When I read articles in flying magazines about proper landing technique I read a lot about “stabilized approaches” – which means an airplane with an early established sink rate aligned with the runway that require only very little pilot input to land.

This approach is used by the airlines in their fast and heavy jets since the sixties and produces an almost flawless accident record – so this technique is proven and successful for the airlines.

When I compare it to how I land the tow plane, the mind-set couldn’t be more different. When I land, I’m at no point stabilized – anywhere. First I decent under power at high speed. For landing it’s all about energy management. that involves power setting, and trading altitude and airspeed. The only point to hit is touch down speed over the chosen touch down point. Other constraints are “decending and landing as fast as safely possible” and “minimizing wear on the plane (not pilot)”.

This usually leads to a high speed dive at the top of the green arc under 60% power. The airport requires me to cross the road before the runway in 200ft to avoid striking any obstacles with the tow rope. So I dive in a constant decending turn into my base leg still at the top of the green arc. Closely over the ground, I pull up until I reach the white arc to set flaps. This happens in a push over turn to off-load the flap mechanism. I pull power to idle and hold constant altitude at 200ft AGL while bleeding speed to cross the road. Close to stall speed over the road I push the plane over and either sides slip or dive for the flare for a three point landing.

This scenario repeats itself twenty times over or more per day. The result is a smooth and relatively fast tow operation at our glider club.

While this approach isn’t stabilized anywhere it is safe and at no point do I feel I’m not in control. In fact the wings of the tow plane feel like extensions of my body: just the way flying is supposed to be.

Checklists? That’s for another post. Only so much: I do believe in check lists.