Right Rudder! - A humorous analysis of my landing technique
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- čas přidán 10. 04. 2014
- This is a lighthearted, humorous look into a flaw in my landing technique, where I tend to be yawed off to the left at touchdown.
My previous video received a comment by FlightChops who noticed that I tended to swerve left after each landing, and encouraged me to find out why, and how to fix it. His comment inspired me to really get to the bottom of it.
Watching the fast-forward landings, I noticed that it was easier to see how far off my yaw was when I looked at the horizon in each landing, and then remembered what it says about that in the Airplane Flying Handbook.
This video demonstrates how just a couple of degrees difference in where your eyes focus can translate to big yaw errors upon landing. - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Dude - this video is AWESOME! I love the self analysis with the perfect dose of humour… The montage with your instructor repeating "right rudder" is hilarious, and a great illustration of how sometimes a repeated instruction isn't necessarily helpful if the root cause of the problem is not identified. You NAILED IT by figuring out you were sighting off the spinner - this is a problem I also took a long time to get over. My tendency was to land left of center and roll straight as opposed to swerving, but it was caused by a similar issue. I also fly PA-28s that have a "piano hinge" line on either side of the cowling due to the "access flaps" that you open to get at the engine bay - these are perfect for sighing along as they are offset to the side of the spinner.
Anyway - this is a great video that student and experienced pilots should check out!
Totally agreed. This was perfect. Look a lot of work to dig through all that footage, I'm sure.
That’s helpful and also great to see flightchops serves as a guardian angels for student pilots video. Thank you to you both👍🏻
@flightchops still helpful to this day.
Yes, that is crazy. I learned that you have to look straight ahead and not use the enter of the nose / spinner as a reference point. using the spinner as the ref point makes you look at an angle which messes up your alignment. PS, I notice I have to look at a computer screen dead on and not at an angle.
I don't know if you're even on here anymore, but I wanted to tell you - Your video has become an essential must-watch for every student I've taught since you first posted this. EVERYONE DOES what you did. It truly is a left-seat optical illusion. Your post has taken a core landing error & turned it into a 4 minute how-to-fix-it video I could never explain in words or on a grease board.
THANK YOU BROTHA!!!!
Thank you so much. When I made this video, I never imagined it would get this many views. I’m glad I’ve been able to help so many people improve their flying.
It's funny. I'm a commercial pilot with about 600 hours, and just about to finish my CFI, and I'm having this problem currently. I trained in a 172 for my primary training, and then flew tailwheels as a banner tow pilot since I received my CPL. Getting back into a 172, and in the right seat this time, I had this exact same problem. Never had experienced it before, and It really destroyed my confidence as a pilot. After watching this, I definitely have found it helpful! Nice job, and safe flying!
my cfi told me he was going to write a book called "right rudder". great video.
"Story of my life" haha :) I think that everyone who learned to fly can relate to this. Awesome video!
+Stijn Van Mol - That was a truly unscripted moment, too. In fact, that approach was the next stop in the trip after the landing where Scott said "right rudder" seven or eight times in a row.
So true.
I struggled with the same thing. The 'Ah HA' moment was when I discovered that the nose of the airplane is not square - it's round. It creates an optical illusion. I transitioned my thinking to my shoulders. Keep your shoulders perpendicular to the runway with the rudders. Don't look at the nose.
"Look at your ball". Clearly you have the right ball smaller than the left one :D
LMAO
The historical slip up 😂
thank you! my instructor directed me to this video of yours, huge help
This is such a gem of insight for student pilots like myself... It just solved the riddle I was puzzled about for most of my day after not-very-skilled takes this morning. I was looking at the wrong place.
Love this video!!
My instructor says, more right rudder on every landing I do. I kept thinking, why? It just never felt right to put the right rudder in on the landing. Now I get it.
Thanks for the video! Very educational.
Jess
I'm in the same situation. My instructor tells me to put in the right rudder when I feel no need for it. Certainly there is a need for it every time. I must be looking at the wrong spot to judge my alignment.
7 years later, this video is still more valuable than most I've seen.
