Cessna 172 & 152 Landing - Flare Approach & Attitude Diagrams

Cessna 152 & 172 Landing Procedure - Flare, Approach & Attitude with Cockpit View

Introduction

One thing that took me a while to get right, & I think takes time for many beginners learning to fly, is flaring the aeroplane correctly for a proper landing & holding it correctly for a good touchdown.

Before we go forward, I will point you to the Golden Rule of Flying that made by landing happen, which is in my short previous post: The Golden Rule of Landing Aeroplanes - for beginners

Got it?? If not, please go back & soak it in. Continuing down this article will be of lesser value unless you have understood the previous post.

Once I understood this, I swear to you I could do buttery smooth touch downs, & just enjoyed myself doing circuits.

My experience here relates specifically to the Cessna 152 & 172, both very similar, with the 172 being just a tad faster, its a very slight difference, & in my opinion the techniques & timings are identical.

Have a read of my previous article to see how similar both these planes really are, & what to do if youre in 172 instead of a 152

The main issue seems to be around knowing when to start pulling back, how much to pull & when to hold & know that the plane will sink & touch the ground smoothly rather than with a hard bump.

Lets use photos to illustrate these landing steps:



Cessna Landing Approach Technique Images

My pics are based on my personal style which is based on the obsessive perfectionist desire of making the final touchdown as smooth as I can. You will find that after a few landings, your personal opinion on what these pictures look like in each phase might be slightly different to mine, or even to that of other pilots. As long as you are staying within the recommended operating guidelines of speed & power settings, you will be ok.

Knowing your horizon position cockpit view at each stage is the key to good landing

So the best way to think of it is knowing your horizon position & the view of how the runway is going to be from the cockpit, its relative placement of the lines in your windscreen, & which point on your windscreen you see them intersect toward the end of the runway, & how that intersection point moves through your windscreen.
Ironically, the above blurp makes it sound more complex than it is, but I hope by the end of this post you have some ideas.

In Fig A, lets look at a simple 2D top view of the runway as you approach it. Remember runway is composed of 3 vertical lines, parallel to each other, the outer 2 lines are the boundaries of the concrete & the centre line you want to be as close to. We'll then have 2 horizontal lines for the start & end of the landing zone.

Initial Landing Profile in Late Final:

Lets start with what you would likely see out at 500ft AGL, 30 flap, 60kts IAS & your instructor has probably given you a bit of coaching to get you here.
It should be similar to Fig 1 (in my humble opinion)

Fig 1 onwards, you want to continue on your same glide slope for some time while making the descend at the same 60kts Air speed. But your altitude needs to be Reducing.
If you simply hold your heading, you might be a tad high too flare.
So at this point, usually a very slight nose down is useful.
Now your cockpit view should be similar to Fig 2

Then, you might need to adjust the power just a little bit to ensure youre not descending too rapidly, but dont be tempted to put too much power, that can ruin the entry & make you float.

Identifying your common landing problem:

So at this point, it helps to know whether you are:
1) Starting the flare too late & your instructor gets a bit white everytime youre going to land
2) Starting flare on time but put excessive back pressure for too long & get into a climb, with potentially the stall warning going off, at which point your instructor starts playing the throttle & you either get another go into the flare or you have to go around if the strip is too short
3) Starting the flare too early & not loosing enough altitude to come close enough to the ground. So the plane just keep floating, and might sometimes eventually touch down if the landing strip was long enough

The solution to all the issues is the same, but knowing the problem helps understand whether your issue is between Fig 2 & 3, or Fig 3 & 4, or between Fig 4 & 5.
I would encourage you to open this blog post up in your debriefing with the instructor & request him to tell you which of the above images the landing profile looks like to him.
He will then be able to 'show you' rather than just tell you where you are going wrong,
Once you see the image, it'll click as to what youre doing wrong & you'll be able to fix it.

Likely posibilities

If your attitude is pointing down but you are too fast, you are pushing the nose down too much & not reducing the throttle.
If attitude high & plane too slow, you have not put the nose down enough & not used enough power earlier on.
Sounds familiar to the golden rule doesnt it haha - thats what will fix it.

Good luck fellow aviators, enjoy yourself out there.