Tutorial #8 - Landing - Microsoft Flight Simulator

[Music] hi guys squier here and welcome to episode 7 in my tutorial series of microsoft flight simulator now if you've not watched any of my other episodes in my tutorial i strongly urge you to do that because the knowledge is built up in these episodes don't forget to subscribe for more content and particularly more episodes in the tutorial series and the goal of this episode is to look at landing essentially we're going to take what we've learned in the last few episodes and we're going to put it together and shoot a good landing now before we get on to discuss the details of an approach in a landing and what makes a good approach and what makes a good landing and how to deal with it when it goes wrong there's one concept i just want to show you and that is control authority so at the moment we're cruising along you can see 2300 rpm which is a good cruise rpm for the cessna 152 and we're in a nice stable trimmed out level flight in fact i'm not even touching the controls right now now if i was to start moving the air once at this speed which is what 95 knots i will have what's called control authority i'll have a lot of control of the aircraft there's a lot of air moving over the surface of the wing and the controls and that means if i start to move left or right roll the aircraft you can see everything responds nice and quickly however that's not the case when we're flying quite slowly so here i am now in a full flaps down configuration you can see down here flaps are extended all the way 30 degrees and you can also see my rpm is at 2000 so this configuration at 2000 rpm flaps fully extended we should be able to trim ourselves for a level flight and the airspeed will sit around 40 knots which is not far above the stall speed for the wing [Music] there's not much air flying over the wing anymore or over the controls which means we have much less control authority if i was to throw around now you'll see the aircraft is somewhat sluggish to respond it's certainly nothing like it was why is this important well the reason it's important because we find ourselves down at these kinds of speeds when we're coming into land and that lack of control authority can have significant consequences particularly during the flare-outs as we come down to land and we're about to touch the ground and we pull the power what we're trying to do is completely eliminate lift on the wing but in a controlled way and at that point we are down in this area here where we don't have much control authority and the secret to flowing out and landing is all down to that concept where you have to basically feel what the aircraft is doing and pull back on the elevators just enough to stop it from flying and just let the lift leave the wing so the aircraft comes gently down onto the runway don't look don't worry about it we're going to look at that concept in a second when we come into land practicing flaring is an important thing and it's quite a difficult skill to master but with a better practice you'll get it you'll get it and you'll do a good job of it first of all though let's look at going into a stabilized descent and just look at what happens when we play with pitch and power now the majority of a flight is spent in cruise that is you've climbed up to your designated altitude that you want to fly at and you simply fly in the direction that you're headed to your destination and you stay at the same altitude at some point though you're going to have to start descending at the point where you descend is a completely different discussion but let's say we're not far away from the airfield then we want to begin our descent your descent will go through various stages the first stage is just a power descent as they call it and it's basically where you keep the power on but you descend down at a comfortable descent altitude the actual rate that you descend at does vary from aircraft to aircraft in something like a cessna 152 you would aim for around about 500 feet per minute so this vertical speed indicator here will be on about the five mark that's a comfortable descent rate the actual speed that you descend at is something that you can control so we kind of looked at that in the last episode but let's briefly have another look now so i'm not going to touch the flaps i'm just going to go into a power descent so i'm going to bring the power back from its cruise rpm of about and i'm gonna bring it back to let's say around about 1800 now the aircraft immediately pitches down so we need to pitch it back up again and then we're gonna re-trim so i've re-trimmed now and we're doing 500 feet per minute descent rate and our speed is coming down to probably around about 90 knots we are now in a what they call a powered a powered descent and it's comfortable because it's 500 feet per minute and the speed is good because it's 90 but notice that the speed is actually above the white arc at this point we can't engage flaps so the next stage that we'll go through when we're ready is we'll then put flaps into the mix and what that will do is as i've discussed it will increase the drag but first we would have to bring our speed down there's various ways of doing that as you know but really to control the speed we simply pitch if you wanted to descend at a faster rate we can of course point the nose down and we will pick up speed and our descent rate will go down if our speed is too high we simply pull the throttle back and that will automatically cause the nose when we pitch it back up it will give us a different descent rate this whole topic of pitch versus power is something that we discussed in the last episode but when we're ready to go to the second stage of our approach what we're aiming to do is to keep that 500 foot descent rate but to have our speed a bit lower so i've brought the rpm down to what 1500 from 1800 on the on the dial on the right though and i'll just trim it out for 500 descent cheers around about there so at 1 500 rpm we now have the same 500 foot per minute descent rate but now we're not doing 90 knots we're doing less than 80 and we're well within the white arc now every plane you fly has different characteristics and you will have to learn the characteristics of that aircraft but you need to pay particular attention to the engine's rpm that's the amount that's a measure of the amount of power that you're putting in so if you can learn well at 1800 i can do a nice glide and then 1500 will get me within flap speed and still do a nice glide well you've already conquered two parts of the of the approach because now you know what you're doing to get a control descent to the airfield that you're looking to land at so here i am doing 1500 rpm 500 foot feet per minute