Sitting in the left seat requires some adjustments for the proper line up. Pilot seat should be in the center of the cockpit. 😁
I can still hear my initial flight instructor in 1975 yelling, "Back, back, back....back, back." Landing on a bumpy and hilly grass field means getting that C150 nose wheel well clear of the ground. It's funny how we work hard to please our inner sense of what feels right to the exclusion of the voice of experience sitting next to us. Good video. Thanks.
If I could give you a 100 thumbs up I would!!!!! This is the video that finally made me "get it" (the extended colored arrows really did the trick).
I always kept having the exact same experience as the author of this video and at times it would yaw severely as I was JUST ABOUT TO TOUCH DOWN (ground effect?), and then my instructor would keep saying "fly the plane, fly the plane ........don't stop now" and I did not know what the hell he meant!!!! I knew the airplane was "side-loading" and not going "straight" near or at touch down, but I could not for the life of me figure out what was going on! Of course, as I was taught the technique for a "crosswind landing" I got more confused over this issue (because the 2 have subtle differences).
Eventually I figured out that I was not flying "straight ahead" and needed to look further down the runway and not too close to the plane (as this video points out). Then I viewed a few other videos on CZcams that explained how to maintain centerline, and while those helped somewhat, I did not really "get" what I needed to do.
This video was the Eureka moment! (the colored arrows extended over the cowling and into the distance did it for me!!!!!!!!!!!!)
I suffered from that perspective thing when I first started flying in a Cessna 172 from the left seat. My instructor got me to taxi to a part of the airfield with a hangar door facing us, about 100 metres away. He asked me to line up with some painted letters on the hangar door before declaring, "you're looking through the spinner, aren't you?" He stuck a little piece of paper on the windshield about a quarter of the way in from the left and told me to use that to sight the direction of flight. I improved dramatically after that. Such a simple thing that is generally not reinforced in the early stages of flight training. We all know that during early training, the last thing we hear is the instructor when the "panic" of touching down is about to happen :-) Great video, thanks.
I have the same problem on my landings, I never knew the answer was so simple. Thanks for sharing that, I hope to try a different focal point on my next flight!
This is exactly what I've been struggling with. I even noted it was an issue with my perspective and I wasn't quite sure how to correct.
Thank you for this!!
It is 9:39 and I have a pattern work flight lesson in about 4 hours that I have been dreading all week. I have been struggling with the exact same problem in this video, everything looks fine to me but the plane is always coming down to the left (at best) and sideloaded (at the worst). I thought maybe it was a perspective problem but I couldn't understand why, but this short video from a student pilot (at the time) has done more to help me understand the problem than dozens of hours of videos by MZeroA, TheFinerPoints, LewDix, FlightInsights, King Schools, Sportys, and more. Your arrows made it completely obvious. THANK YOU SO MUCH.
Glad that could help you out! Hope your checkride went well when the time came!
Awesome video, I often heard people say, "you gotta look down the runway when you land" it makes sense now.
This just changed everything for me. I haven't even tried landing yet but I am seeing that I do what you did. I was looking over my nose and not in front of me. Great learning experience!
I’ve been having this exact problem!
Thanks to you, i already had an idea of what i was doing wrong, but now i understand WHY I’m doing it wrong!
And now that i know why, i can effectively work on fixing it. Thank you!
This has helped me already. I do the same EXACT thing, and my instructor sounds EXACTLY like yours. I can't wait to fly again, all I want to do is land looking at the RIGHT place. Thanks! Please continue to share your videos.
I'm glad that sharing my experiences is helpful to you. Thank you for the encouragement! I actually am about to make my next video. I'm not as prolific as FlightChops or MrAviation101, but I will definitely continue to make more videos. I want to make sure that I can keep them entertaining.
This is great! I kept having the same issue with my first flight landing practices. From now on I'll keep my eyes toward the end of the runway rather than directly over the spinner. Thanks for sharing and keep at it!
Thanks for the transparency, I've been there and DOING that! Down here in Brazil. " More right rudder!"
Great video! Gave me a confidence boost when I needed it...been struggling with the same thing. Your lessons sound just like mine! The humor made me laugh and let go of some frustration. Appreciate you making the video, I'll definitely try a new sight picture.
