Aircraft high in the nose on landing

[Honus]

Hi,

my Commercial Level Airbus A332's are great and handle great, except on final approach. They land high in the nose and that's problematic at airports with no ILS. What do I need to adjust to bring down the nose on landing please. Thanks

[mrzippy]

If you are hand flying these approaches, it sounds like you need to adjust your airspeed and angle of the dangle.

[tiger1962]

Mr Zippy's right - higher airspeed = lower dangle angle.

[mrzippy]

Mr Zippy's right - higher airspeed = lower dangle angle.

 

+1 Be sure to reference the "Tilt o' the Kilt";)

[pvarn]

Too many beginner pilots try to land near maximum fuel. Real world plane operations do not do this. Look up the landing weights and speeds in the aircraft specifications. Most airliners will land with +0.5 to +3 degrees when you have these things ALL set correctly:

1) Correct landing flaps/weight

2) Correct landing speed/weight

3) Correct landing weight limit. (the less weight, the less flap and speed required.)

4) Always land as much INTO the wind as possible.

5) The higher the altitude of the runway, the faster you need to land and take off/weight.

 

Turn off the always full fuel feature.

 

All these things have to be considered together. If your intent is to take off, fly for 10 minutes and touchango or land, take off with a maximum of 1 hour fuel. Most airliners land with 30-60 minutes fuel (reserve) weight.

 

-Pv-

[Adamk99]

On top of what has been said above, make sure you follow the correct flare procedure. This is taught as "Check", "Close", "Hold" by some airlines.

 

"Check" refers to altitude. By no later than 50ft, your eyes should be focused on the end of the runway at the opposite threshold, rather than the touchdown zone.

 

"Close" refers to the thrust. An Airbus (not sure about the CL one) will give the command "RETARD" at 20ft which is an instruction to close the autothrust levers completely. This makes the nose want to drop as the thrust kills some of the lift. The thrust is your principle pitch control prior to the flare and can be used to arrest the descent if a flare is too shallow (thus pitching up).

 

"Hold" refers to the picture you see out of the window. By 20ft, you should be transitioning into a flare which will be about a 5 degree nose up attitude, possibly more with full flaps extended. This is why maintaining a visual with the stop end of the runway is so important, it allows you to hold the flare by maintaining the picture out of the window until touchdown.

 

If you look at the end of the runway once you are above the threshold and no later than 50ft, close the autothrust levers at 20ft and maintain a 5 degree nose up picture, as well as follow the other tips r.e. fuel etc., you should be able to land more effectively.

 

- Adam