The Window Landing Technique

Setting up for a good landing is the most important task you can accomplish in the pattern. Hitting a 200 ft window along the glide path so you are at 85 knots and idle power makes for a very consistent guide for standardizing your landings. Whether you make a short approach from abeam the point of landing on downwind or a long drawn out final, this technique works great for getting the most out of your touch and go sessions. Let me explain.

Keeping a consistent pattern, with abeam distance and altitude, allows a Tailwheel pilot to focus on the touchdown and roll out. The meat of tail dragging. Don’t let the student pilot in a Cessna up ahead of you cause you to change your pattern. Practice your pattern, not the pattern given to you by the pilot in the plane ahead of you.

A Navy Seal training motto, “ if you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”. I apply that concept to my Tail Dragger landings. If you can make landings easier by setting yourself up for success then ABSOLUTELY do it. Hit that 200 ft window on final at the same place every time at 85kts and power idle. Come in a little high and slip down to that perfect target window.

Why does this window make your landings more consistent and precise? This technique throws the Slipstream Effect, P-factor and Gyroscopic Effect out entirely, you don’t have to worry about them at all! With power to idle, these aerodynamic forces are fairly stabilized and all you need to work about is cross wind corrections and a smooth consistent decelerating round out. Get good at the stabilized power off glide slope with a gentle deceleration into the 3point attitude and you will consistently grease your landings.

Another critical benefit of this landing style is that you are ALWAYS prepared for that unexpected true power off landing. Land this Great Lakes in a pinch on a small patch of road or golf course without a scratch. Be the hero.