This is a great video! I feel like a lot of people do what you were doing. Really good analysis of the why behind it and how to correct it. Thank you
Great job! I’m always trying to improve my flying and landings as well! Doing so will keep you safe and on-point!!!
During a touch-and-go, once on the runway I have a tendency to kick in some left rudder when reaching down to retract flaps in the Warrior resulting in a small departure from the centreline. Thanks to your video, I'm gonna be more proactive about the little things now!
Awesome video, just went "solo" Friday, and my third landing was followed quickly by a sharp yaw to the left. Flew solo on Saturday, same thing. I too heard "right rudder" or "ya gotta work the pedals man" enough time that I hear it in my sleep. Your graphic imposed over the footage was helpful, gonna work it tomorrow. I think I should use my time tomorrow for just "beating up the pattern" and gain confidence on final.
I would be also very rich :) my instructur even named my left leg as "Your Damned Heavy Left Leg". He couldn't understand why I keep pressing left rudder, when I am saying that I try to input more right rudder :) So at some point I also started to suspect something is wrong with my understanding / visualizing the longitudinal axis of my airplaine. Therefore, a couple of times, before getting into the parked plane, I went behind it and took a good look from there, understanding where her nose points to in the distance. Then I compared it with what I saw from the seat, after getting in the plane. This helped me to find out, that the adhesive tape on the engine cover, supposedly for helping students, is a bit off to the right, because of the curving of the engine cover. Since then I only use the side of an engine maintenance cover, which is definitely pointing straight ahead, and if needed, I can align my eyesight with it too (for calibrating and re-calibrating). We have quite long ailerons on our plane (kind of a glider), with pretty noticeable adverse yaw, which can be a factor in a lengthy flare.
Saving this one for my students. Great video to show what I'm telling them. It's the same perspective error which leads to the common landing left of centerline.
LOVE your analysis! Was my problem too, and I didn't even consensus with my CFI on whether I was landing straight.
That was an excellent graphic explanation of a common problem and suggested cure. Thanks for posting.
Thanks! I'm just glad to have offered something useful to the flying community.
Interestingly, another reason the repeated "right rudder" instruction didn't sink in was that I was also doing crosswind inputs with right aileron+left rudder (at the airfield where I did the freeze frame + arrows). I think if my instructor had been saying "yaw right" it might have been more effective - at least on me, anyway. Because I was thinking "I need left rudder to counteract the right aileron" and "more right rudder" seemed to conflict with the notion that I was supposed to be using left rudder there, or at least "by the book" I was.
Dude, I needed this video this past week. Every time I was landing, my CFI would say ‘right rudder’ meanwhile it’s lined up and I’m adding left rudder because *to me* it looked like we were yawed to the right and I was trying to correct it. We figured out I was looking in the wrong place to judge alignment. Thank you for this video!!!
Loved the video! Great job!
I love this video. I'm always left of center line and now I understand why. Hope you make lots more videos
Nice vid! Landings are tricky things that you stress over continuously during the training until it just all of a sudden "clicks" and becomes second nature. Seems like you're well on your way. Best of luck with the training!
Love it. perfect video. Just sent it to one of my students. I always sound like a broken record when I teach, LOL "right rudder". I once had a student say i didn't know what I was talking about. LOL
I have never felt so identified!! Thank you for sharing!!
I feel described in your video!!! Fantastic!
I have about 30 hours and have not soloed yet (maybe tomorrow). This is a hilariously accurate description of my life. Thanks for posting.
Exceptionally outstanding video on the whole. Thanks a lot.
Thanks, +The House of Jokes - I really enjoyed making this one.
That blue line was helpful! Thx for making this!
I just happened across this video - BRILLIANT!
Love the way you analyzed the problem and clearly articulated it with the arrows.
I don't really think about reviewing landings much (unless they're really bad or really good, the latter being more rare :)) but next time I fly I'm going to chuck a GoPro in there and see what it looks like.
A humble and inspired video. Thank you sir.
Thanks! How did the video turn out?
Awesome video and some great analysis!
