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Earlier this year I argued that if IFR pilots wanted to prevent accidents, they should focus on the most boring of skills: basic attitude instrument flying. Now it’s time to look at VFR pilots, and to spare you the suspense, the answer is similarly prosaic: loss of control on landing damages more airplanes than any other accident scenario. What can be done?
First, some perspective. In July 2023, to take a representative month, there were 54 accidents reported to the NTSB that occurred during the landing phase. There were undoubtedly at least twice as many incidents and “fender benders” that do not show up in the NTSB database, like hard landings that led to airplane inspections or trips through the grass that mostly damaged the pilot’s ego. That means every day in the summer somewhere between two and five airplanes are damaged—just on landing!
In fact, landing is by far the most common phase of flight for accidents, as this 10-year graph of accidents from the NTSB makes clear:
That is simply unacceptable. Even if lives are not lost (and as you can see, the vast majority of landing accidents are not fatal), landing accidents mean airplanes are seriously damaged, insurance premiums rise for the rest of us, pilot confidence is shattered, and passengers vow never to fly GA again. The cost is staggering, and cannot be measured in fatalities alone.
Improving this situation is both hard and simple. Hard because, as I’ve written about before, the simple phrase “loss of control” conceals a huge variety of root causes, from blown tires to pilot distraction. And yet we should be careful not to overcomplicate things. Especially on landing, two pilot skills are involved in almost every accident: airspeed control and directional control.
Airspeed control
“Airspeed is life” the old saying reminds us. That’s too simplistic for me; I prefer to think about it like food, where either too much or too little can kill you. Yes, pilots are warned that too little airspeed can lead to a hard landing or a fatal stall/spin accident on short final. But too much airspeed can lead to bounced landings if the pilot tries to force the airplane on the runway or a runway excursion if the airplane runs out of room before it runs out of speed. Neither one is good.
Consider the Cherokee pilot in Wisconsin who approached too fast: “The pilot reported that during the landing at the destination airport, the airplane floated down the runway, landed long, and did not slow as expected. He continued to apply the brakes as the airplane neared the end of the runway… The airplane nosed over in the grass and came to rest inverted which resulted in substantial damage to the right wing and empennage.”
On the other hand, a Cherokee Six pilot in Florida who was too slow: “the airplane appeared slower than normal during the landing approach and… the wings were wobbling. The airplane touched down on its nose landing gear and bounced back into the air as the pilot simultaneously increased engine power. The left wing dropped and the airplane descended off the side of the runway, impacted terrain, and cartwheeled before coming to rest.”
Too much speed is almost as bad as too little.
It’s not just GA pilots who can struggle with airspeed control. In business jets and airliners, the issue is usually being too fast, leading to a runway excursion and often substantial damage or even fatalities. IATA has made this a focus in recent years, with some positive results to show for it.
No matter what the airplane or airport, the key skill is to fly the right airspeed throughout the traffic pattern and especially on final. The FAA’s approach to this problem has been to emphasize energy management, a valuable concept that is nonetheless confusing in its current teaching style (as we have debated here at Air Facts). The FAA’s Airplane Flying Handbook says, in a rather clinical fashion, “Mistakes in managing the airplane’s energy state can be deadly.” Fair enough, but preventing those mistakes requires more stick time and good situational awareness, not complicated graphs about the energy state of the airplane.
In particular, a fanatical devotion to maintaining a precise airspeed at all times is perhaps the single most valuable skill for any pilot to hone. There’s more to a good landing than just being on speed, but it’s a great start—even if you’re high on final, you can easily correct if you’re on speed. Besides, airspeed control is a useful skill for many other phases of flight, from maximum performance climbs to nonstandard approaches at busy airports. Make this one of the key measures of your pilot proficiency: can you maintain a predetermined airspeed with a maximum deviation of +10/-5 knots (the Private Pilot ACS)?
Fortunately airspeed control is easy to practice, so it can be integrated into almost every flight, with or without an instructor. In fact, I believe most pilots need fewer stalls and more slow flight in their training diet (at least after the Private checkride). Design a practice routine for your airplane and it can be completed in just a few minutes while you fly to your next $100 hamburger or shoot landings. For example, fly 65 knots level (+/-2 knots if you can), then fly 65 knots climbing, then 65 knots descending, then 65 knots descending and turning. Repeat at 55 or 75 knots for more practice (or whatever airspeed works for your airplane). This tests your ability to manage pitch, bank, and power in a coordinated fashion while dividing your attention—you could call it energy management but to me it’s just developing a feel for the airplane.
