Landing

[EHM-2309 Joshua]

When I land my aircraft at any airport, unless I use ILS landing, I can rarely land on the centre line - is this a problem?
Also, how far down the runway should I be landing? I used to try to land at the beginning of the runway, but seeing AI aircraft landing further down the runway, I now have no idea.
Is 250 ft/minute the correct touch down vertical descent speed?

[EHM-2272 Callum]

Landing on the centreline isn't compulsory, it just helps to keep the aircraft within equal distance of the side of the runway I believe. I tend to aim for 1/3rd of the way up the runway although sometimes its necessary to land before that if its a shorter runway or longer aircraft. Descent wise its hard to say really, so long as the backwheels land before the nosewheel and so long as you feel its smooth and not crashing towards the ground it should be ok.

[EHM-2155 Mariano]

Both landing on the centerline and early on the runway are done for safety reasons. It gives the plane more margin for manouvering if needed.
You should land as far back as possible, so there's the maximum stopping distance, in case of any emergency.


[img=1000x750]http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/1392039.jpg[/img]

This picture will really help you understand.
From bottom to the top we have 3 important parts of the runway.

First, the bit where you see the arrows pointing "up". You should NOT use this bit of the runway for anything other than taxiing. The arrows there mean that you shouldnt aim for that part of the runway while landing.

Then you have that zebra crossing looking like band across the runway. This shows from which point on the runway is safe to land on. You should aim to overshoot this by just a bit.

And then you see all the rubber in the runway which is where pilots landed their planes, as you can see, as far back as possible, but not as far as stepping on the zebra or the arrows...

About vertical speed at touchdown, 250 ft/min is very good.
As long as your plane touches down and doesnt bounce back into the air, and you keep it below 600 ft/m, its a good enough landing. Anything near 1000 ft/m and above is pretty much a crash

I hope this clarifies something.
Good landings ^^

[EHM-2309 Joshua]

Thank you very much for your help.

[EHM-1001 Robert]

A little more detailed

click here

Obviously there are many other runways painted in different fashion. All in all, there are always 2 fat stripes to aim for... just as on the image, these are in-line with the PAPI landing lights. Stripes before and after shows the complete landing zone.