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Yeah, I botched the landing ... again.

+David CourtneyExactly...a "crab angle" into the wind. Yup. You use whatever crab angle you need to in order to fly the proper course over the ground. It's all just simple vector math, and you can see that with an E6B manual flight computer...or just draw the vectors manually on some graph paper and do the math.

+David CourtneyI see on the Mooney site that Vso (stall speed in landing configuration) is 59 knots. The FAA basically advocates using an approach speed of 1.3(Vso) as an approach speed. I've long since forgotten the exact reasoning behind it, but long ago I just memorized that number as a rule-of-thumb--and then just added a bit of buffer for comfort according to the aircraft I was flying. Certainly you should use whatever the manufacturer recommends--but in lieu of that, you can use 1.3Vso. So in this case, that would be about 77 knots. So a 90 knot approach speed (that's ground speed, btw) would probably be what I would use on approach. Certainly you could use 80 knots airspeed as well--but you must watch your ground speed on approach, because the timing that you see on instrument approach plates is based upon ground speed...not airspeed. It's up to you as the pilot to adjust your airspeed to ensure that your ground speed remains whatever you need it to be on an instrument approach. The important thing to understand here is that the most common problem pilots have on approach and landing, is carrying too much airspeed that they then have to bleed off over the runway...often with consequences just like what happened to you in this video. Being too fast "over the fence" (the end of the runway, basically) is a VERY common problem.So the take-home message here for you is that you should decide on an airspeed to fly on an approach (say 90 knots, for the sake of argument), and then figure out what power settings will give you that in the various configurations you'll need to fly. So for instance: 90 knots with a clean airframe...90 knots with gear up and one notch of flaps...90 knots with gear down and full flaps...etc. That sort of thing. Once you have those figured out, you just set the power to be what you need it to be for your phase of flight, and then adjust airspeed with pitch. It's pretty simple, once you break it down into manageable components.

+Tom B Lots of great information Tom. Thanks. I appreciate all the feedback. I'll take a look in the Prepar3D directory and see if there's some kind of pdf or text file for the Mooney Acclaim. Since I'm not a real pilot, I tend to just fly by feel. I work out what works and doesn't work just by trial and error.

+Tom B Ah, thanks for the info. I'll try to keep that in mind about the bank angle.

+Tom B Yeah, I do understand course deviation. If you're flying straight east but have a strong wind out of the south, you are essentially flying northeast despite the fact that your heading is 90 degrees. To truly fly straight east, you need to adjust your heading a bit to the south to compensate for the wind. So perhaps a heading of 95 degrees (or more) would be required for you to actually be flying straight east.

OK, got to the landing. That's pretty easy to fix actually. First of all, read my last comment about a stabilized approach. A bad landing starts in the downwind leg, when you don't plan for a stabilized approach. Simply put--fix your approach, and the landing will come.As for the very end there, you did indeed flare a bit too high. The airspeed bled off too much, and it stalled well above the runway. You actually did very well holding it at a (relatively) constant height above the runway--it's just that it was 20-30 feet too high! No big deal...once you get your approach stabilized, the rest will follow. The other thing to do is to focus on a reference point waaayyyy down at the end of the runway. Don't focus on the runway right next to the aircraft, until the aircraft is stable just above the ground (3 feet) and you are in the flare and bleeding off your airspeed. Then you can look at the ground near the aircraft. Otherwise you get the sensation that the ground is coming much more quickly than it is, and the natural tendency is to over-flare...and you balloon. Then you recover about 20 feet too high above the runway, but it's then very difficult to let it slowly settle back to the runway--and so you tend to stall and drop it in like you did here. Also, the other poster is correct in that you basically landed on the nose wheel.Regarding his rule-of-thumb comment on the relationship between GS and descent rate: I believe that's for a 3-degree glide slope. If that's what you want to use, then great. But sometimes that's NOT what you want to use, or it's not what you CAN use (because you're too high or too low), so just remember that it's a guideline...not a hard rule.Finally, I would recommend that you ALWAYS tune in the ILS and fly it...or at least use it as a reference. It's information that you have available, so why not use it? As I write this, there's a story in the news about a Southwest Airlines 737 that landed at the wrong airport in Missouri, and I'll bet a dollar that happened because the pilots were NOT paying attention. I'll bet they didn't even have the ILS tuned in, even though many airline flight operations manuals advise doing just that, even in VFR or on a visual instrument approach--for the simple reason that it backs up the visual picture of what's going on outside the aircraft. Don't get in the habit of giving away information that's easily at your disposal. Tune the ILS, and positively identify the localizer beacon morse code (ie; verify the station), and follow the visual cues. Better yet, learn how to use the flight director in that air model (if there is one), and hand-fly the approach using the visual cues on the HSI display. If you REALLY want to learn how to fly the aircraft via instruments, then that's the way to do it.Send me a message if you want to learn more, and I'll give you my Skype name and email. I haven't given any flight instruction for several years, but I have given many many hours of both basic and instrument flight instruction over the years, so I may be able to help you out.(Love your Orbiter videos too, by the way!)

