed.
Tip 2: Final Approach Airspeed
This is probably the single most important factor for me personally in making a good landing or not. Except in gusty wind conditions you should be no faster than 60 knots or 70 mph over the fence (i.e. coming close to the runway). Any faster than this and I guarantee you will float down the runway. The 182 is a pretty good glider in the scheme of airplanes, and similar to the 172 if you come in with extra speed it is going to keep flying until that speed isn’t there anymore.
The trouble with being disciplined about final approach airspeed is that most runways are so long for a 182 that you can very easily get away with carrying extra speed and landing long. If the airport is really busy sometimes you even need to fly faster approaches to remain clear of other incoming traffic, and so it’s easy to cross the threshold at 70 or 80 knots. Be disciplined about your airspeed and it will make for a nice and soft landing.
I fly out of Addison airport in Dallas, Texas where it’s a 7,200 foot runway constantly full of private jets and so the tower will frequently ask you to “maintain best forward speed” until the runway. Even then, when crossing the threshold I really try to get the airplane down to 60 knots so I can make the first turn off. Any faster and I’ll float down the runway which doesn’t help the controllers to get more traffic in.
Lastly, if you can be disciplined about your airspeeds it will help you if and when you decide to land on short grass strips. I go to Idaho in the summers when I can to fly in the back country, and if I am constantly spoiled by landing fast and long on 7,200 foot paved runways it can really come back to bite me in the back country. All of that to say, be disciplined about your airspeeds so that you don’t get sloppy. It’s easier to land slow, too.
Tip 3: Flap Settings
My 182 is outfitted with 40 degrees of flaps but I have found that to be somewhat unnecessary in most conditions. I almost always land with 30 degrees of flaps unless I get “slam dunked” by approach control and have to lose 2,000 feet a few miles from the runway. Thirty degrees will still allow you to fly plenty slow (60 knots, see above).
Also, in the event of a go-around having only 30 degrees of flaps will produce far less drag than 40 degrees. I’ve done go-arounds on short grass strips with 40 degrees of flaps deploys and the airplane just hates doing it. It’s hard to climb and so I have found that 30 degrees is the right balance of lift and drag to work in just about every situation.
Tip 4: Timing the Flare
If you fly your approaches at 60 knots (or even 55 in calm conditions) then the flare for landing becomes extremely easy. Any faster than 60 knots and you will float down the runway when you try to flare – the airplane loves ground effect and you’ll get to experience it for hundreds if not thousands of feet down the runway.
If you come in at 60 (or 55) knots then the flare is simply there to arrest the sink rate, and then you hold the nose in that attitude and slowly pull the power out. At that airspeed you have the perfect amount of energy to arrest the sink and then stop flying. Flare, then power off.
The next time you fly an airliner, most of the smooth landings will always follow this sequence and you can really tell in the airplane by listening to the engines. They will come in at a slow airspeed and not change the power to flare, but just flare gently to arrest the sink rate and then power back. And the wheels touch. Practice this next time you’re out – if you come in with the right airspeed it makes it so easy!
Tip 5: Sight Picture
I have found that particularly at night it is really helpful to cast your eyes down the runway as that will give you the best indication of sink rate. Sometimes we can focus on a point on the ground that is too close to us and doesn’t give enough context to really judge your sink rate and flight attitude near the ground.
If you look down the runway during the flare you’ll be able to hold the nose in that slightly nose high position and just gently feel for the ground with the tires. Sometimes simply moving your eyes farther down the runway can make a big difference.
Tip 6: Treat Landing as a Flight Maneuver
This comes in handy particularly in tailwheel airplanes, but my landings started to change when an instructor taught me to view landings as just another flight maneuver where you are purposefully trying to gently put the airplane on the ground in the flight attitude you want.
Sometimes it’s easy to just view landings as a gentle dropping of the tires onto the ground where we fly until the stall warning and then try to make the impact as graceful as possible. If you change your way of thinking to where the landing is actually a controlled flight maneuver and not just an impact you are trying to soften, it can make you fly more confidently where you don’t give up on the landing at any time. Throughout the flare and touch down you are purposefully setting the tires on the ground instead of just hoping for the best.
Tip 7: Yoke Movements
Luckily I learned this one from my dad making the mistake and so I never quite picked up the habit. In his days as a Bonanza driver he would typically make these really drastic movements of the yoke during the flare sequence, overcompensating for any change of altitude near the ground. It let to this oscillation of trying to feel for the ground with the wheels but in a much too drastic way.
Flying usually takes really small inputs that don’t change drastically from moment to moment. I have found that I make much better landings if during the flare I put the airplane in the correct slightly nose-high attitude and then just hold it there. If you flew in with the correct airspeed, this will just be a gentle flare. If you came in with way too much airspeed, you are going to start climbing which makes you put the nose back down, thus starring the oscillation process.
The best thing you can do is come in with 60 knots of airspeed, flare, then pull the power to idle and just hold the nose in the same position as the flare and feel for the ground. If you flared too high and notice yourself descending too rapidly, a gentle nudge of power will arrest that sink rate just fine without having to use any yoke input to adjust the nose.
Note: When increasing the angle of attack or increasing power (or both!) you might experience a small left-turning tendency due in part to p-factor. Read more about p-factor and how to counteract it here.
The more subtle you can be about these flight control inputs close to the ground, the easier it is to correct and make a smooth landing. If you make drastic flight control inputs then you will have to have drastic control inputs to correct what you just did. It starts a bad cycle. Just avoid it from the start!
Tip 8: Recovering from a bounce
For me as a pilot, there’s nothing worse than bouncing a landing. It just feels clumsy and like I wasn’t actually in control. On really gusty days sometimes it’s unavoidable because a small gust will send you airborne again and there’s not much you can do about that. But on a nice day, bouncing the landing is just embarrassing.
Particularly in a tailwheel it is easy to bounce the airplane and end up going down the runway like skipping a rock in water… you bounce, and then you bounce again a little smaller, again a little smaller, and again a little smaller until finally you stop. It makes me shake my head just thinking about it!
The best way to stop the bounce if you do make a hard landing is to just keep the nose in the same slightly nose-high attitude, or neutral. Don’t push the noise down, but let it gently return back to the runway and use small nudges of power to carefully arrest that sink rate.
If done correctly, you might bounce on the first impact but actually make a really great landing the second time the wheels touch the ground. Don’t oscillate the yoke (discussed above) but just keep that neutral to nose-high attitude and use power to control your sink rate and make a soft landing. It can be really simple if you just keep the yoke steady and make small inputs everywhere else.
Step 9: Stick Back!
I say “stick” from my early days as a cub driver. Whether it’s in a super cub or a 182, once you touch down, bring that stick (or yoke) all the way back. In the 182 this will give you some aerodynamic braking as it will force a little more of the weight onto the main wheels where you have braking.
It will also protect the nose wheel and reduce any shimmy that you might experience. The nose wheel is probably the most vulnerable part of the airplane and it takes a lot of beating. One the best things you can do is keep the pressure off of it by keeping the nose high during the roll out on landing.
Conclusion
All of the above tips you can go practice today. They aren’t hard but just take some discipline to implement, as well as a little practice to hone your technique. Becoming really good at landings will help you not only in the 182 but in any airplane. It will help you in short field situations, airports with unique approaches (such as in the mountains or valleys), or even getting your seaplane rating. Really what you’re practicing is energy management and that will make you better at flying any airplane you ever pilot.
Blue skies!