Landing Checklist

At Sky Sailing, we use the landing checklist GFWATTS, and we have been teaching it for a very long time. There are many out there, and I am sure there are plenty of threads on Rec.Aviation.Soaring (for those of you not aware of this newsgroup, searching this will be like opening Pandora’s box. If you have managed this long without it, I would recommend not starting now.).

Whichever checklist you use is fine, but I want to cover when and why we should be checking these items. You should be able to apply these same concepts and ideas to your checklist. One of the biggest problems I see with pilots is giving the checklist lip-service.

Gear

There is the saying that there are those that have and those that will… land gear up. It is best to stay out of that category. However, it is likely that you will at some point, give lip-service to that checklist and have a remarkably short and expensive touchdown. I have seen pilots fly around all day with the gear down and on their landing checklist retract it. I have failed to lock it. I have been with students in our Stemme as they ask why the gear lights are flashing red and what the noise from the alarm is...

Getting it Done Early

While we are on the subject of the Gear when should we be checking it? We teach to lower the gear before entering the pattern. One of the advantages to this is if you have a problem you will have some time to troubleshoot. Some common issues might be a stuck pen in the channel, passenger blocking it, physically difficult, grabbing the wrong handle... Then once we enter the pattern, we recheck it, Downwind mid-field or abeam your landing area we can look and touch the handle to make sure it is locked. Once on base just a quick visual inspection and again on final a quick visual inspection. So now you have checked the gear five times. Even if you missed it once, you checked it four other times… So when you land gear-up….you failed to check it five times.

Soaring Magazine June 2006 has a great article “Is Conservative Safe?” where the author mixed up the handles in the cockpit.

Flaps

You might be flying an ASW-20A and putting in the landing flaps might not be a good idea until you are positive you are going to make the airport. But in most other gliders I have flown I put the flaps into landing position next. It may slow the roll rate down and will decrease your performance, so if you are low, you might need to consider waiting.

But I usually am making a boring standard pattern this works out. It gives me plenty of time to re-adjust my sight picture and get used to the lower nose attitude. One issue is pilots getting too slow on base to final and if you bring the nose up a little too much (still much lower then what you are used to) you might stall/spin.

Not Always Landing Position

If I am not going to wait on landing position, I generally at least put them into the last thermal setting. This sometimes might be where I intend on landing, for instance, if the crosswind is too strong. In the Stemme, if it is strong or gusty crosswind, I will land in the +10 which is generally used for thermalling once centered. Less flaps will give me a slightly better roll rate, which might be needed when gusty. The only issue will be not creating as much lift so the stall speed and touchdown speed will be higher. Since there will also not be as much drag the glide slope will not be as steep, however, the wind is strong, and it will be steep because of that.

 

Continued next week...

Banner Photo by:  Mandi Ireland Photography

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garret willat  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.