Directional control
Precise airspeed control should get you to the runway in good shape, but as all pilots know it’s the last six inches that really count. Here’s where the second skill comes into play: directional control. Plenty of runway excursions, especially in GA airplanes, are not caused by excess speed but by lack of proper or sufficient control inputs. This is especially true in windy conditions, but honestly many of these accidents don’t involve significant wind.
For example, a Cessna 150 pilot lost control of the airplane after touchdown and probably totaled the airplane: “The pilot reported that, during the landing roll, a gust of wind lifted the right wing of the airplane. The pilot was unable to maintain directional control and the airplane departed the left side of the runway and nosed over in a grassy area adjacent to the runway.” Wind was only 7 knots and the runway was 75 feet wide, so blaming this one on the wind is a bit of a stretch.
A similar fate befell a Mooney pilot in Texas: “During landing, the airplane drifted right of the runway centerline. The pilot was unable to maintain directional control, and the airplane exited the runway and impacted a tree and a parked golfcart.” Again, the wind speed was 8 knots with no measured gusts.
Apps like CloudAhoy can help you honestly evaluate your performance.
Step one in preventing such accidents is to notice the airplane is drifting, which sounds simple but is surprisingly hard when a pilot is task-saturated. Track the runway centerline like a hawk, beginning on final, and consider making this a callout—I know some pilots who verbally confirm, “gear down, on centerline” on short final. During the flare, make sure your eyes are focused on the end of the runway, not the left main wheel or the instrument panel. Most pilots constantly watch their height above runway but you should also be constantly judging alignment, so look for subtle signs that the airplane is drifting off centerline.
This is also an area where debriefing tools like CloudAhoy or FlySto can keep you honest and help you monitor your performance over time. Were you really on centerline or are you a little rusty after a winter break? The track log doesn’t lie. Especially for a proficiency flight, using a Sentry or Stratus to log the flight and then replay it afterwards is a valuable (and sometimes humbling) experience.
This is all about developing feel: with airspeed control, you’re trying to develop a feel for the airplane’s energy state (there, I said it); with directional control, you’re trying to develop a feel for the airplane’s track and its orientation relative to the runway. The more this can be done instinctively, the better. That means practice.
Flying more is always good advice, but at a more basic level some pilots simply need to be more assertive. Yes, over-controlling can cause issues, but that’s a pretty rare problem (I couldn’t find an example in the NTSB database after three hours of looking). Too often I see the opposite problem, a sort of passivity that can slide into resignation: as the airplane drifts towards the grass, the pilot seems to be along for the ride.
I’ve certainly been guilty of this myself. I can still remember one of my early flight instructors grabbing the controls and practically shouting at me as we wobbled down the runway one day, “you need to make this &$*%@ airplane do exactly what you want—that’s why you’re called pilot in command!” A bit harsh, perhaps, but 100% correct, and a lesson I have not forgotten. Sometimes it really does feel like the wind is fighting you, but the only answer is to fight back.
Of course wind can be a challenge, and crosswind landings often top the list of pilots’ least favorite maneuver, but that’s no excuse. If we’re going to fly on anything approaching a regular schedule, we must get comfortable operating in crosswinds and gusty conditions. Your primary training syllabus may not be enough, so it pays to be proactive about ongoing training. Seek out flight instruction when it’s gusty or bring a more experienced pilot along if conditions are marginal. Even better, get some tailwheel instruction and learn how to really move those controls.
Go-arounds
That’s not the whole story, though. Read the NTSB reports and another accident scenario jumps out at you: the botched go-around. Not all landings work out so there’s no shame in aborting the landing and trying again, but the number of go-around accidents is alarming considering how rare this maneuver is.
Step one is to remain calm, or as famous basketball coach John Wooden used to say, “be quick, but don’t hurry.” A go-around does demand a quick reaction, but there is no point in panicking or rushing through what is usually a maximum performance maneuver. Jamming the throttle in, pulling up the flaps too quickly, and yanking the yoke back is a recipe for a stall/spin. Better to smoothly add power and establish a climb, while focusing on aircraft control above all. You don’t have all day, but you probably have more time than you think. The best way to reinforce this is to go practice it, something that doesn’t get much attention from most pilots.
