Carrier Landing: always off to the right after touch down?

I've been doing carrier landing for quite a while. Always followed the pattern, though far from perfect, my landing is generally ok and successful for most of the time.

However, whenever I trap, I always went a bit off to the right from the center line of the landing area. Sometimes one foot or two, sometimes several. The move is especially noticeable after the hook catches a wire.

Is this normal? If not, what could be the reason?

Btw, during final approach, I usually put the VV around the crouch at the end of the landing area. During final alignment just before touch down, I would move VV closer to the center line.

Don’t use the VV for line up, just your eyeballs. Put your nose in the middle. Your catching the wire at an angle, If you use VV you’ll always do that because it accounts for relative wind. I.E. you’ll crab into the wire, always happens a little but you want to minimize that as much as possible. Hit the wire straight and in the middle.

Wizzard_03:

I'll second your advice. When I fly the VV and Ball I either bolt, slam hard or, hit the back of the boat (kaboom). When I eyeball it - almost always a 3 wire trap. Going to get into the office right now and continue to test my peepers.

BTW, throttling back and forth to keep the VV in the E bracket sucks. I generally have success around 143 knts.

BTW, throttling back and forth to keep the VV in the E bracket sucks. I generally have success around 143 knts.

You're not supposed to use throttle to put the VV in the E bracket. You center the VV in the E bracket by trimming, and once trimmed the VV will stay in the E bracket on its own. You then use throttle to move the VV+E bracket up and down.

You're not supposed to use throttle to put the VV in the E bracket. You center the VV in the E bracket by trimming, and once trimmed the VV will stay in the E bracket on its own. You then use throttle to move the E bracket up and down.

*you then use throttle to move the VV up and down to correct your altitude / rate of decent. :thumbup:

E-bracket doesnt move as you have trimmed for AoA.

Don’t use the VV for line up, just your eyeballs. Put your nose in the middle. Your catching the wire at an angle, If you use VV you’ll always do that because it accounts for relative wind. I.E. you’ll crab into the wire, always happens a little but you want to minimize that as much as possible. Hit the wire straight and in the middle.

That must be the reason. Thanks mate!

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*you then use throttle to move the VV up and down to correct your altitude / rate of decent. :thumbup:

 

E-bracket doesnt move as you have trimmed for AoA.

Well, once you've trimmed on-speed, VV and E-bracket move together as one, so yes e-bracket does move when you adjust throttle. But I've edited my comment for clarity.

Well, once you've trimmed on-speed, VV and E-bracket move together as one, so yes e-bracket does move when you adjust throttle. But I've edited my comment for clarity.

I understand what you are saying, however, you are not flying the E-Bracket at that point since you are on speed. You are watching you VV and decent rate approaching the groove.

You don’t need to reference the E bracket in the grove at all, just use the indexer and follow your scan. You can use it if you like, but IMO it causes you to fixate. Doughnut works fine and it keeps your eyes moving. Yellow yellow yellow.

But once your trimmed up AOA shouldn’t be a huge issue. Just don’t make huge power corrections and walk the throttles

To further and overly explain what others have already said:) .... if you are in fact trimmed for on-speed, the vv and E bracket will move together if you do not use your right hand and "pitch" it out of position. Right hand is for controlling roll. Your left hand controlls the virtical position of the vv/E bracket. The E bracket is just a different pictorial representation of the AOA gauge.

So, as technique, use your laft hand for virtical position of vv/E bracket, and right hand for lateral position of vv/E bracket. But we dont think of it in terms of where we put the vv/e bracket. If you can isolate those functions between your two hands: line up is a function of your right hand and the ball is a function of your left. Understand, the vv is where you are going in that instant. The boat will not be in that location at any other point than that instant. So you should not use the vv to control your glide slope or you will only fly to a point on the water where the boat used to be when you get there. This is why your primary GS instrument is the meatball and not the vv. Same goes for line up. You need to be able to perceive where your "line up " is moving to as much as remaining on it at any given time.

Your scan is "meatball, line up, AOA" from the start to about in close. Then it simplifies to "meatball, line up" to about just past the round down. Then it further simplifies to only "meatball" untill you trap.

I have my students say it to themselves as a mantra while flying.

