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172 drifting to the right on landing

Asked by: 2074 views General Aviation

Hi all - interesting thing happened yesterday, this is with a new-ish student and we are working mostly on pre-solo maneuvers etc.  Yesterday we put it all together and started on pattern work.

Wind was more or less right down the runway, with a bit of variation and fairly light - 6-7 kts.

When we'd land, it exhibited a strong tendency to drift to the right side of the runway, at times more than the plane's width.  

This student does carry a LOT of tension/deathgrip and I assumed that was part of it, but I did take one landing just to check it out and although the touchdown itself was fine, it still went off to the right.  That didn't happen the day before when we used it, nor did the previous renter report anything similar.

I think it is probably nothing, but has anyone run into this before?  Maybe I am just picking up on his tension and over-controlling.  He does outweigh me by probably 115 lbs if that makes a difference.. but again, hadn't happened before.

I'll have the plane checked for low tire or dragging brake, but I really don't think its the plane. Thoughts?

 

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1 Answers



  1. AviatorTrevor88 on Jun 23, 2021

    Common issues I see for directional control problems after touchdown is 1) touched down with a crab angle 2) while the student reaches to retract the flaps and turn off the carb heat, they are either focused “inside” the plane too much or are subconsciously shifting their body weight around when reaching for those controls, and that might result in the release or increase of rudder pressure 3) Student not looking down the runway to maintain directional control. I had a student the other day that had trouble lining up on centerline on final approach. Finally I said “look at the far end of the runway. The centerline stripe down there should be directly over the centerline near the beginning of the runway.” It clicked for him. He said he had been staring at the aiming point – he had tunnel vision on the aiming point. There should be little markers you can use on the cowling to help with directional control as well.

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