I can't land an rc plane D:.

[Austin Lam]

I can land correctly but I can never line myself up with the run way. I have never actually landed runway style in real life. I have tried on simulators but its hard. I've landed in real life but I landed were I could. Is it easier in real life? I barely get time to go fly so I mainly use sims. So I can land but I just can run up with the runway

 

[earthsciteach]

Practice, practice, practice. You will get there. Can you describe how you go about setting up your approach and describe where you fly?

 

[colorex]

I can land correctly but I can never line myself up with the run way. I have never actually landed runway style in real life. I have tried on simulators but its hard. I've landed in real life but I landed were I could. Is it easier in real life? I barely get time to go fly so I mainly use sims. So I can land but I just can run up with the runway

I cannot land "runway style" either, so I just fly on places that I can land wherever I want to. Nothing to feel bad about, just something to practice!

 

[FlyingMonkey]

One of the "mistakes" I see people make a lot (myself included) is trying to "land at your feet". They touch down right in front of themselves, and then end up rolling way down the runway.

Lining up with a runway can be hard, if the wind isn't in your favor. If the wind is blowing from your left side, fly with the wind until you're past where you want to touch the wheels to, then turn. Point the plane into the wind, and decrease throttle, keeping enough to stay in the air. If you're flying a tail dragger, keep some throttle through the landing, and apply some up elevator to keep pressure on the tail.

Cross wind landings are rather difficult, and if you can just rearrange your position so that the wind is blowing from left to right, or right to left, you'll be better off until you can perfect landing with the wind in your favor.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Something else I'll do, is practice flying down the runway, and trying to maintain the same altitude (at about eye level). This is harder than it sounds.

Once you can do that for a few circuits, try doing it while decreasing your throttle. Each pass do it at a lower throttle setting. (Once past your position, you can bring the throttle back up, so you don't stall in the turns.)

Gradually work to the point where you're able to maintain flight, while losing altitude with control as you come down the runway.

 

[aiidanwings]

Stand near the end of the landing strip.

 

[Liemavick]

In Pheonix 4 sim there is an option under View "always show ground". This helps a lot in keeping your orientation on where you need to be. Try simple oval circuits, take off go down field a bit, slow gradual banking right turn until you are pointing opposite of direction you took off. Fly up field far enough when you make your turn you dont short yourself on lining up with the runway. Also refrain from doing knife edges, outside loops, Flippty flops (ask David W.), etc... You want to practice landing

 

[johanjonker]

This reminds me of the days I still flyed balsa planes at the club.. To get your "solo" you had to land with the line in the middle of the runway between the wheels..

But I thinks those training sessions pays off still today. And at times I feel these foam planes teach you everything but landings..

 

[Joker 53150]

I find it harder on the sim, possibly because I don't have a large enough monitor so it's harder to see the orientation of the plane.

Regardless, it's practice, practice, and more practice. I started by just landing anywhere I could and taking the walk. Now I'll abort a landing if it means I've got to walk too far (I'm lazy). Usually I can get it to land close enough to make it look like I know what I'm doing.

But back to practice, when I'm running multiple batteries through a plane I'll usually burn at least 1/2 a battery on just touch & go's. If I take my Super Cub out I'll constantly do lazy laps with each one ending in a landing. A few days ago I probably touched down 30 or more times on two batteries. I kept switching the direction of the loop to get proficient in making approaches from the left or right.

Today I did a series of landings with my Mountain Models Lucky ACE, which resulted in me finding out how close the power lines really were to my approach! Lucky for me, my wife was taking video of the fun! Even after hitting a line and losing my prop I was able to bring the plane in safely, directly to my feet.

 

[Washout]

I used to have this problem, and practice does help, however unguided practice will often let you head off in the wrong direction and you feel like you aren't getting any better. I would recommend having a look at the following.

1. Use landmarks. Be it tree, hill, tower or whatever, use features to your advantage. If you can get a satellite view of where you are flying, draw out a rectangular circuit and draw lines from where you stand to the corners. Extend these to the point where there is something prominent. When you are going to fly, find these features and use these as guides for where your circuits should be.
2. Try and fly consistent landing patterns. In the full size gliding I have done, we teach students to fly circuits of specific shapes, speeds and target heights. Apply the same logic to model flying, be it oval or rectangular, keep it consistent until you crack it. Once you have cracked it and can do it consistently, you can start honing your precision skills.
3. At first, go for a defined area rather than precision, walking is good for you.
4. go arounds are good, you don't need to touch and go. 10 - 20 feet above the ground is good enough to spot lineup.
5. Make your approach as long as you are comfortable with, this gives you time to make small adjustments and settle the aircraft.

At the end of the day, if it lands and doesn't break... you're doing fine.

 

[MrGravey]

I had a hardish time learning to land where I really wanted to instead of where I could for a while. Then I build a Bloody Wonder and learned to fly lower and lower until I was doing low passes down the run way anyway. After that is was just a matter of putting it down where I was flying.

Just try to fly down the runway, as you get better at that get lower, and before long you are landing great with that plane. Take the lessons you have learned and apply them to other planes. This is just about the way all my flights on a brand new plane go. That first flight is about trim and landing. I'll play after that.