What You Need to Know to Land Like a Pro

Fed up of bumpy landings? Want to know how to flair at the right time? Here's some advice.

Landing is, somewhat ironically, often said to be the hardest part of flying. In R/C, it takes much practice and patience. Every plane is different. They have different stall speeds, power settings, and extra features to worry about such as flaps and gear. To help you gain confidence and consistency, here is an article on the subject.

Think about this stuff when landing

Landing isn't quite as simple as pointing your model at the ground and hoping for the best. Here are four key things to keep in mind.

- Direction - Where you're plane is heading

- Descent trajectory - The decent path or slope you establish when coming into land

- Airspeed - the thing you have to maintain until you get just above the ground

- Stalling - what you want to avoid until you're just above the ground

As you start to fly larger and more complex aircraft, these tips will become increasingly relivant.

1. Practice Without Direction to Start

One of the first things you learn as a beginner pilot about landing is this: 'don't worry about where to land, just land'. This means instead of spending your energy trying to hit that runway in exactly the right spot the first time out, just focus on bringing the plane down somewhere in the field.

Lining up on a runway sometimes takes your focus away from monitoring the all-important airspeed.

Don't worry about floating down the grass strip, just use the whole length. It's more important to be focusing on things like flaring and stall speeds to begin with.

Prioritize getting it down in one piece rather than choosing a precise landing location.

2. Counter Adverse Yaw

As you come in for a landing, you'll probably want to use your rudder on larger four-channel models like the FT MiG-3, Storch and so on. The problem with this is that the rudder often also rolls the plane. This is, as you might already know, called adverse yaw.

To deal with this, you need to use some opposite input on the ailerons to keep the airplane's wings level. With some practice, you'll be able to line up your airplane on a runway even with a crosswind with a bit of skilled piloting. Knowing how to use this technique is super helpful! Here is a video on adverse yaw to help get your head around the concept.

Rudder often needs equalizing with a little opposite aileron on final approach.

3. Bleed Your Lift

If you're a fairly experienced R/C pilot, you'll know that:

"The ideal landing is when contact with the ground occurs as the forward speed is reduced to the point where there is no longer sufficient airspeed to remain aloft"

On top of this, though, you'll want to make sure you contact the ground in exactly the right place. To do this takes mastery of your airspeed management, trajectory and direction. When you've practiced enough 'landing without direction' (point 1), you'll want to have a go at touching down a little more precisely to conquer smaller airstrips and flying fields. Judge your airspeed. Increase the throttle to keep up your airspeed a shallow decent path. Use flaps to come in at a steep angle. Flair at just the right moment to finish the perfect decent.

Hitting the ground without bleeding off all lift can result in the aircraft bouncing.

4. Use Small Movements

Although as your airspeed decreases you will need larger inputs for your control surfaces to direct air, you need to ensure that you're remaining smooth on the controls. It's easy to overreact resulting in an overly large flair or burst on the throttle that can lead to catastrophic results. Keep it chill.

Try not to overcorrect.

5. Practice on Still Weather Days

All sorts of trouble can come from the odd gust of wind. Try the occasional touch and go on days when there's not much of a breeze. You'll be able to feel what the airplane's doing in a neutral environment rather than feeling what the wind is doing. This will mean you improve much faster. Keep practicing and you'll get there.