Private pilots, how long before touch down on the runway do you normally deploy flaps and landing gear in your

Question

light plane

Answer 1

gear by 1000 and flaps and fully configured by 500 will keep you out of trouble most of the time in most aircraft

Answer 2

Sporadic,

The flaps are designed to give you faster descent without increasing airspeed.  They do this by increasing drag, and lift, so can also be considered 'brakes', because they have a similar effect.

Use them as you need them, in order to produce the desired affect.   When landing any aircraft, you need to decrease your speed to a target speed, and you need to descend from traffic pattern altitude.   So, the best way to answer this is:

Use the flaps when you need them.  

Every pilot will tell you something different, because different options work better for them in different situations.

As far as the landing gear goes...

To make sure your landing gear is always down when you need them, do a prelanding checklist at some point during your descent to landing.  

Thats as simple as it gets.

Answer 3

agree with above posts, there are alot of variables. A good rule of thumb for gear is abeam the landing point on the downwind leg or if on an instrument approach I usually put the gear down at the FAF. If I need or want flaps I typically put in 1st notch abeam the landing point, 2nd notch on base and 3rd notch on base or final or not at all. Of course these are all subject to change depending on your situation at any given moment

Answer 4

While flying the circuit, you select landing gears down while on the down wind opposite the landing point and adjust your power and speeds accordingly. The flaps are selected after lowering the gear while still on the down wind (trim the aircraft) prior to turning base. While rolling out on the final approach, you check the three greens showing your gear is down and locked. Alternately, flaps can be lowered after the base turn as you roll out on the final approach.

Answer 5

In small planes, I typically put the gear down when I was on downwind, abeam my landing point (no later than this that is).  I would gradually put the flaps down as I was making my final descent from traffic pattern height.  Some planes are harder to fly slow in, or harder to slow down to a reasonable speed for a traffic pattern with C-172s flying in it.  In those planes, I would put the gear, or first notch of flaps (depending on plane), down before I entered the pattern.

There's no rule when you have to put that stuff out.  Do it when you need them.

Answer 6

You will take your primary instruction in a fixed-gear airplane, so you won't worry about landing gear for some time.

You will most likely be trained at an uncontrolled field where you will do all landings from a complete traffic pattern.  For more information about that, do an Internet search on "airport traffic pattern."

You will be trained to reduce power about half the runway length parallel to the runway on downwind leg.  Reduce power to descent power and hold the nose up to cruise attitude until the airplane slows down to the right descent speed (all these settings vary from airplane to airplane).

At descent speed, lower the nose to maintain descent speed and extend partial flaps to increase lift and provide some braking effect.  This will allow a steeper angle of descent.  When turning from downwind to base leg, extend about 2/3 flaps and adjust power and nose down angle as needed to obtain proper speed and angle of glide.

On final leg, extend full flaps and adjust power to get you home to grandma in one piece (that is, to glide to the runway).  Retract flaps to minimize lift after touching down.

Each part of this process is subject to an almost infinite number of variations.  You may want to use less flaps in windy conditions.  At a tower-controlled airport, you may be instructed to use a different approach profile, and will have to judge power settings and use of flaps by different cues.  Your instructor will make sure you know how to land with no flaps, in case they don't work, one fine afternoon.

There are many more variations.  As you become a more skilled pilot, you will develop the judgment needed, through practice and personal insight.

At some point you may transition to an airplane with retractable landing gear.  The typical procedure for operating retractable gear varies, again, from one airplane to another.  In most light planes, you extend the gear when you have slowed down to a certain speed, which will teach you to plan your approach profile to bring you down to gear extension speed at the right point.  It is a matter of practice and experience, and it may be miles away from the runway.

At each step on the way, your instructor or check pilot will make sure you have the necessary experience and can trust your decisions at every point.

Good luck!

Answer 7

Almost every situation is different, so there is no general rule.  There are some things that are certain, however.

Lowering the gear will slow the aircraft significantly, and this will also result in a descent unless you compensate for it.  This can be good or bad.  When it's good, you lower the gear, when it's bad, you delay lowering the gear.  Of course, you'll need the gear down before you actually land. At the same time, though, lowering flaps and gear twenty miles out just wastes fuel and time on a small aircraft.

Flaps have similar constraints.  Lowering them increases drag and slows the aircraft, but unlike gear (which produces only drag and nothing else), flaps greatly increase lift.  Keeping these things in mind, you choose your flap settings based on when and if you want these effects.  Most aircraft have flap schedules that you can follow, especially large aircraft where flap schedules are more important, but you still have considerable margin.  In many small aircraft you can land with any flap setting at any time, based on your own judgement.  Lowering flaps will often slow the aircraft and produce a temporary surge in lift, following by a descent as the aircraft slows from the drag.  In some aircraft flaps will also influence pitch, so you have to be ready for that if you're flying such an aircraft.

Both flaps and gear interact with thrust and pitch, so you have to adjust them all in the proper way.  For example, full flaps increase lift, but they also produce a great deal of drag (in most aircraft), and so you have to anticipate that you might need to increase power to overcome the drag and maintain your desired descent profile.  Gear is useful mainly for just slowing the aircraft—be sure to lower gear only at or below the maximum extension speed in the POH.

Deploying flaps and/or gear very late in the game is usually not a good idea.  You should try to be in a stabilized approach well before you get near the runway threshold.  Suddenly lowering flaps or gear at the last minute can produce large excursions in the aircraft's flight path that might be difficult to recover from before you reach the ground.