descent rates and we're doing about 18 knots which is inside the flap extension speed ahead of us is rent an airfield so we're coming in on our approach into renting so what happens when we get down towards the ground what are we aiming for what what speeds are we aiming for well the actual landing speed varies from aircraft to aircraft it's something like a cessna 152 you can land it with any without any flaps at about 70 to 75 knots if you want to land it with flaps a full extension of 30 degree flaps remember it has various positions but if you want to do full extension 30 degrees then you're looking at 55 to 65 knots or an average of about 60 knots so the first i'm going to do is just we'll extend the flaps one stage and the nose will pitch up so we'll shove the nose back down again and if we want to keep our speed at 80 knots on our approach with one stage of flaps just push the nose down remember pitch for speed you'll notice our descent rate is now increased and the reason for that is we have more drag amongst other things so let's go ahead and put the full flaps down and see what happens so i'm not changing the engine rpms whatsoever and i'm going to pitch for 60 knots 60 knots is our recommended landing speed with our flaps fully extended 60 knots now notice our descent rate that is quite high we don't really want to be landing at 900 feet per minute descent rate when we hit that runway so how do we change that well remember altitude is governed by power if we want to reduce this but we want to keep this kind of speed we're going to have to put more power in so we put more power in the nose will come up our descent rate will come down so we'll need to pitch the nose back down again just go back on the throttle just a touch and i'll settle it back down and trim it and there you go we're now doing 500 foot per minute at 60 knots which is much more comfortable and this is how you control the descent you're basically looking at how far how fast you're going all the time this is what really really matters when you're landing is your airspeed this is your golden target at the same time you need to keep your eye on what the altitude is doing now if we look out the window here you can see there is no way i'm safely going to land on this runway i could shove the nose down and i will immediately pick up lots of speed way more than i want to be carrying when i try to land on that tarmac and an important concept in aviation is going around is free if you're coming in for your approach and you've got it wrong and this is wrong this this is not landable right now what you need to do is pull in full power get the airspeed back up retract the flaps and go around do it again take off climb leave the runway come back around and do it again going around is free and it costs nothing but if you try to force a landing you may well end up in disaster i just showed you what it's like when you're too high on the approach right now we are too low on the approach there's a couple of things going on here number one i can't really see the runway because i'm having to pitch the aircraft up so much that i literally have to look over the top to try and see where the runway is now the big problem with this is new pilots will tend to get in a bit too low and then they'll pull the nose up like this or put it down like that and think i need to get oh i've got a bit further to go let me just pull pull it back watch the airspeed the problem with this is hey you can't see where you're going and b if you're too low on the power and you're trying to make it home and you pull the nose up guess what you fall out the sky your wings no longer producing lift and you fall out the sky a famous test pilot was once asked a question by a journalist they said to him what are the three most important things in aviation and he thought for a second and he answered airspeed airspeed airspeed now he's not far wrong if you keep your eye on your airspeed particularly during approach and landing you won't go that far wrong if you keep that airspeed at the point where the wind can generate lift you won't fall out the sky if you realize your airspeed is too high you can do something about it and the other thing is it's safer to be too high on approach than it is to be too low if you're too low your options are limited if you're too high the worst that can happen is you go around and that's something that you should remember when you're um when you're practicing this stuff is keep your eye on the airspeed at all times the secret to a good landing is a good approach right we've gone through enough theory i've shown you what not to do the thing to do now is for you to try it so let's turn the aircraft around let's get set up and i'll talk you through a landing right so you need the cessna 152 not the aerobat just the basic cessna 152. you need to spawn in at renton airfield which is kilo romeo november tango which is where we've all responded in news tutorials runway 3 4 which should give you this view set your weather to clear sky and approximately midday if you press the v key or go up here and choose the vfr map you will see that you are at krnt what i want you to do is take off and climb you see this kind of island here there's a bridge though so take off and climb and get yourself up to 3000 feet and then roughly when you're at this bridge turn around and start heading back if you get lost if you start deviating off in different directions just bring the map up and have a look where you are but you want to be round about here just the top of this island at 3 000 feet now before you do that press the b key because let me just show you what happens if i mess about with the altimeter here press the b key and that will make sure that your altitude is reading accurately to take off get to 3000 turn around at the end of that island and then we'll pick it up from there well here i am hopefully you are too or at least you can practice this later and i'm just i've turned around after the bridge give yourself plenty of time there's no rush here and the first thing we're going to do is just go into that power descent we talked about so i'm just going to bring the throttle back so around about 1800 rpm and i'm going to pitch the nose so we get around about 90 knots descent it's on 1900 let's go for 1800 pull the nose up slightly to reduce that split that airspeed looking at the airspeed over here is the key 90 knots there we go that's the speed we selected now knowing when to descend and what rate to descend is something that is a much deeper discussion um but essentially you can try to get a feel for it give yourself plenty of time by starting quite far out and pay attention to the shape of the airfield as you approach it obviously you need to line