Be exceptional hard on yourself to remain dead on line up from the very start for a myriad of reason. One is because the meatball is only 100% acurate when you are on line up, but also because once you are crossing the round down, you have made your bed and must deal with it in that regard. So establishing an energy state that keeps you stable on line up is key for the overall success of the pass.

Technique in scan is a large player in all of this and it boils down to what you see transulated into "that pilot sh!t". Because the carrier is always moving to your right, it will bias to that direction based on your "pilot sh!t" ability to mitigate it.

This is all non auto throttles technique. A bit of a hard concept to type out. Hope i have done it justice. If ya want to chat more you can catch us on discord.

To further and overly explain what others have already said:) .... if you are in fact trimmed for on-speed, the vv and E bracket will move together if you do not use your right hand and "pitch" it out of position. Right hand is for controlling roll. Your left hand controlls the virtical position of the vv/E bracket. The E bracket is just a different pictorial representation of the AOA gauge.

 

So, as technique, use your laft hand for virtical position of vv/E bracket, and right hand for lateral position of vv/E bracket. But we dont think of it in terms of where we put the vv/e bracket. If you can isolate those functions between your two hands: line up is a function of your right hand and the ball is a function of your left. Understand, the vv is where you are going in that instant. The boat will not be in that location at any other point than that instant. So you should not use the vv to control your glide slope or you will only fly to a point on the water where the boat used to be when you get there. This is why your primary GS instrument is the meatball and not the vv. Same goes for line up. You need to be able to perceive where your "line up " is moving to as much as remaining on it at any given time.

 

Your scan is "meatball, line up, AOA" from the start to about in close. Then it simplifies to "meatball, line up" to about just past the round down. Then it further simplifies to only "meatball" untill you trap.

I have my students say it to themselves as a mantra while flying.

 

Be exceptional hard on yourself to remain dead on line up from the very start for a myriad of reason. One is because the meatball is only 100% acurate when you are on line up, but also because once you are crossing the round down, you have made your bed and must deal with it in that regard. So establishing an energy state that keeps you stable on line up is key for the overall success of the pass.

 

Technique in scan is a large player in all of this and it boils down to what you see transulated into "that pilot sh!t". Because the carrier is always moving to your right, it will bias to that direction based on your "pilot sh!t" ability to mitigate it.

 

This is all non auto throttles technique. A bit of a hard concept to type out. Hope i have done it justice. If ya want to chat more you can catch us on discord.

Thanks Lex for the very detailed instruction. I’ll practice further following these advices.

The meatball is a bit blurry to me as I’m using VR. With the arrival of my new HW, I hope the visibility can be improved allowing me to see it from distance. Speaking of that, for a decent landing, how far should I be able to clearly read the meatball? (or otherwise I could easily screw things up and end with a bad or not so good trap)

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Thanks Lex for the very detailed instruction. I’ll practice further following these advices.

 

The meatball is a bit blurry to me as I’m using VR. With the arrival of my new HW, I hope the visibility can be improved allowing me to see it from distance. Speaking of that, for a decent landing, how far should I be able to clearly read the meatball? (or otherwise I could easily screw things up and end with a bad or not so good trap)

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you did everything right in your pattern work all the way back to the break, you’ll see it as soon as you roll out wings level on FB at 3/4 of a mile, and 450ft R

If you did everything right in your pattern work all the way back to the break, you’ll see it as soon as you roll out wings level on FB at 3/4 of a mile, and 450ft R

That’s a common misconception. 3/4 of a mile only applies to case 3. During case 1/2, you want to arrive with 15-18 seconds of groove time. That will equate to a distance less than 3/4 of a mile. The distance doesn’t matter, the time does. Furthermore the start would be less than 450 feet. You should be crossing the 45 at 370 feet.

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My instinct is that you're not correctly compensating for the fact that the carrier is effectively moving to your right. If your aircraft's nose is pointing directly at the centreline on approach, your course will actually be a subtle turn to the right, and it's possible you're having to make a last-minute correction which exacerbates this.

I appreciate why people say to ignore the VV, but it should always be to the right of the centreline on approach.

I had similar problems until I realised what was going on.

I don't even use the meatball. Can't see it well enough for it to work. I get trimmed to center the VV in the E bracket and then follow the ICLS.