Go-arounds from 10 feet rarely work out.
Panic quite literally took hold of a Cessna 172 pilot in California, with tragic results: “the airplane landed normally, but during the landing roll, the front seat passenger heard a ‘pop’ sound and subsequently felt the airplane shake, at which time the pilot started to panic. The pilot advanced the throttle and the airplane lifted off the runway surface again. Surveillance video captured the airplane as it began to climb in a nose-high attitude, drifted left of the runway, then rolled inverted and rapidly descended.” It’s hard to know for sure, but it’s quite possible this would have been an uneventful landing had emotion not taken over.
In addition to panic, this accident suggests another issue with go-arounds: don’t wait too long to make the decision. The best go-arounds happen from 300 feet, not 30, which is why many airlines require a go-around if the airplane is not stabilized by 500 feet in VFR conditions. That would have saved a Cherokee pilot who was involved in a serious accident: “While crossing the runway threshold, the airplane was ‘a little high’ and still not aligned along the runway centerline. The pilot reduced the engine power and continued his attempt to align the airplane with the runway using the rudder. The pilot then decided to go around just as the landing gear contacted the runway, adding engine power and pulling back the control yoke. The airplane then veered to the left and departed the runway surface as the pilot reduced the engine power back to idle to stop the go-around attempt.”
Some flight instructors like to say, “you can always go around.” While it’s an admirable sentiment, it’s flat out wrong. There comes a time when it’s best to just ride the airplane into the grass at 20 knots instead of going around and potentially crashing at 80 knots. One might lead to a bump; the other will probably be fatal. Making that decision is incredibly hard to do in the heat of battle, so better to plan it out beforehand. A good rule is that if all three wheels are on the ground, you probably shouldn’t go around. On short runways, it’s also smart to pick a specific go-around point, a place where you will automatically add power if the airplane has not touched down yet.
Consider what happened to a Beech B35 in Indiana: “Airport surveillance video captured the airplane on landing rollout. The airplane was observed departing the left side of the runway before it started a climb and impacted trees.” A go-around to save a runway excursion seems like a bad trade. This scenario would have been a serious crash but probably survivable had the engine remained at idle power. Instead, the pilot was killed.
Putting it all together
Situational awareness and prompt recognition of a deteriorating trend is the critical skill that ties all of this together. You can’t prevent or react to a bad landing if you don’t notice it’s happening. So on your next trip around the pattern, pay attention to your airspeed and runway alignment. Are you flying a constant airspeed or is it jumping around? Are you consistently fast or slow? Are you flying a predetermined profile (power setting, flap setting, etc.) or just chasing the gauges? Are you accounting for the wind on short final? Can you use your EFB app to record the flight for easy playback at zero knots? A little self-reflection on these topics can be the starting point for safer landings.
But just like we found with instrument flying, there is no substitute for recent experience. Most of these skills require regular practice or they quickly atrophy, which means safe flying is a lifelong commitment, not an item to check off your to-do list. There is no experience level where landings become automatic, as the NTSB reports prove (one of the accident pilots mentioned above had over 14,000 hours).
Just remember the goal: it’s not about greasing every landing, it’s about making every one safe.
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Perhaps emphasis on “stabilized approach” also misdirects…airplane flight path should be stabilized (not for miles, just enough) but that doesn’t mean sitting on your hands. On a gusty xw day it means beating the snakes in the cockpit so that from the outside all looks stable (except for all the control inputs).
If you never practice in those conditions good luck on the day where your destination’s benign weather forecast isn’t the actual weather you got.
Good point on stabilized approaches. I think it’s a good concept – at 500 feet and not 5 miles, as you say – but it needs to be discarded when you’re 6 inches from the runway.
Completely agree, emphasis is on doing what it takes, not being along for the ride.
Can you please expand in how FF tracklogs can show you if you were lined up on the centerline?
This article has a lot of details for how to set it up: https://www.sportys.com/blog/how-to-log-and-debrief-flights-with-sentry-plus/
I had the benefit of doing my primary training in a 115hp 7-ECA Citabria with no flaps. Besides spin training, my instructor instilled a lot of slip training before solo and and my Private Check Ride, which requires precise directional control using only the rudder once the appropriate wing was lowered into the wind, while at the same time concentrating on rate of descent control using primarily power change, once airspeed was stabilized with steady pitch attitude after turning final. He reminded me many times that the vast majority of landings in my pilot career will be slips into the wind most of the way down final, with full slips needed when significantly high on the glideslope. That training has served me well over the past 50 years, even during several simulated and one actual engine failure at altitude.
