Studnet having issues with pattern / landings

[BoDEAN]

I am on my fifth lesson 7 (pattern work, lesson prior to solo for the student). He seems to get distracted by traffic / big jets that land or fly around our airport. He also has a problem with not flying parallel to the runway on downwind. He is always turning into the runway on downwind. I've told him to pick a point outside the front windshield, I've also told him the runway isn't going anywhere, and we should be looking stragith ahead, not at the runway 90 degrees off our wing.
Another issue he has is that he gives up on flying right before we flare, causing 3 point / hard landings. I don't know what other approach to give to get him in the groove to get past this hump.
His radio calls at our Class Delta are great. But I keep hammering him to hold 90 kts on downwind, 80 kts on base, and 70 kts on final (C172S). I told him the key to a good landing is flying a good pattern. I just don't know how to deal with his random resignation with the landings.

I teach all my students there are 3 phases to a landing. The approach, level off a wing span above the runway (then look straight down the runway), and finally when you fell your butt sink toward the ground, SLOWLY pitch up to a takeoff attitude. I teach all students to be PATIENT!

Any tips?

[Timbuff10]

Try teaching him to keep the runway about halfway up the strut and then keep it in the same place while in the downwind. I was taught 80 kts in the downwind so maybe slowing it up will make it easier for him?

As far as the hard/3 point landings go, maybe take him to an uncontrolled field and do a low pass kind of thing by staying in the flare and not actually landing, just stay in the flare for a thousand feet or so. My instructor did this one day when I was having the same problem you described and I found the flare.

Sounds like you are doing the rest perfectly though, good luck!

[kellwolf]

I had the same problem of "giving up" and slamming it home. My instructor one day said "today, we're going to do soft field landings and NOTHING else." To me, if you can fly a good soft field landing, then the flare on a normal landing is cake. It took me a couple of lessons on landings, but I eventually got it.

As far as flying the downwind, it sounds like he might be too concerned with crosswing correction. I had the opposite problem since I kept getting blown closer or away from the runway on downwind. Have you tried taking him out to a practice area and away from the pattern stress to practice the dreaded rectangular pattern?

[slamma1906]

the strut will make a 90 degree angle with the rwy if the ground track is right. If not, show him or her. When mine won't flare, I just say pitch pitch pitch over and over until they get where they need to be. That works for me.

[MidlifeFlyer]

Go out to the practice area on a windy day, find a field, and have them do rectangular courses and deal with the issue away from the pattern.

(BTW, just an opinion: I don't particularly like the strut method or other techniques that are single model specific. Better the pilot should be able to gauge the distance before the turn and pick a point to aim at for alignment)

[TaterSalad]

One thing I've found with a lot of my students...................until they get the perspective down, from experience, they often times don't know what parallel to the runway even looks like, and believe they are parallel! The easiest way I've found to develop the perspective, is have them look at both ends of the runway while on downwind (ie: look back over their shoulder at the dep. end). This will show quite easily if you're parallel or not.

As for the flare, I've used the method above of flying just above the runway in a flare attitude w/o letting it touch down, to be effective.

[Windchill]

Took the Cherokee out again Wed night. It was down for maintenance because of a nose gear collapse ... replaced gear, prop, engine ...

... I forgot until I landed how I tend to come in flat with the Cherokee ... only have about 5.5 out of 103 hrs in low-wings. Applied power to make sure I didn't land short ... then pitched up a bit so I'm not zooming down into the ground, that bled the airspeed off quite a bit and came down hard on the mains.

I need to remember to turn to base earlier w/ the Cherokee 'cause of my tendency to fly flat so I'm not getting antsy close to the ground and still coming up on the threshold.