Not every approach and landing will be by the book during your training, and you’ll inevitably encounter situations when you round out too high, overshoot the touchdown point or bounce after the initial touchdown. This is perfectly normal and learning how to recover from these scenarios will improve your confidence and help you make better landings in the long run. 

Take the time to compute the total weight of the airplane and center of gravity (CG) before every flight, based on the number of occupants, baggage and fuel and where each item is positioned in the airplane. This week’s tip takes a look at how to compute a typical weight and balance calculation and how to verify the results are within limits.

The rugged design of a tailwheel airplane and its extra prop clearance opens up the opportunity to land at a wide variety of off-airport locations with soft surfaces, like sand, gravel bars, grass and even mud. A modified soft-field approach and landing technique should be used when operating in these conditions, which allows the wheels to touchdown at the slowest possible airspeed with the wings supporting the weight of the airplane as long as possible.

Airplanes are held to high standards when it comes to maintenance and inspection requirements. This week’s tip takes a look at the reason behind each inspection, how to verify they’ve been completed and the required paperwork to be on the airplane. It also takes a look at why digital 406 MHz emergency locator transmitters (ELT) incorporate GPS to improve their performance.