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4 Answers

Landing Training

Asked by: 2129 views
Student Pilot

As a student pilot, my CFI let me know that landing training usually takes about 15 hours of landing training for the average student to become proficient.  It's been taking me a bit longer in my training for the earlier areas of training and while I want to be proficient in this area, I also would prefer not to use 20-25+ hours of training on landings if possible.

  1. Is there anything I can do to help on landing training other than watching videos on landing training and reading the handbook to help in this regard?
  2. Is it worth trying to use two different instructors for this area to get different perspectives or will that make the training longer?
  3. Any other advice in this area?

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4 Answers



  1. Jaziri Elyes on Apr 11, 2019

    Hello,
    Honestly, it depends on you and your flight instructors. I personally had a lot of difficulties learning to land smoothly and after all that, I’ve become a professional at kiss landings.
    My advice for you is very simple, always, always, know your landing speed, don’t come fast or slow.
    Don’t refuse the runway and flare smoothly at the right moment.
    It doesn’t come with books, neither videos at my opinions, but with trying and trying.

    PS: the landing is also a go around, never forget your actions.

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  2. Mark Kolber on Apr 11, 2019

    Of your choices, I like #2, especially if it is coordinated with your current instructor. A different set of eyes, to put it simply, sees different things. You may be doing something, not doing something, looking somewhere, which can go unnoticed by one CFI, but is obvious to another.

    At flight schools I’ve been associated with, it was common for a CFI to hand off a student who was having extra difficulty with any maneuver to another for a second look.

    In my own case, it wasn’t a temporary second look. My CFI left suddenly and I was handed off to a second instructor. I was having a lot of problems with my landings. The new CFI saw something the first didn’t, and I soloed after my second lesson with him. Not necessarily you, but just shows how effective a different perspective can be.

    I doubt videos, even good ones, give much help. Not individualized enough.

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  3. Warren Webb Jr on Apr 12, 2019

    I think staying with one instructor is the best option. From my observation in working with many instructors, the chances are pretty good that you will find conflicting techniques with multiple instructors, which will prolong your instruction. Mark’s experience of a good tip with a new instructor does happen but generally I think there’s a greater chance of conflicting information. Overall steady progress will confirm that you and your instructor are on the right track. There may be an occasional lesson when you seem to take a step backwards (maybe when crosswind landings are introduced) but afterward you should see that part also steadily progress. As far as your own personal study, I would recommend studying the appropriate parts of the FAA Airplane Flying Handbook, chapter 8. I agree with Mark that videos are no good.
    (https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/airplane_handbook/media/10_afh_ch8.pdf)

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  4. ayavner on Apr 12, 2019

    You will be practicing landings for the rest of your flying days. I was in a similar situation in my early training, and finally I had to be the one to tell the instructor that we needed to move on with the syllabus, after all each time you go up has to end with a landing anyway right? So why not use that time more effectively? The other maneuvers you do will help increase your comfort level with handling the plane, which itself will help your landings. If your landings are safe, I say move on and try to catch a few landings at the end of each lesson rather than make them the focus. Just my .02c

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