Is it normal to still have occasional bad landings as a private pilot?

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Nick Kan

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cavsfan2016
Im usually a very good lander and I have my PPL with about 80 hours working on my IR. I had a couple of bounced landings yesterday. I just hate having that feeling after that Im a bad pilot or whatever. Is this normal?
 
I think that's part of the instrument curriculum. :D Take a day and go out and get some landings, it'll work out. I found the same thing.
 
"breaking out" and pulling off the foggles at DH/MDA messed up my landings a bit. It's a good bit different than a visual approach. Plus, the sequence is a bit different. In a C172, I usually put in a notch of flaps on downwind, a 2nd notch on base and the last notch on either final or short final depending on conditions. On an approach, it's 1st notch at the FAF and then the rest when the runway is made.
 
Direct answer to the question: Absolutely!

One landing I remember was taking my wife to Georgia to a BBQ fly-in some years ago. It wasn't a horrible landing but it had me foot dancing and stick stirring pretty good to keep it going straight down the runway. It should have been a greaser as there wasn't much wind but the problem was that in my mind I was already at the table inhaling BBQ instead of focusing on landing the plane!

Yulp ... I'm not perfect, yet!
 
Have you been videoing my recent landings?

The short answer is yes, it happens. Over time, you start flying less time, more VC, and less landing practice, you won't be as good at them as you were as a newly minted pilot.
 
I have 300 hours and still bounce them here or there,
Still do a go-around here or there. Sometimes the best laid plans goto crap.
 
Nick Kan said:
Im usually a very good lander and I have my PPL with about 80 hours working on my IR. I had a couple of bounced landings yesterday. I just hate having that feeling after that Im a bad pilot or whatever. Is this normal?
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Very normal.
 
Even pilots with thousands of hours have bad landings occasionally. And feeling like you're a bad pilot after a few less-than-great landings is also normal. It sounds like it was just an off day for you. Don't let it affect you too much - it's a good opportunity to assess what you're doing and figure out why you were bouncing if you can, in case you're starting to get into habits like carrying too much speed or not flaring long enough, but don't let yourself start thinking you're a bad pilot because you had a few rough landings. Go fly again in a couple of days, and see if the problem continues. It probably won't. :)
 
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1800 hrs and sometimes my landings are worse than I’d like them to be. Usually is remedied with some pattern work. I bounced one the other day in my 170, wheels hit before I was ready (transitioning to a 3 pt landing), blasted the power then tried again. It had been a few weeks since I had flown her.

Then last week I bounced one attempting a 2pt landing in gusty conditions, went around and did better second attempt, and a nice one third attempt.

It happens. Practice more and focus harder.
 
If you are renting or using a club plane keep in mind seat height/position. That can really affect your sight picture and cause you to flare differently and muff up some landings.
 
Everybody has bad landings occasionally. Doesn't matter how many hours or how much experience you have. It happens.
 
Judging by my AA frequent flyer experience, occasional bad landings are normal even for airline pilots. And heck, anybody can catch a bad wind gust at the last moment and hose what was about to be a greaser. So don’t worry too much; it happens.
 
I think it’s fairly normal for landings to deteriorate during instrument training. My theory of why it happens is because you’re focusing on the instrument panel that is 2 feet away and then trying to transition to focus on something much farther out and judge it’s height.

My recommendation would be to fly some VFR fun flights as well as the instrument training flights so you don’t forget what you previously learned.
 
midwestpa24 said:
Everybody has bad landings occasionally. Doesn't matter how many hours or how much experience you have. It happens.
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Mmmhmmm... nice to know you know everybody!
I'd like to think that there are people that have only good landings, with varying degrees of precision. Then there's always that saying about any landing you can walk away from...
 
I've seen crappy landings by airline pilots. Don't fret it. As long as you don't bend metal.

My worst was standing on the brakes on 36L at OSH during the show trying to stop before P4 and blowing the tire. Nothing like thousands of people watching you change a tire on the side of the taxiway.
 
After 50 years of casual sport flying I’ve found that:

- Proficiency is biggest factor; 2 landings every day last week improves your odds over 3 landings last quarter.

- With exerience, complacency comes into play if your not careful. Thinking about anything other than the flare, during the flare, will occasionally mess things up.

- the plane makes a big difference. I rarely could grease my tail wheel Maule on twice in a row, never thrice. I can do 10 greasers in a row in my RV10 if I’ve been flying regularly and focus on the job at hand.

Yes it’s normal. It gets better but never goes away. What fun would it be if it did?


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My boss has right at 35,000 hours, most of that ag time, so literally hundreds of thousands of landings and he'll still bounce one here and there. Not very often, but every once in awhile. I make sure to let him know when he does too lol
 
Some years back I dropped one in. After we retrieved our fillings from the floorboards, I apologized to my wife. I think I blamed a sticky throttle that prevented me from adding a blip of power as we touched down.

A bit later I greased one in. I asked my wife "How did you kike that one?"

"I don't know" she said "I had my eyes closed,"
 
It’s normal to still have crummy landings even as an ATP. Nobody nails it perfectly every time.
 
I'll have a phase where my landings are so good that you can only tell you are on the ground because of the bumps in the dirt and I'm stopped in 500'.
Then I'll have a phase where my landings are mediocre and I hope no one was watching.

Right now I am on a perfect landing phase, the last mediocre landing phase lasted several weeks.
 
Even the best golfers slice one into the weeds from time to time.
 
Nick Kan said:
Im usually a very good lander and I have my PPL with about 80 hours working on my IR. I had a couple of bounced landings yesterday. I just hate having that feeling after that Im a bad pilot or whatever. Is this normal?
Click to expand...

It took me more than 80 hours to land halfway decent. It actually took me 309 landings before I was sent for my check ride.

5 years later I have over a 1000 hours and as of May 2021 I had made 1450 landings. All in a 172 and about 20 in a Cherokee.

This past fall my wife and I took a trip and had made some nice landings. As soon as I started bragging about about it I bounced a landing. Of course she noticed right away and I heard about it.
 
I found it took me 200-250 landings before they became consistently good. Everyone will always have the occasional bad landing…
 
I’m a Navy guy... a bad landing is the soft squishy Air Force type... soooo, no, if it ain’t broke, I really suspect it ain’t a bad landing you’re even talking about. Fugettaboutit.
 
I have about 16,000-17,000hrs or so and I can still pull off bad landings. Bad in the sense that it wasn't as smooth as I wanted for the conditions or I let myself float more than I wanted to (a HUGE pet peeve of mine).

Sometimes, however, a smooth landing isn't a good landing. Runway length, contamination, wind, planned exit points, traffic ahead and behind distances, all come into play when making a landing. Sometimes it's just better to "set it down" than try to make a greaser.
 
Half Fast said:
Judging by my AA frequent flyer experience, occasional bad landings are normal even for airline pilots. And heck, anybody can catch a bad wind gust at the last moment and hose what was about to be a greaser. So don’t worry too much; it happens.
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Yes, it does. I was coming for a landing at LGA once (as a passenger riding the tube...), with a very strong crosswind going. The pilot dropped it in, felt like 5' or so. As we pulled up to the gate, the pilot flying came on the PA and gave a long explanation of how the conditions were so, and how the plane was this, and he went on an on with an elaborate excuse. He ended up with "and every so often we just blow it". So there you have it from a pro!

-Skip
 
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