John,
You should be commended not only for your choice of topic but also for an outstanding bit of writing. Thank you for jogging the minds of many pilots both new and old. I recently discovered this off the centerline issue creeping into my own flying after 50+ years. I can hear my early instructor as if it were yesterday, shouting…”keep that line under the crack in your ass!” Regards, Mike
Great article! When I’m teaching students and especially when I’m checking someone new out in an aircraft I take them through this whole slow flight procedure. No two planes are alike so every time I get in a new plane I go up and find exactly where those stall speeds are. I was in a partnership with a 172 years ago that was difficult to land and discovered it had a partially blocked pitot tube.
This is a great article-extremely helpful. As a late blooming pilot who bounces a few too many, it is right on target. The comment about proficiency and doing landings often to keep your head in it makes good sense. Much appreciate the good info.
Great article and good advice but could be shortened and distilled to these 3 things and I heard them from my instructor on my very first flight …(Navy T-28) years ago and still here flying.
Yes this could be taught in a 172 if the instructors understood it and if one instrument was added by FARs to be required in every Aircraft.. an AOA indicator can be ( and should be mandatory installed no later than the next annual inspection, then a log endorsement from a suitably trained CFI in its use)
Meatballl(Glideslope=vasi)
Lineup=runway
centerline(luckily not moving to the right all the way to touchdown) = centerline
AOA= consistent proper airspeed for any landing weight)
Excellent article John. I would add that a good landing begins with a good pattern flown at recommended speeds. I find pattern discipline lacking in many pilots.
Practice makes perfect.
Great article John. I am saving for reference and teaching my students.
“During the flare, make sure your eyes are focused on the end of the runway”. The FAA thinks that’s one of the worst things the pilot can do. At night, you’re looking way past the landing light. In low IFR, you don’t see anything. Airplane Flying Handbook pg 9-7 – “If the pilot focuses too far ahead, accuracy in judging the closeness of the ground is lost and the consequent reaction is too slow, since there does not appear to be a necessity for action. This sometimes results in the airplane flying into the ground nose first.” “The pilot should focus direct central vision at a shallow downward angle from 10° to 15° relative to the runway as the round out/flare is initiated.”
Add it to the list of things I disagree with the FAA about. Seriously, I’ll agree that the end of the runway may be a little too far, but I see far too many pilots looking almost straight down. That is a terrible way to make good landings, and especially to notice lateral drift.
Gosh yes – looking straight down is very bad. The FAA also mentions that. Same page AFH 9-7 – “If the pilot attempts to focus on a reference that is too close or looks directly down, the reference becomes blurred, [Figure 9-8] and the reaction is either too abrupt or too late. In this case, the pilot’s tendency is to over-control, round out high, and make full-stall, drop-in landings.”
There’s a direct correlation to when one is driving a car. The eyes just naturally look slightly downward, and a little further ahead as speed increases, where the street or highway is in the sharpest focus, and at night within the headlight beam. A car on the highway is in the same speed range as a small airplane landing. Where is the driver looking? 3000ft ahead? No way. Try that for a couple of seconds (when alone and in the middle of a three-lane highway) and you will instantly know that critical visual perceptions needed to maintain safe control of the car are lost.
Referring to the end of the runway automatically creates wildly inconsistent visual technique because runways are not consistent, not only in length but in slope. I.e. should a pilot focus 6000ft and 20ft higher on one landing and then 1500ft ahead and 3ft lower on the next landing? I think that just guarantees serious problems.
I learned to fly before I learned to drive so didn’t have the experience base of keeping a vehicle centered on pavement. Add to that I was learning in a Citabria! My primary reference point was out the side windows and I was all over that runway! A cussing WWII era pilot finally caught my technique and set me straight figuratively and literally.
Great article. As a military trained aviator, I learned to fly by the numbers. This is a base line that affords pilots to identify aircraft configuration deviations quickly and adjust as needed for atmospheric conditions. Thanks for putting a solid thought into a clear manner.