One of the first things you learn as a pilot is that a good landing stems from a good approach. In the jet world, pilots aim for a stabilized approach whereby the pilot configures the aircraft to travel at a certain airspeed and rate of descent straight down to the threshold. I recently read an article (that I can’t seem to find anymore) stating that the term “stabilize” really didn’t apply to a prop driven aircraft. The reason being that jet engines have an inherent lag between adding power in the cockpit and seeing that throttle movement translate into actual power. Jet engines need time to spool up if they are idling and pilots may not have this time if they need to execute a missed approach. Thus, power is left on during the approach to help reduce the lag time if a spool up to full power is ever needed.

In the prop world, the article suggests that the term “collected” is more appropriate. We want to configure the pitch and power settings so that we’re descending at an optimal rate, and at an optimal speed, as outlined in the aircraft’s operating handbook. So how do we know exactly what power setting to use and exactly how many degrees of nose down pitch to apply in order to touch down at a certain point on the runway which could be miles and miles ahead of us? For a lot of people, it’s simply a matter of using your gut feeling to configure the aircraft when it feels right. We have a mental picture of what things should look like at certain times and distances from our waypoint and based off these pictures, we act accordingly. This is how I’ve always set up my approaches and it’s how we usually learn. However, I recently learned of a pretty easy way to guarantee hitting your landing target that takes all of the guesswork out of approaches. Some may call it by another name, but I have dubbed it “The Sticky Note Method”.

Imagine that you’re coming to the end of a long cross country flight and you’re ten miles out. Tower clears you to a straight in – Runway 33. Using this method, you’ll be able to hit your target every time… even from ten miles away. Here’s how it works.

What you’ll need: a few sticky notes and the inside of the windshield should be nice and clean. On a day when you can take a plane up and just practice your flying, trim the airplane in straight and level flight. Reduce power so that you maintain straight and level flight, but your airspeed should be exactly the same as it is on final approach. Configure the airplane how you would normally (ie. full flap, gear down if applicable, etc). Use the minimum amount of power possible to keep the airplane at this desired speed and straight and level. Make sure you’re trimmed out.

Take a sticky note and tear off a small amount from the adhesive part (the top). Place this little dot on the windshield in front of you so that when you’re sitting normally in your seat, the dot sits right at the level of the horizon. This may take a few tries as you probably won’t get it right on the first try. Keep readjusting the dot until the stickiness wears off, or you get it right. As best you can, try and memorize this position on the windshield. For practice sake, leave the sticky there while you shoot some approaches and test this theory out.

Let’s get back to our situation. You’re on final and a ways back from the runway. Once you reduce power and start your descent, pitch the airplane in order to move this dot over the spot on the runway where you want to start your flare. Keep in mind that your touchdown point will be beyond this point, so based on your aircraft’s characteristics, place the dot however many hundred feet before your touchdown point you deem necessary. The spot on the ground that is covered by the dot represents where the aircraft would travel into the ground should you leave the aircraft in its collected state and never start your flare. The trick to keeping the aircraft on course is to never adjust your pitch and only adjust your power. Your pitch should always keep the dot over the same place on the runway that you’re aiming for. You will adjust your power to control airspeed. This is contrary to how you’re taught when you first learned to fly. Power controls altitude, pitch controls airspeed.

So assuming you keep your pitch steady with the dot over your aiming point, and you adjust power to maintain optimum approach speed, and assuming you correctly placed the sticky on the horizon when you first set this little test up, you should be starting your flare exactly where you planned.

I have to admit that I was skeptical at first. And I know I sound like I’m selling something on an infomercial, but this really does work. My instructor and I were given a 7 mile final – straight in with lots of time to test this method. We set it up exactly how I described it, and what do you know, I hit my flare point +100 feet. It wasn’t perfect, but from 7 miles away, 100 feet is pretty accurate in my mind. We did a few more circuits and confirmed that it works just as well from close in than it did from far away.

Now obviously you’re not going to fly with a sticky note on your windshield every time you go flying. This method helps you understand the principle of a collected/stabilized approach and how to fly them with greater accuracy. With practice, you’ll know exactly where that spot is on your windshield without the sticky even being there.

A cheaper way to test this out would be to do the exact same thing, but in a sim. Just place the sticky note on the computer screen’s horizon and shoot some virtual approaches. I think you’ll end up finding it’s pretty accurate there too. In fact, you may want to test this out on a computer before you even go flying.

I’m interested in finding out if other people out there have tried this, and to what avail. It’s certainly an interesting technique to try out and I want to hear some feedback if you’ve got any. Also, any other techniques/tricks that you might use regularly and want to share would be most welcome.