On Tue, 01 Nov 2005 02:24:47 GMT, john smith wrote:

Hi John,

'preciate your input!

I am going to guess that you do not reduce your approach speeds based on
landing weight?
If you do not, you are landing too fast and floating down the runway
before landing.

I fly a Beech Sundowner. Down final I fly 68 knots whether I fly by myself
or have 4 in the plane. My pitch is the same regardless of weight. I
control my airspeed by pitch.

I control my descent via power. With four people, it requires more power
to slow the descent. When I am by myself, 1500 rpm seems to be a good
power setting for my final approach. When I got an extra 450 pounds of
meat (AKA 3 passengers) in my plane, I find that 1700 - 1800 rpm seems to
be a good final approach setting. These numbers are not "hard coded" as
heavy duty head winds may require a higher power setting to account for my
slower ground speed.

If you are on speed, as you rotate in the roundout to flare, the
aircraft will continue to slow and gently settle onto the runway without
floating.

Agree with you here. As I round out to flare, to ease the plane to terra
firma, I try to configure the plane into a "slow flight" configuration as I
pull back on the yoke in the flare. My goal on EVERY landing is to have the
stall horn blaring when the wheels touch. That's a good clue to me, the
plane will stop flying when the wheels kiss the ground.

You shouldn't need power on the approach nor additional power in the
flare.
I fly 180 degree, power off approaches in everything I fly.

I find that once I am in ground effect, if I don't carry some power, the
plane drops like a brick, especially with back seat passengers on my round
out to flare, thus adding 25 rpm power in my flare.

Not sure if you looked at the video's, but with my technique, if there is
float, it is barely perceptible.

Like I said in my original post, if it's a short runway, all bets are off
with using power for landing, I do a power off landing rather then carry
power.

Hope this clears up why I do what I do. If not, ask away *smile*.

Allen