I chose to take my private pilot training at my state’s second busiest airport (in terms of number of takeoffs and landings per day). I figured that if I could survive the heavy traffic there, I could fly anywhere. I have zero regrets.
But looking back, I realize one thing I was not directly taught was to openly question whether I was stable after turning base to final approach.
When I was a newly minted pilot, I know I was overly concerned about what other pilots and the tower thought of my flying skills. In such a busy environment, I feared holding up other pilots in the pattern and especially feared causing any kind of problem for the tower.
I loathed the thought of a go-around because other pilots and the tower might think that I was not “pilot enough” to fly a good pattern.
The result is that I usually rushed my pattern turns trying to please everyone.
Rushing a turn sometimes led to overshooting the runway, requiring a dangerous high bank turn to line up for final approach.
Rushing things can also lead to incorrect altitudes throughout the pattern and I would sometimes find myself too high or too low when turning to final approach. I fly for fun and this was just not fun.
The Fix
I used a non-towered field that had very little traffic to practice go-arounds from all kinds of botched final approaches. I practiced for approaches that were too high, too low, too short, and too long in all configurations until I could fly these go-arounds in my sleep. It took several sessions at this airport to burn in the look and feel of an incorrect approach and go-around.
Next I fixed my head. It should be obvious to all that safety in the pattern is far more important than praise or the disfavor of other pilots or tower personnel.
I then added one item to my short final checklist: Stable approach? If no, I automatically go-around.
Back at my busy airport, I found I was much more relaxed because I now had a plan to correct any errors I made.
If I am not flying a stable approach to final — and I now know what that looks and feels like — I automatically go-around. No more nervous approaches, fears, or anguish.
Trying my best to become an old pilot.
The concept o a stabilized was started with the airlines years ago. The first airline aircraft I flew was a Convair 440 followed by an Electra before the first jet. I was then taught that if the approach was not stabilized by 500 feet AGL initiates a go-around. That number changed with the type of aircraft ft but the concept was then fully realized by GA instructors. I then realized the significance of a stabilized approach when doing any type of instruction from anything from a J3 to a jet. As an old-time general aviation instructor to teaching in jets stabilized approaches are critical for any pilot no matter what phase of training there in
Observance to and conformance with correct procedures in the pattern lead to a safe and smooth base to final [death city]. Then when you level out on final you will find yourself in a stable approach or close enough to it that no radical [and lethal] corrections need be made. My instructor hammered [and I mean hammered] that into me. I turned 80 this week. Any questions, Wilbur?
I can’t believe all the complex difficulties GA Pilots go through in making routine landings. Stabilized approaches for conventional landings are taught; nevertheless, they are not necessary and should be changed out for a more efficient, flawless and dependable one. Stabilized approaches were adopted from Airline Pilots flying turbofan jet engines. Stabilized approaches are necessary for them and they work well with the slow spool-up of jet engines. GA Pilots are not flying airplanes with jet engines and that is why they don’t need a stabilize approach for landing. GA Pilots are using reciprocating engines that are quick reacting and therefore can be easily controlled and regulated with the proper use of flight controls and throttle. Making major changes in the final leg to landing can be made in a flash! This means pilots can float around the traffic pattern at any speed and do nothing until they turn on final. From this short distance, pilots can make all changes necessary for a perfect landing. Go arounds, for all practical purposes, are eliminated. The reciprocating engines provide the excellent opportunity to make landing an airplane straightforward and uncomplicated. Why go through a complex landing procedure that often requires a go around because of a missed approach when there is a much simpler and more perfect way to land an airplane? The elite Alaskan Pilots developed Precision Landings decades ago as they could not successfully carry out their commercial flying operations with conventional landing procedures because they caused too many wrecked airplanes.
Hmm, been flying all over Alaska for 30 years, know many folks…never met any of these “elite Alaska pilots”. Please don’t judge the rest of us Alaska pilots by Bill’s comments, they are his own. Lots of landing accidents here, and the insurance costs reflect it for what we have to pay here. Nothing superior in how pilot fly here as to any other place.
I agree. The safe approach to the plane’s touch down spot can be taught and should be by your instructor. Trim helps but control of pitch and the perspective of the visual landing spot are important.
If the spot is moving up you will undershoot in your turn to final and you must turn more toward your spot.
If the spot is moving down you will overshoot and you must turn more away from your spot.
Note that your turn from base leg might curve all the way to your touch down, and need not be square.
This method is a winner for dead-stick landings.
I tend to agree. Our small planes are agile enough to land successfully from almost any approach. As somebody else said, so long as its a controlled approach.
The comment from Cary is correct. Each approach and landing will vary thanks to dozens of variables no pilot can entirely control. The goal is not perfection, which is unattainable but learning to make small inputs and do ‘what it takes’ to get down safely. The ‘what it takes’ part comes from confidence (created with practice) and experience that comes with dealing with a wide variety of situations.
Also, always remember that YOU are the pilot in command and only YOU are responsible for the safety of the flight. Others in the air and ATC are voices in your head but should NEVER take precedence over what you need to do to stay safe. If you need to fly slowly, then do so, if you need clarification, then ask for it. Others in the air will be doing the same…
Concur with Cary:
With advancing years, hours, and number of landings comes the realization that there’s only one place in the circuit that is of real importance: the flare. Regardless of what went on before hand, in the flare you strive to be at the right attitude, the right altitude, and on speed.
You can have the damnedest circuit ever executed since Wilbur broke ground at Kitty Hawk, but you must nail altitude, attitude, and speed in the flare. And with increasing experience will come the knowledge of what to do to achieve that end regardless of what preceded it.
I’ve been flying since the middle of the last century and in over 60 years of flying, I’ve only overshot once due to an “unstable approach” — and it wasn’t so much unstable as just high on final. The runway was long enough to safely land, but the landing would have been long and I would have become the object of ‘ridicule and scorn’ from the assembled ‘judges’ drinking morning coffee at the flying club.
I have also started side slipping right from the downwind position, maintaining the slip through base to final with airspeed slowly falling and altitude decreasing right into the flare. Technically, not a ‘stable’ approach, but a controlled approach…
With experience will come the knowledge of knowing not only IF an approach is unstable, but whether it’s unstable AND untenable…
As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. But as another saying goes, perfect is the enemy of good enough. In the dynamic environment of flying, and especially in approaches and landings, expecting each one to be perfect will mean excessive go arounds. So a perfectly executed stable approach followed by a greasy smooth landing every time is an unattainable goal. Thus every pilot should create reasonable limits for himself/herself which say “this is good enough” and continue to land, or “this isn’t good enough” and go around. With enough practice, “this is good enough” will happen most of the time.