yourself up as well so you want to be moving a bit left here we can see the runway flashing lights there if you think that you're a bit high and you need to reduce altitude the thing to do is pull back a bit of power get yourself into that flap configuration and if necessary use the flaps to slow you down it will give you a bit more drag so let's try that now let's bring the power back we'll go to like 1500 rpm i'm just going to hold the nose up like that just so we get into flap speed and then i'm going to select the first stage of flaps that's 10 degrees and then i'm going to allow the nose to go back down remember air speed air speed airspeed and we'll pitch the nose for about 80 knots and we'll see how we get on so we'll trim the aircraft remember after you've done the power the attitude then you do the trim always trim last and we're doing 80 knots we've got 10 degrees of flaps we've got a reasonable descent right now 1500 rpm and the shape of that runway to me looks pretty good now if you feel like the shape of the runway is changing and you feel like you're too low just put some more power in if you feel like the shape of the runway is too high pull the power back remember the power is controlling your altitude your height so use that to control it and then just re-pitch the aircraft and keep that 80 knots going that's what you're really trying to do so at this point i'm quite happy with the approach it looks like we're coming in nicely we've got a good glide we're nice and stable we're lined up on the runway and there's nothing more to do at this stage now i'm thinking to myself what flap configuration do you want to land in if it's a super gusty day if it's like a really big crosswind or just very windy out there very kind of you know getting thrown around probably wouldn't go for 30 degrees of flaps i'd probably come in with 20 degrees if that was the case i'd give myself a bit more speed as well probably 20 degrees of flaps i'd do 65 knots probably just add an extra five we won't go into crosswind components we're going to cover crosswinds and stuff another day but right now i'm thinking we're going too quickly to land so now i'm going to drop down to 30 degrees of flaps nose is coming up so i've got to push it back down and i'm going to re-trim and get 60 knots which is my landing speed we selected so there's 60 knots trimming back out again and now i'm looking at where we're heading and thinking hmm we're probably going to hit the water before we hit the runway i need a bit more altitude so i'm gonna bring in a bit of power and i'm gonna push the nose back down to keep 60 knots i'm looking at the airspeed looking at the airspeed pitching the nose to keep that 60 knots and i'm using the power to keep my altitude 60 knots still nice and stable [Music] and this is what you do until you feel like you're going to make the end of the runway if you don't feel like you're going to make the runway now put more power in and then re-pitch for 60 knots now when it comes to flaring out just above the runway you want to pull the throttle all the way back and as you do so you're gonna have to pitch the nose but you need to be very gentle remember control authority you will have more control authority when you're doing 60 knots than when you're doing 40. i'm going to pull the power back more because i'm too high aircraft's going to pitch down so i'm pulling it back slightly reducing the throttle a bit more keeping the airspeed at 60. and now i'm going to pull the throttle all the way back we're gliding i'm just going to pull the nose up gently gently just hold the aircraft hold it off the ground don't let it land just pull it back pull it back pull it back keep it off the ground and then eventually it'll just come out the sky gradually that's all there is to it just hold it off don't be aggressive when you're pulling that yoke back when you come to flow now wait until you're just like eight ten feet off the ground and then just gently pull it back because you feel the plane want to come down pull it back slightly and keep doing that until the aircraft just gently falls out the sky when you're so close to the ground you get this effect called ground effect and it gives you more lift so you get you're riding on your own cushion about and if you do it right you can land in that kind of way don't worry if you didn't do this i've done this a few times just go back up again have another go and eventually you'll start to see the same kind of shape of the airfield you'll see the same picture the same patterns you'll get used to the fact that you're pitching the nose to control the speed and you're using throttle to control the altitude hopefully you've learned something in this tutorial video hopefully if you practice it more you'll get the hang of landing and let's face it it's a lot of fun when you get it right and you'll definitely enjoy your flying a lot more once you learn to master this but don't start jumping around different planes is my advice just stick with this one for now master the landing and if you do want to try another plane let's say you want to move on to the cessna 172 which is a a bigger version of this a bit more powerful have a quick google just google for cester1772 quick guide quick reference charts or landing speeds and you'll find as people have done quick reference guides that give you landing speeds which is what you need because you need to know what you're aiming for when you come in to land it's the same with takeoff you need to know what speed you should be climbing out and by the way 67 knots or about 70 there without any flaps that's what you should be climbing at that's your best climb 70 knots so when you when you're climbing out and you don't need any flaps just pitch the nose and trim it so you get 70 knots and that will give you the best rate of climb in the cessna 152. it's different for every aircraft but it's important you just get the principles before you start messing about in different planes that's my advice take take it for what you will give me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video don't forget to share it with your friends if you found it useful and subscribe for more videos new tutorial series that will be coming later that's it for now take care guys happy flying

Channel: Squirrel

Views: 314,614

Keywords: simulator, gameplay, commentary, walkthrough, tutorial, asus, microsoft flight simulator, msfs 2020, cessna 172, takeoff, landing, new, preview, overview, review, flight, journey, weather system, experiment, guide, series, step by step, for beginners, getting started, new to flight sim, learn how to fly, flying lesson, msfstt

Id: ya9clcmxysc

Length: 22min 11sec (1331 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020