At some point, everyone experiences a landing that doesn’t quite go as planned. But fear not! Here’s how to recover and what you can do to prevent such situations in the first place.
What Causes a Bounce?
Bad landings often have their roots in certain patterns. If you fail to stabilize your approach to the runway early on, it becomes much more challenging to make a smooth touchdown.
There are two primary culprits behind bounced landings: landing too hard and landing too quickly.
If you have a high sink rate, your natural instinct might be to pull back on the yoke as you approach the ground rapidly. The result? Your angle of attack increases dramatically, generating enough lift to send the plane back into the air. The faster you are, the more pronounced this issue becomes, as you can create greater lift.
In addition, if you touch down with excessive force, your main gear hits the pavement and rebounds you back into the air.
The harder you land, the higher the likelihood of a bounce.
Airspeed is another common cause of bounced landings.
If you land with too much airspeed and force the aircraft to descend in a flat attitude, the airplane simply isn’t ready to stop flying. When you touch down, you’ll skid off the runway like a rock on water and bounce back into the air.
Whether the bounce is due to a hard landing or too fast of a landing, the next step is to recover from it. Fortunately, the recovery process is the same in both cases.
Recovery Options
Many bounced landings can still result in a smooth touchdown.
If you experience a bounce, the first thing you should do is maintain back pressure to keep the aircraft in a nose-high landing attitude. You might need to release some back pressure on the yoke or stick if the nose is too high, but don’t push the nose down. If you force the nose down, it could lead to a harder landing or even damage to the nose gear.
As you begin to descend back to the runway, you might also need to add some power to reduce your descent rate. However, don’t overcorrect with power. Small amounts of power are sufficient to safely reduce the descent rate for a soft touchdown.
The next step is straightforward: land normally. Small to moderate bounces will often leave you just a few feet above the runway, just as if you were initiating your final touchdown flare.
When Should You Go-Around?
If you’ve bounced significantly above the runway, go around. As you ascend, the effect of ground proximity diminishes, and you could risk approaching stall speed.
It can be difficult to accurately determine exactly how high is “too high,” and it depends greatly on the type of airplane you’re flying. The safest option, of course, is to go around.
When you bounce, you also need to pay close attention to how far you’ve drifted down the runway. If the bounce was due to excessive airspeed, there’s a good chance you’ve drifted well beyond your intended touchdown point. If you’re significantly beyond your intended landing spot or feel uncomfortable with the remaining runway length, go around and try again.
If You Start to Porpoise…
A porpoise landing is a bounced landing that, if not corrected, results in the plane touching down nose first. If left unchecked, it will cause the plane to engage in a series of “jumps” and “dives” similar to a real porpoise. Porpoise landings can occur when you are flying too fast during touchdown or if you have a high descent rate at touchdown.
Immediately executing a go-around is the safest course of action. Because porpoise oscillations occur so rapidly, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to apply flight control inputs to correct the oscillations.
It Doesn’t Matter What You Fly
Whether you’re flying a Boeing 757 or a Piper Arrow, everyone will experience a landing bounce at some point. The aerodynamics behind how it happens and the recovery methods are nearly identical.
Stop a Bounce Before It Happens
The key to preventing a bounce is to fly a stabilized approach all the way to the ground.
If you approach too fast, bleed off airspeed during your flare or go around. And if you have a high descent rate just above the runway, go around. Forcing the plane to land before it’s ready or landing too hard increases the likelihood of a bounce.
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