Show Notes
Three go-arounds in a row, with the flight school owner watching from the ground.That was Jess at Cape Fear Aviation, on a short runway with a tree line at one end, learning the hard way that a landing you have to force is a landing that went wrong long before the flare. This one is about the landing plateau: why it happens, what the FAA says is actually causing it, and the honest version of how she got through it after quitting once.In This Episode:• Why the flare gets blamed for problems that started on downwind• The FAA's stabilized approach criteria, and the aiming point cue that warns you mid-approach• Four instructor lines worth keeping: pitch for airspeed, look down the runway, hold it off, go around• Why landing accidents lead every phase-of-flight category in general aviation, even among certificated pilots• What the ninety-day currency rule tells you about how fast landing feel decays• The honest version of Jess's training: several CFIs, four airports, and a years-long breakKey Takeaways:• Frequency beats lesson length. Three flights a week, ideally back to back, does more for landings than one long lesson.• Fix the pattern, not the flare. If it feels like a wrestling match, the speed or descent angle came apart earlier.• Watch whether your aiming point holds still in the windscreen. Movement is your earliest warning.• Go around every time it feels wrong. Three in a row is an acceptable lesson.• Cycling through instructors is an industry norm, not a verdict on you.Resources:Free Private Pilot Study Sheet: https://hub.pilotinstitute.com/private-pilot-study-sheet-landingYour Flight Controls is produced in association with Pilot Institute. New episodes drop weekly.Got a question or a topic you want us to cover? Reach out in the comments!
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A controller called traffic at my two o'clock, three miles. I was already scanning, and I still found it late. That was on a long trip from Fayetteville, North Carolina up to Flint, Michigan, with flight following on for most of it. This is part two on radio work, what flight following really gives you, how to ask for it, and the order of operations at a towered field once the initial call stops being the hard part. Also: radio work is a depreciating skill. It builds fast with use and fades just as fast without it, and that changes how you should think about practice. In This Episode: • What flight following is in FAA terms — Radar Traffic Information Service, AIM 4-1-15 • The four basic radar services VFR aircraft get, and why separation is off that list • How to make the request, word for word, and what ATC sends back • Setting it up with ground control before you taxi instead of building it in the climb • The three habits that keep the service running once you are in the system • The kneeboard method that cuts down say-agains • The four readbacks the FAA requires at a towered field • Why every runway crossing needs its own clearance, one at a time • What rusty radio work sounds like, and how quickly it comes back Key Takeaways: • Ask for radar traffic information on your initial call to ground or clearance delivery, along with your direction of flight • Write every frequency down in order before engine start, so ATC is confirming your page rather than filling it • Read back the runway assignment, any clearance onto a runway, any hold short, and any line up and wait — every time • Hold at the line until a controller clears you across; crossings are issued one runway at a time • Tell the controller before you leave the frequency, then squawk twelve hundred • If it has been more than a month since you talked to a controller, plan one flight with radio work in it on purpose Resources: Free VFR Radio Call Sheet (Student Pilot Kneeboard) https://pilotinstitute.com/radio-comm-for-beginners/ Your Flight Controls is produced in association with Pilot Institute. New episodes drop weekly. Got a question or a topic you want us to cover? Reach out in the comments.