CFI Tips: How to land a Cirrus SR20/SR22 like a pro, every time, it's in the elevator!

I flew as CFI with a private pilot today in a SR20. 3 landings, all of them were bad, one resulted in a go-around.  We discussed after and I offered him a simple piece of advice.

Between the flare and contact with the runway, the plane SHOULD NEVER GAIN ALTITUDE.  Scan your eyes up and down the runway and pay extremely close attention to the elevator, do not let the plane climb, ever. It is ok to level off momentarily in the flare if you feel the plane is going too fast, but altitude should never increase, only decrease or stay constant.

GOLDEN RULE: The plane SHOULD NEVER GAIN ALTITUDE during landing flare.

He came back to me later and said his landings after this advice were perfect. I have seen this over and over, I don't know if it is fear of landing too soon at high speed, but pilots I fly with over and over have a tendency to get too low and then climb again. The plane is now near stall, high above the runway, and they need to add power to compensate.

About Elevator control
2 critical rules to think about in every landing

1. Apply maximum elevator back pressure without gaining altitude. If you use too little, the plane sinks, if you use too much, the plane floats. This is a real coordination skill, opportunity to show off how good you are at rudder-stick control. **
2. If the plane is able to gain altitude by applying back pressure, it is not ready to land. It has too much energy. The plane is ready to land when applying more back pressure does not result in altitude increase.

** In step (1) you do want to allow small amount of controlled, gradual sink as energy bleeds off. But this should be commanded by you, not by the plane.

Something beautiful happens once you become aware of the golden rule and you fine tune your motor skills to achieve fine control. You realize that during landing flare, you're really just controlling the sink rate. You also realize there is a sweet spot on the elevator where the plane has lost the ability to climb. It is almost the same for every landing (with some adjustment for weight).

Once you become aware of this second phenomena, every landing becomes the same.

1. Control sink rate with elevator by increasing back pressure gradually, like opening a door.
2. Once elevator pressure is at the  "sweet spot" the plane will land itself beautifully. This will always be the same for every landing.

A third golden rule:  In flare, the pilot does not have control over touch-down spot.  It is based on how much energy you carried into the flare.  The runway length is just a distraction and can be a dangerous one. When a pilot thinks they're running out of runway they will try to land too early resulting in bouncing and skidding. 

The only reason to care about the runway length is to make decision of whether to do a go-around. It should never effect how you land the plane.

For those that read Stick and Rudder, you will remember the elevator controlled as "Angle of Attack control" or "stall control". Landing a plane is simply exceeding the critical AoA with the elevator just above the runway, this is when it no longer wants to fly.

(for heavy planes and jets, you don't want to exceed the CAOA, just approach near the limit when wheels make contact).