The Big Picture

Chapter 1

The Big Picture

Whether you are a pre-solo student or a 300-hour private pilot, odds are that good landings are one of the issues that crosses your mind on a fairly regular basis. At one end of that spectrum, you are desperately seeking confidence that you can produce smooth, controlled landings consistently. You feel pretty good about being able to survive your own landings, but it would be nice to know that the airplane would be reusable afterwards. At the other end of the spectrum, you know from experience that you are capable of smooth, controlled landings, but your ability to reproduce them on demand is questionable. You grease it in two-thirds of the time, but you seem unable to schedule the other third of your landings when there are no passengers aboard. In either case, you are a student at the University of Hard Knocks. Every one of us has attended. It doesnt matter where you are in your training. The factors involved in good landings are the same. Experience the School of Hard Landings (at the University of Hard Knocks) - makes it easier for pilots to identify these factors and line them up in a neat row. Thats why student pilots have more trouble with it than more experienced aviators. Theyve simply done the drill fewer times. Students have seen the good sight pictures and the bad sight pictures, but not enough times for the differences to be instantly apparent. With enough classes at the School of Hard Landings, it gradually sinks in, but this brute force method is less than ideal. There is a better way.

On Art, Science, and Zen

As with everything else in aviation, landings require a mastery of skills which are a little bit art and a little bit science. The two blur into a homogenous reflex, their default state, unless we take the time to carefully separate and examine them. And to understand them that is exactly what we need to do. Without becoming intimately knowledgeable with every aspect of a given flight envelope, we can never expect to take complete control. And it is precisely the uncontrolled nature of things that keeps our goal - consistently soft landings down the centerline - just barely out of reach. Through ignorance, we

The Big Picture

allow ourselves to be controlled by the process instead of asserting command and taking charge ourselves. This bears repeating. In order to be in control, we must become knowledgeable regarding every aspect of a given flight envelope. If we are not in control of our landings, we place ourselves at the mercy of other powers. The one that comes to my mind is the power of physics and it can be brutally unforgiving. Personally, Id rather be the one in control and I will do anything it takes to achieve that. Using the scientific process, others before us have discovered the laws that rule the operations of flight. They are finite, determinate, and cut-and-dried. If we fly an airplane at a specific setting of pitch and power, we will get a predetermined level of performance. The airplane will either climb, remain level, or descend, and whatever it does, it will do so at a predicted airspeed. There is no need to think about it or weigh alternatives. You dont have to worry about how it makes you feel. If you know what you want the airplane to do, you can configure it to known settings and it will comply with your wishes every time. When we consider the artistic aspects of landings, they are not parts of the landing at all. They are aspects of the way we witness and react to the landing environment. Multiple overlapping factors, each quantifiable individually, meld into a compound that we process more by feel. Differences are subtle and hard to distinguish. The environment at that instant cannot be evaluated in terms of precise readings of attitude and airspeed. Instead we roll with it, feeling our way with our senses of sight, sound, and equilibrium. We interact with the process in the same way that a surfer shifts his weight to stay balanced in the sweet spot of a wave. Art gives us a shortcut. It allows us to develop reflexes that handle splitsecond fine-tuning. Certain parts of a landing flux too quickly and are too complex for considered cause-and-effect processing. It is during these periods that we call on our artistic abilities. After the roundout, for example, we have neither the time nor the mental bandwidth to calculate the precise ratios of airspeed and pitch needed to maintain an altitude just a few inches above the pavement. Art, however, gives us this ability. We control the airplane by feel without regard to the exact numbers. Art is developed, not learned. But the factors that coalesce, requiring an artistic response from the pilot, can be learned and understood in terms of their science. The science of landing is relatively easy to learn. You simply have to dedicate the time and effort. The art of it may seem easier to master since you dont have to spend time buried nose-deep in a book. You improve your artistic response through practice. But dont underestimate this fact: you will more easily and quickly master the art if you understand the science that supports it.

The Big Picture

Art Doing it by feel. Humans are intrinsically lazy. Thus, by default we try to do everything by feel. Its easy and doesnt require any forethought. But it doesnt always work so well, either. Science frequently dictates the easiest and most efficient way to succeed at a task. We simply have to invest the time to learn the proper technique. Science Doing it by the numbers. Certain parts of the flight envelope are best controlled by specific settings, deduced by science. But other parts are too complex or occur too quickly to allow rote responses. This is where we must rely on our instincts and apply artistic solutions. Zen Achieving enlightenment through the most direct method possible. Zen tells us to do art or science as needed. Our job is to learn which one is preferable in a given situation. Our goal is to improve our touchdowns. It doesnt matter how we achieve that goal. Tradition be damned; all that matters is the end result consistently good landings. We will develop rules and we will do things the same way every time were presented with a given set of circumstances. We can learn physics, line up bug splatters on the windshield, peek out the side windows, or wait for the numbers at the far end of the runway to disappear. Or all of the above. Or none of the above. There is no such thing as cheating. We will learn any technique that works, take any shortcut that eases our workload, and recite any mnemonic that helps us get the job done. As pilots we must always keep one tenant in mind: we may be able to influence which circumstances are presented to us, but the environment we are confronted with at any given instant is the one we must respond to. There is no gray area. Our wishes are totally irrelevant. Yes, it would be nice if we didnt have this fifteen-knot crosswind. But we do. Pilots must be able to ascertain and objectively understand what is happening to them and their craft at all times. There is no room for emotion in the cockpit. That comes after youve tied the airplane down for the day.