I LOVE YOUR VID BRO! I have this issue so often with students & your little colored arrows example is just perfect for people learning to land. I cant tell you how many times I say "Right foot....more right foot" on landing lessons..... This helped immensely. Thanks, you make a difference.
mike smith Thanks! The arrows came from me watching the "sped-up" footage of my landings and holding my hand in front of the screen (where the blue line ended up). It was shocking to see how far from center the far end of the runway crept on each touchdown. The funny postscript to this was that while I fixed my touchdowns, I apparently still sighted over the spinner on my approaches, even up to my checkride. The DPE told me after the checkride that he noticed I was slipping in and straightening up at the last second every single time. I told him about this video.
I do this all the time too man! you're not alone. thanks for the vid! very helpful! now I just have to practice that. My instructor left, so I'm looking for a new one
Great video and thanks to Steve a Flight Chops! If you trained in a tail dragger , you would learn the hard way.. The plane would try and shoot off the runway yawed like that.. Or ground loop. I did smile through the whole thing.. Best training is crop dusting 3 feet off the runway in slow flight you have to look down to the end of the runway. I had the same problem as Steve I would straighten the plane but be a couple feet left of the centerline. I'm sending this to my primary instructor.
Nice video! I'm having the exact same issue with the right rudder. Working on it and hope to get it straight within the next weeks.
This was exactly my problem thanks for the good video!
Thanks for this video... jump came back from my solo's and trying to figure out why can't i nail my problem down ! Going back up tmrw !
Awesome! My instructor has a strip of black tape down the pilot’s sight line on the pilot’s side of the engine cowling that helped me with getting aligned with the runway.
thanks for posting this. i'm for sure going to give this a try....
love it, i know when i do landings without my instructor i ALWAYS go left upon touchdown.. after my last solo i realized that i do need more right rudder to straighten the plane out just before landing (theres usually always x wind to fight). great video
I was looking ahead and align with the runway and I would use what ever rudder I need to keep aligned.
Thank you so much for this video!! This fixed my problem with my landings keeping the nose straight. I had my first solo yesterday
Congratulations!
Very informative and hilarious... thanks !
God damn.. Glad I found this video before my next circuits lesson on Sunday!
Great video! I need to do the same type of analysis on my landings
This is a great video!
I'm at 27.7 hrs and have yet to solo and it's mostly because I'm having a tough time staying straight down the run way. This video made everything, "click," for me once you drew the arrows! I can't wait to put it into practice
Glad to have been helpful. Even after the realization, it took a while for the habit to change, so don't get discouraged if things don't just click on your next landing - but hopefully they will.
Great analysis. I’m sharing with my students.
i have the same problem as you!! now i know where to look when landing! thank you
+Dream Chaser 夢想家 It still took me a few more landings to really change my habit, but this was the starting point for my fixing it. Happy landings!
Life can be weird sometimes. So this video shows up in the recommended pile and I check it out. Here you are going on about the right rudder. Right rudder… Right rudder… Right rudder. Suddenly I'm flashing back to the 1968 movie Airport based on the Arthur Hailey novel. Dean Martin is in the left seat trying to control a 707 with a mangled stabilizer and severed elevator wires in the middle of a blizzard that shut down every airport from Chicago to Boston. He makes the runway just in the nick of time and his first officer is yelling, "right rudder!" So it's not just you.
You mentioned the movie Airport, but all I can think of is that line: "it's an entirely different kind of flying, altogether"
That is Airplane, a spoof of all the movies that came out in the 1970s after Airport.
This is perfect! I just had a nasty landing yesterday and I believe that it was just a more exaggerated version of the problem portrayed here. This is why I love the flying community, the self analysis keeps us humble.
I think FlightChops has a lot to do with that aspect of the community. Never stop improving, and thanks for the comment!
Darn! I did exactly the same thing when I started out--and my instructor had to keep warning me, too! Outstanding production in all respects!
This is such a useful video! I'm suffering the same and couldn't understand why!
Thank you, this is going to help.
Nice job and good share!
This helped me!
The struggle is real for all of us 😩😂
Me too! Thanks for the video
awesome video. totally liked it. I would share with my friends
Wow that’s Original my problem !!! Thank you I will try it otherwise by my next flight ! 😍
Just as you said you had a trouble with it I thought of opposite end of runway right away. Long runway and some flight with the stall horn 1 foot above the centerline would also help to feel it
Well, greetings! I did not expect to come across your channel when all I want is to learn how to play Rise of Flight :D
Last landing, you buttered the bread son!
