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Why do we place so much importance on landings?  I’ve long pondered this question.  It seems that we always end up in the pattern with our primary students and with Tailwheel Endorsements, we seem to feel that all we have to teach (according to those expert arbiters of pilot ability, the Friendly Flying Fuzz) are landings: the three point and the wheelie, as well as the crosswind landing and the landing to the full stop.
But I think I may have finally figgered it out.  Remember that I’m not too bright and that other instructors and the heads of multiple flying schools have probably beat me to it.

The reason is that the earth is hard.  If you make a mistake and bust an altitude, you will simply collide with air.  Lots of the mistakes you make at altitude will result in simply colliding with air.  But as the statisticians will be happy to agree on, it’s landing the airplane, when we come in contact with the hard, hurting ground, that we so often come to grief.

So what can we do to avoid that painful occurrence, without landing?  Well, I happen to have come up with some possible answers.  First of all, let’s remember what we’re trying to accomplish.  We’re trying to create competence where a lack of it currently exists.  So, the way I see it, we need to both practice and create maneuvers which will increase that competence.  We also have to admit that cost is a very real limiting factor and we’ve got to do what we can to keep it down.  That’s why I’ve come to be so dependent on a couple of maneuvers. They are Multiples and Slaloms.  As I’ve pointed out in “Brian’s Flying Book”, a flyer is already more efficient by simply using the Tailwheel Town pattern.  It is less than half the size of the pattern which most schools use, so it alone will double the frequency of landings.  But if we really want to up the number of landings, let’s do multiples.  Multiples are simply a series of landings and takeoffs during one approach.  By transitioning from landing to takeoff in such a short amount of time, it really builds competence.  On a five-thousand-foot runway, a flier can get in five landings.  By including the advantage of the tiny pattern, the flier is getting nearly ten times the number of landings as the “Acme” flier!

The other maneuver which can really increase competence is the Slalom, usually combined with the landing in a turn.  I’m always amazed at the  trepidation with which most fliers approach this maneuver.  Perhaps the reason I’m amazed is that these two maneuvers teach competence when the elements put the airplane in an unusual attitude during landing or takeoff.  And you know something?  That’s when most wrecks occur!

Both of the above maneuvers are featured in videos on www.tailwheelersjournal.com.  Take a look at them and see what you think.  Both of these maneuvers can be self-taught by working at them gradually, or you can schedule some time at Tailwheel Town and I’ll introduce you to them myself.