Need Some Advice

I know that you expect me to say this but take the DC-3 up and come in at a low angle, don't come in too steep.
Land with full flaps at 65 kias on the main gear and let it settle by itself on the tail-wheel. Be careful with the breaks that you don't nose over.

Have you gone through the flight lessons? I seem to remember there were a fair number of landings involved there.

Other than that, practice. Find an easy approach with no traffic (or set traffic to 0%) and just do touch and goes, fly the pattern, repeat 'til bored to death. Runway 1 at KPWT would seem a good candidate. Some things get easier with practice.

Ed

It's funny, becuase when I read your question I thought about what it's like teaching kids to read. We can all read, but how many of us can really remember how we learned? Those of us who can are definitly great teachers!

Sadly I don't remember how I learned the basics of landing. One thing though-- the reference speeds in the kneeboard for your plane are NOT just a suggestion. If you see an approach speed or a landing speed, make sure you slow to that speed as you head down the glideslope. That was my biggest problem with learning to land. I kept coming in way too fast becasue the suggested speed "seemed to slow." Also, don't forget to use your flaps!

I think before we can help you we need to know where you are going wrong. Are you bouncing? Floating down the runway? Landing to the left/right? Nosewheel first? If you can give further details this would be helpful. I think it was pointed out earlier in the thread speed is key. When I learned to fly (initially in a Cessna 150) my problem was flaring too early ie too high and then I would also not maintain back pressure...pull back slightly to reduce ROD and hold it then a little more and hold it until touchdown....everything else has to be right, mainly speed. The same thind happened when I flew the 752 and also the 732, difficulty in getting the height for flare right. The rest is the same once you can land the Cessna consistantly you will be fine and then you will wonder what all the fuss was about! It took me an extra 5 hours of circuits to master landing should have gone solo at 9 hours!

I usually stall when coming down.

I'll be back in a few minutes - I'm taking the DC-3 up, Radarman!

Hi,
If you stall when your coming down, it is probably a combination of not enough speed and high angle of attack, probably because you are flaring too early, so you lose speed and the plane stalls. Where abouts do you normally stall on approach, i.e. how far from the runway?

Very close to the runway. About a mile away turn the engines off and put on the parking brake 🙄 lol

99 is right, never be afraid to feed the power in (or slam it in!) no matter if you are feet or inches from the runway...always be ready on the throttle prepared for a GA....water buffaloes on the runway etc. As 99 has stated if you flare too high you will increase the back pressure until the AoA is too high and stall drop like a rock and bang, square wheels!
Might be worth messing around at altitiude with slow flight, stall recovery. When the stall warner sounds apply power and try not to gain or lose altitude but increase speed slightly. Another thing to try with the Cessna is on a really long runway take off at a couple of feet cut the power and land repeatedly. In the UK this would cost a fortune @ 15ish GBP per landing, not so bad in the "Land of the Brave" free at most places when I was there.

You might also find it easier to use a different view other than the cockpit view, as you cannot see the angle of the plane from cockpit view. Open a new window '[' for Spot Plane so you can see the angle the plane is at. Make sure you have the correct flap settings as well, so you glide rather than sink, more important for bigger jets. Try a few times to land with out flaring, so just keep the aircraft straight to land, it is unorthodox but, its good practice because it allows you to see the difference between a straight landing and a flared landing, so hopefully it will prevent you from flaring early in future 🙂 Hope that helps

Would rudder pedals help any?

No, I don't think they'd help, because you still have to have the same knowledge, I don't even have a joystick, I use the keyboard, and I am doing OK, so I would've said no, but I may be wrong.

The rudder pedals are only going to help you line up with the runway. Actually, rudder pedals are a great investment but will just add to your current problems! I found it very different having to apply the knowledge from my brain to my feet. It took me weeks before I stopped over turning, over compensating, leaning too much when linning up, etc.

So this is something that goes back to the original flight simulator from YEEEARS ago. As I recal, one of my favorite things to do was have the computer set up visual waypoints or "boxes" to help me land. I recently realized that FS9 still has that feature:

While in a flight, hit the ALT key to bring up the menu, and then go to the Aircraft tab. There should be an option there called "visual flight path". Here you can have the visual flight path tie to the ILS frequency for the runway you're trying to land on, and get a visual look at the glideslope you should be following. Maintain a steady pitch (about level or slightly above), and then practice staying in the glideslope using only the throttle until you're right above the runway.

Good luck!

Practice,practice and more practice

Theres loads of good advice from all the posts here

Load up a flight and save it about 10 or 20 miles out from touchdown.Now if you crash,the sim resets to being 10 or 20 miles out again.

As you approach the runway hit shift and return(enter) to raise the view in the cockpit up a bit(space bar to reset)

Then when youve done one landing 😀 do it again and again

dont forget you can use the saved flight time and time again with differant aircraft,just pause and select or set up a saved flight for each

go on you know you can do it 👍

First, I'd invest in at least a joy stick with twist rudder controls. I think you'll find most operations easier than with the keyboard.

Second, as the previous post said, practice, practice, practice. In real world training student pilots have at least 4-5 hours of practice landings under the direct supervision of an instructor before they are signed off for solo. Many students requie much more time. Once they are signed off, they continue to practice landing technique both as part of their on-going training and to maintain proficiency after licensing.

A key to successful landings is developing technique. I have not used the lessons in FS09 but I would either go through those until you mastered them or work with an experienced pilot to understand the correct technique. There are a combination of power settings and aircraft attitudes that will allow consistenly good landings once they are mastered, whichever plane you choose to fly.

You mentioned Cessna and if you are working with a real-world pilot, you need to know the technique is the same in FS09 as in the airplane, with one exception. Once you leave pattern altitude and begin to descend, the real airplane will fly a good descent at about 1500 RPM with two average size people in the front seats. In FS09, you need to hold 1700-1800 RPM.

Get high in the air and practice decending with stable numbers I.E. Stable airspeed, rate of descent, heading,,,,, practice making slight airspeed and rate of decent changes while you are high up.
Pratice flaring in the air and such.
To fly, one must only have a highschool diploma. But to land:juggle:, you nust have a PhD!!!