At the 32:00 mark (or so), your problem is that your approach isn't stabilized. Your airspeed never seems to be constant there, and then you chase it a bit. I would recommend that you read the aircraft operating manual for that air model, and determine what the proper approach speed should be. Then fly the aircraft and determine what power setting it might take to actually give you that airspeed. Then, the next time you want to fly an approach, set THAT power setting (and aircraft configuration--gear, approach flaps, etc), and just fly the aircraft. The airspeed should stabilize where you want it, but you can adjust slightly with power if needed.One thing to remember about flying an aircraft: Pitch controls airspeed, and power controls the altitude. So if you want to go faster, lower the nose. If you need to go slower, raise the nose. When the power is constant, those changes WILL affect the aircraft in the way that I've indicated. Likewise, if you want to go higher...add power. Lower...remove power. When you hold your airspeed constant and adjust the power, the aircraft will climb or descend the way I've indicated. It's the biggest thing for student pilots to get used to, but I spent many years teaching people how to fly--so I know that it works. I haven't even gotten to the landing yet (writing these comments as the video progresses so I don't forget anything), and I can tell that it isn't likely to end well...lol.

At 28:20... No, it was a 20-degree bank. The smaller ticks on the artificial horizon gyro are 10 degree increments, and the larger ones are 30 degrees. You were two small ticks to the left of straight & level...so it was 20 degrees of bank.So it looks to me as though that instrument goes: 10, 20, 30 (large tick), 45, 60 (large tick) degrees of bank to either side of neutral.

Regarding the "green line slipping to the right"... That's your Course Deviation Indicator (CDI), and indicates your drift across the track. The reason your aircraft is not exactly aligned with the CDI is simple--wind drift. You are having to crab into the wind to maintain your ground track along the VOR radial. Don't worry about where the nose is pointed so much as where the CDI is. Fly whatever you need to to keep it centered.

Regarding adjusting the controls (instruments) while flying IFR...you need to do it very incrementally, otherwise your attention is diverted much long than it should be, and things go awry pretty quickly. It's one of the biggest mistakes instrument flight students tend to make--and one of the things most entertaining to instrument flight instructors...lol.So what I mean is make a small adjustment to an instrument, then divert your scan back to the panel and make sure things are stable. Then go back to the nav instrument...then back to the flight instruments. Rinse, repeat. It just takes some getting used to.

I used to do some development work using P3D, but essentially gave up on it. The support seems non-existent for small developers, and the (lack of) support in their developer forums was pathetic. Maybe things are better now, but a couple years ago it was a disappointing experience.

Thanks for the reply, and thanks for watching. I'll work out the landing eventually. I've landed this Mooney Acclaim a few times. The problem I have is that I always feel like I'm lower than I actually am.