Thanks man i like this video!
Awesome !!!
loved this haha, great video! informative, and cool that you poked some fun into what I'm sure felt frustrating after, hm, the 200th time he said "right rudder"? :D
Appreciate the video man. It all makes sense now lol
Even after 70 hours and getting my PPL I'm told time and time again that I need more right rudder. Just like you, I always tell myself to add a bit more right rudder even though I feel like I don't need it. I'll try looking down the runway more next time! Damn instrument training isn't giving me many chances to practice landings.
Nice Job mate!! thumbs up
This is brilliant - thanks so much.. I have exactly this problem - just need to find a spot on the Tomahawk engine cowling to look down to help me with this
Nice! I've been struggling with the same exact same thing, except my instructor is a ton less vocal. I'm getting better all the time and I'll employ your technique demonstrate here.
I picked Scott as my instructor because he was the perfect balance of stickler and nice guy. My personal tendency is to be sloppy with things and I knew I needed a CFI who wouldn't let me get away with that. Finding someone whose teaching style and personality works well with yours is very important.
Keep it up brother 👍🎯
Man I was doing that last week
“ no right rudder”
Plus wind, flying Pipistrel motor glider and I’ve got to hold airbrakes etc nervous as F
My first 1hr he had me landing takeoffs.
My issue is getting use foot brakes/ steering and I’m mechanically inclined and my brain wasn’t trying to process it, but I guess that why we need training and muscle memory, I play back my seat time in my head to figure out what I did correctly, videoing it really helps!
I too am having this issue, I only have 7 total landings but land left every time and swerve all over. I’m going to use more right rudder next time on landings
Wooooww amazing trick brother
My instructor said you're gonna end up in that ditch to the left if you don't apply 'right rudder'
student pilot brain:
THAT'S why I swerve on landing.... aaaawwww
Awesome video. I hope you're a CFI now because your'e good at teaching which is what this video does nicely.
Thanks, +Alex Stewart! I do think I would enjoy being a CFI some day. I'm just slowly working up the hours to go for my CPL - not because I'm going to go get a job flying airplanes, but because it's the next step (I really don't have much interest in instrument training, though, but I guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet if I want to be a CFI some day)
I was LOL'ing at that montage! Well done.
As for where to look on landing and lining up, how about this: put YOURSELF not the airplane on the center line. Yes, the aircraft will be off a bit, but only by inches. IOW, with you on the center line, you won't be having to guess where the aircraft's wheels are, laterally. If that makes sense.
The other problem is with full-stall landings, which cuts off your view of the runway and makes you guess what's happening. My opinion, after one too many hard landings, is to stop doing it that way. You should get and read Gregory Penglis' The Complete Guide to Flight Instruction for a brilliant take on this problem.
Sub'd!
My instructor was LOL'ing too. Heck, so was I while I was editing this together. Glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for the sub!
Only one thing to do!
Practice, practice and more practice! 😊
THIS is what I am struggling with. Thanks
I love it. Right Rudder
As an Av-Lurker with a good eye for geometry (unless age is robbing me of that, too!) I found the subject concept evasive until you overlaid those arrows. They were brilliant.
BTW, one critical thing I have found: you need to use the right rudder lubricant.
Today I saw your video, I ‘m an student pilot and after solo a Cessna 152 for over 29 hours, I am having problems with the Cessna 172 landings , maybe I have the same problem that you described in your video, looking too close. Hopefully this would help me, thanks
Thank you. This is me, exactly.
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed this. Funny thing is even after having my ticket for a while now, I occasionally re-lapse. I caught myself doing it in my night currency landings this weekend. I told myself "right rudder" on the last landing and it was smooth as silk.
This video helping students 5 years later.
I’m glad that it’s helpful!
Glad to know I'm not the only one.
Hey Barry....could you please go to the flight store and pick up some more right rudder? j/k
Thanks for this video....from one student to another, I completely empathize with you.
+Yeticus Rex I got one for Christmas. :)