Landing Advice...

I think you may be on to something here. So, what you are saying is
that in a calm wind, I might be unconciously adding left alieron in the
flare, and correcting with right rudder...

I think this acutally happens to me _more_ in calm wind situations.


P S wrote:


A disclaimer first, that I'm a post solo student [P S == Post Solo]. I
have
had similar (opposite) problems after touching down with the nose
pointing to the
left while the plane drifted to the right. My CFI found two things that
I was
doing uncontiously. one is the non-level movement of the yoke when
applying the
back-pressue while rounding out, and in my case, I was over-correcting
my
earlier tendancy of "pulling the yoke downward" action by raising the
left elbow
too much. Then stepped on the left rudder in reflex to "correct" that
-- resulting in
the nose pointing to the left while the plane drifted to the right.
Your problem could be the opposite of mine, i.e. your left elbow was
pulling down the
left alieron, or, maybe as the nose rose, it yawed to the left by the
same reason it
yawed to the left on takeoff with more power, and you used right rudder
to
correct it, instead of very slight right alieron in the round out. If
the later is true,
the wings were not very level before touching down.

Exactly. Your description of the problem sounded too familiar :-).

Dan wrote:
I think you may be on to something here. So, what you are saying is
that in a calm wind, I might be unconciously adding left alieron in the
flare, and correcting with right rudder...

I think this acutally happens to me _more_ in calm wind situations.


P S wrote:


A disclaimer first, that I'm a post solo student [P S == Post Solo]. I
have
had similar (opposite) problems after touching down with the nose
pointing to the
left while the plane drifted to the right. My CFI found two things that
I was
doing uncontiously. one is the non-level movement of the yoke when
applying the
back-pressue while rounding out, and in my case, I was over-correcting
my
earlier tendancy of "pulling the yoke downward" action by raising the
left elbow
too much. Then stepped on the left rudder in reflex to "correct" that
-- resulting in
the nose pointing to the left while the plane drifted to the right.
Your problem could be the opposite of mine, i.e. your left elbow was
pulling down the
left alieron, or, maybe as the nose rose, it yawed to the left by the
same reason it
yawed to the left on takeoff with more power, and you used right rudder
to
correct it, instead of very slight right alieron in the round out. If
the later is true,
the wings were not very level before touching down.

I am flaring with my left hand (right hand on the throttle), so
probably crank the yoke to the left a bit...

--Dan


P S wrote:
Exactly. Your description of the problem sounded too familiar :-).

Dan wrote:
I think you may be on to something here. So, what you are saying is
that in a calm wind, I might be unconciously adding left alieron in the
flare, and correcting with right rudder...

I think this acutally happens to me _more_ in calm wind situations.


P S wrote:


A disclaimer first, that I'm a post solo student [P S == Post Solo]. I
have
had similar (opposite) problems after touching down with the nose
pointing to the
left while the plane drifted to the right. My CFI found two things that
I was
doing uncontiously. one is the non-level movement of the yoke when
applying the
back-pressue while rounding out, and in my case, I was over-correcting
my
earlier tendancy of "pulling the yoke downward" action by raising the
left elbow
too much. Then stepped on the left rudder in reflex to "correct" that
-- resulting in
the nose pointing to the left while the plane drifted to the right.
Your problem could be the opposite of mine, i.e. your left elbow was
pulling down the
left alieron, or, maybe as the nose rose, it yawed to the left by the
same reason it
yawed to the left on takeoff with more power, and you used right rudder
to
correct it, instead of very slight right alieron in the round out. If
the later is true,
the wings were not very level before touching down.

This may indeed be the problem. Does the yaw to the left decrease in
intensity as your ground speed slows? If so it could very well be an
aileron input error.

Another thing to check is something that I ran into when transitioning to
the right seat in a C182 RG. I was inadvertently removing my left foot from
the rudder to move my leg out of the way of the flap switch on roll out.
The problem was that at the same time I was unknowingly pushing on the right
rudder. Instant veer towards the right. All it took to discover my error
was a quick ride around the pattern with another pilot, we spotted it
together almost instantly.

Fly with a CFI or another pilot in the right seat. Eliminate the aircraft
as being the problem.

And be sure that you are not transferring automobile driving muscle memory
to your flying by lifting your right foot off the "accelerator" and pushing
down on the "brake".

Jim

"Dan" wrote in message
oups.com...
I am flaring with my left hand (right hand on the throttle), so
probably crank the yoke to the left a bit...

For what it's worth, if you get into the habit of, when over the runway,
always correcting drift with aileron, and correcting heading with rudder,
the problem you're experiencing will go away naturally (and I think it's
likely that "P S" has correctly identified the issue). Even if you do
accidently pull the yoke a bit left while flaring, as soon as the airplane
starts to drift your natural reaction will (should) be to compensate with
some right aileron, which will negate the accidental left aileron you put in
in the first place.

Obviously there are times when heading is the appropriate correction for
drift, but by the time you are ready to touch down on the runway, you *must*
have the nose of the airplane aligned with the runway. The rudder is used
for that. Likewise, you *must* compensate for any drift, so that the
airplane is tracking straight down the runway. The aileron is used for
that.

You may recognize these control inputs as being the same for one method of
dealing with crosswinds. Of course, even in the "crab and kick-out"
method, you do at the very end, just before touching down, use the controls
in just this way. So it's perfectly reasonable to just always get in the
habit of controlling the airplane just before touchdown in this way.

In addition (not that this seems to be the issue you're dealing with), while
one should be careful to not overcontrol the airplane, and while in cruise
flight it often makes sense to let light turbulence just have its way with
the airplane (many gusts are corrected by another gust that comes along
right after...chasing the gusts with the flight controls is inefficient and
tiring ), during landing is no time to let the airplane get away from
you. If you get pushed one direction, be sure to get the plane controlled
back the other direction ASAP, all the while keeping the nose aligned with
the rudder.

Pete