Gravity Always Wins
Gravity Always Wins
Nobody has ever been left up there before. With that in mind, do not try and land. Float to the end of the runway, float to the horizon, float forever, but always be descending. If you notice you are maintaining altitude, that is not good. Gravity will win and because you were using your spoilers to get your aim point you will land right where you want to.
Teach Students Not To Land
I have been working with a CFI applicant all week and I had to share one of my secrets with him. Teaching students to not land. Gravity will do that, guaranteed. What you don't want to do is force the glider onto the ground. The ground is solid and doesn't move.
A pilot will look at the ground...then hit it... Like a lawn dart... Just like a new driver looks at the car next to them and drifts into their lane.
The video below is an example of what happens when you force the glider on the ground before it is ready to land.
Teaching to a High Standard
When teaching landings you want to teach to a high standard, not just to a particular trainer. I teach all of my students to check the landing gear. My goal is to teach the student to land off-field low energy and a spot landing every time.
With my students, we debrief every landing like an accident. As you know accidents are caused by a chain of events. At any point, we could break the chain and have a beautiful landing.
The student lands long, it probably started going bad well before the long touchdown. So I back-up through the pattern to see where the long landing started. To see where those chain of events could have been fixed. Once the student is able to fix those chain of events early enough spot landings become possible on a more regular occurrence.
Garret Willat holds a flight instructor rating with over 8000 hours in sailplanes. His parents have owned Sky Sailing Inc. since 1979. He started instructing the day after his 18th birthday. Since then, Garret has represented the US Junior team in 2003 and 2005. He graduated from Embry-Riddle with a bachelor's degree in Professional Aeronautics. Garret represented the US Open Class team in 2008 and 2010 and the Club Class team in 2014. Garret has won 3 US National Championships.
