Thread: My training...

I just finished four or five hours with Tom Dunham in my new CT. Tom's a great instructor, learned a lot and appreciated his style.

Landings were taught as follows: carb heat on, power off downwind across from your touchdown point, 15 degrees of flaps at 80 knts and 30 degrees at 62knts (usually accomplished before turning base). 54 knt approach speed. Only add power if you're too low other wise leave it off.

I assume the throttle all the way back approach helps you out in case you do loose power.

I didn't ask why he teaches this way vs the diagram on the FlightDesignUSA site and the way most of you suggest - 15 degrees of flaps and a little power.

Only had time for one of all there other settings - -6, 0, 15 and 40. All require different angles, settings, etc.

I really appreciate the information as I'll probably be training with him this week. Tom gave me a familiarization filght back in October that led to us buying a CT. He ended the flight with a flaps 40 landing that felt more like a helicopter than an airplane.

Roger,

I like Tom's approach. I have always gone to idle abeam the numbers and flown a tight pattern. If you are going to loose power it is more likely during the throttle adjustment for a descent to landing. I like to have a glide to the runway from that point at a minimum.

Roger,

Thanks for sharing Tom's tips with us. I have 140 hours on my CT now, and probably 300 to 400 landings. I'm still struggling to find the best landing techniques. I've found that the procedure which Tom teaches has worked out best for me also. When my approach is low or it is windy, I will only use 15 degrees of flaps, but find that sometimes I float a long way down the runway. 30 degrees of flaps seem to give me the best landings under calm conditions.

This may sound like heresy, but get a lot of training at 0 deg. I believe it floats less than 15 deg, and is very well behaved in strong crosswinds.

I find myself changing the throttle position too much. If I remember, I set the power just above idle and leave it there, slipping a little or changing the timing of flap extension if I need to. That way, you can pull some power off if you need it.

I agree with the idea that you want to be close enough to land if you loose power. It rarely happens here at ADS because of sequencing. We often get extended downwinds or "slam dunks", turning base right about the numbers - you can do that with 7000ft to work with.