Landings

Loss of control in flight incidents often occur due to a failure to prevent or recover from a spin, stall or aircraft upset. These are mostly caused by poor energy, attitude and flight path management or because of external factors such as structural damage, turbulence, crosswinds or windshear. Data on Loss of Control In flight accidents, both fatal and non-fatal, indicate that the second highest number of accidents occur during approach and landing (the highest number occurring during takeoff). So what can you do to avoid this happening to you?

Prepare and Plan

Before starting the approach, assess the situation: what is the weather doing? What about the wind? What are you expecting the airfield and runway conditions to be like when you touch down? How much fuel do you have? Is the aircraft okay and working properly? Are you personally feeling 100% and on top of your game?

It’s always wise to have an back-up plan, such as discontinuing the approach and trying again, diverting to another airfield or holding to let the weather improve (depending on your fuel). Preparing for several eventualities will allow you to make a sound and safe common sense decision based on your training, experience and skills. This will help you fly the aircraft on parameters, avoid inadvertently entering cloud and will ultimately help you prevent losing control of the aircraft in a critical stage of flight.

Perform

Master the approach

Loss of control accidents on approach and landing can be avoided by establishing and flying a stabilised approach, one with a constant angle glide path towards a reference landing point. Flying too high or too fast will result in overshooting and landing long; flying too low or too slow will lead to undershooting the runway. Establish your stabilised approach in line with your aircraft guidance. Configure your aircraft for landing early enough (at some reference distance from the runway, reference altitude or appropriate point in the circuit) to allow you to establish on the approach, then only small pitch, heading and power adjustments are necessary to achieve a safe touchdown. If an issue develops, remember to prioritise effectively to rectify the issue swiftly in order to get back on track.

Don’t feel hesitant/embarrassed to go around

If on your initial approach you are not stabilised, go around. There is no shame in going around and it will give you more time to refine and execute the landing safely. In line with our Prepare, Plan, Perform guidance, make sure that that you have enough fuel for this should it occur. From time to time, it’s good practice to perform a go-around for the purpose of training, as the manoeuvre is sometimes not as simple as it sounds and is performed during a critical phase of the flight.

Stall avoidance

Remember that a stall can happen at any speed when reaching the critical angle of attack. Pay attention to the wind in the circuit or traffic pattern, particularly if it is a tightening wind and especially on the base to final turn. On the final turn, load factors increase, which increases the speed at which the critical angle of attack is reached and the aircraft stalls. Always think angle of attack when reading your speed; if you’re in a turn, the same speed does not provide the same margin from the stall as in level flight. To avoid stalling the aircraft, increase power to increase speed above the stall speed and/or reduce the angle of attack below the critical angle of attack to keep the aircraft flying.

Crosswind landings

You may find yourself landing in a crosswind. If so, there are two crosswind landing techniques you can use which you will remember from your training: crab and slip (wing low). Crab is easier and more comfortable, however both require the aircraft to be aligned with the runway during the flare and both require into wind aileron to be applied after landing to avoid the up-wind wing generating greater lift and potentially causing the aircraft to depart from the runway centreline and possibly to exit the runway.