Probably the most frequently asked question during any of my discussions about how to fly the F-16 involves how to land one of these sleek little beauties. For some reason, people are intimidated trying to land the F- 16. Let me make the following statement concerning the F-16 and the ability to land same: The F-16 is not hard to land (that is, get it on the ground in a safe, professional manner). However, the F-16 is probably one of the hardest airplanes I have ever flown to repeatedly, consistently, predictably get a grease job. Although I’ve been at it a few years, I’m still not happy with my ability to land the airplane. Several reasons account for this phenomenon (from a purely technical standpoint – before anybody makes any smart remarks).
Let’s go through a typical approach. I hope to cast a little light on what is going on here and on what you can do to try to improve your grease job percentages. Reread what I said earlier in this series about the flight control system (how it is different from anything you have ever flown), as this system has a very definite bearing on your ability to land. Also, recall the little subtleties about not staring at the HUD during the flare. Instead, make sure that you are making a conscious effort to look at the runway and the surrounding terrain to judge your height above the ground accurately. (It’s easy to get sucked into this trap.)
Let’s start at the break. First of all, I like to fly - or watch - a crisp (read rapid) break. But be aware. If you pull the airplane as tight as it will fly, you’re building in a lot of problems for your turn to final. Nobody wins a pattern tightness contest, just as nobody wins a low-flying contest. But that’s no excuse to fly a cross-country around the pattern, either. So use your head during the turn to downwind. As always, the usual requirements to lower the gear still apply sometime about now. Some among us still cannot remember to lower the landing gear. And raising the gear-warning tone airspeed to just under Mach 1 is not going to help, either. If you can’t remember to massage the gear handle an even number of times on every sortie, then you should be looking for another line of work. Also, I recommend using the speedbrake – especially with the F100-PW-200 engine – as it allows you to carry a little higher power setting for a little better engine response on short final. Both the F100-PW-220 and the F110-GE-100 engine are better in this respect.
You have read in the Dash One and heard about the recommended eleven- or thirteen-degree approach for the F-16. You can use either one with the same success. It does not really say at exactly what point you have to have the angle of attack, or AOA, established. If the test point requires, I can fly a constant eleven- or thirteen-degree approach throughout the whole pattern. Left to my own devices, however, I usually fly an approach that results in a slowly increasing AOA from the time I roll off the downwind (or 180, I mustn’t overlook our Navy pilots) until touchdown.
I usually have about six or eight degrees as I start to turn final. About halfway through the turn (the 90 for our Navy friends), I pass through about nine to ten, eleven, or twelve degrees on short final and thirteen degrees at or just prior to touchdown. You will usually be making a slow power reduction throughout the approach (with some exceptions, depending on the configuration) and slowly increasing backpressure until you set thirteen-degrees AOA.
At this point, stop making pitch changes (unless gusts, jet wash, or other changes require a correction) and use power to control the touchdown point or sink rate. As with up-and-away flying in the airplane, I recommend that you do not trim. I feel like I want to trim off the pressure during the final turn, but I have found that I always have to run the trim the other direction on final, right back to the neutral position. As a result, I still believe that the statement about not having to trim the F-16 unless the airplane is asymmetrical is always valid.
Anyway, I am now on short final (usually over the overrun) with thirteen-degrees AOA, slowly dragging the power to idle, looking for the ground effect (seldom a pitch change) to cushion the touchdown, and rolling the aircraft on the ground.
Well, not always. Why? One of the main reasons why you seldom feel you made a smooth touchdown is in the landing gear. It is a very stiff landing gear, without very much travel. Several other airplanes I have flown have oleos in the gear that give the impression they are about eighteen inches in diameter and have a stroke of at least four feet. Such a cushion will cover up a lot of sins, and it explains why you thought you could do such a good job of landing your previous aircraft.
Unless you do a nearly perfect job, you’re going to come away with the impression that you had a firm (sometimes firm or even firm) touchdown in the F-16. Worse yet, the airplane bounced. Most of the time it hasn’t really bounced. The aircraft is moving up slightly on the gear, but not enough to actually pull the wheels off the ground. Have some of your squadron mates watch your landings and then collect their observations with what you remembered or recorded on the HUD film. You will find that, quite often, what felt like a less-than-perfect landing really did not look too bad from the outside.
But once you get the impression that you bounced, you open Pandora’s box for a plethora of possible mistakes that make the landing seem like it is hard to accomplish.
Let’s go off on a slight tangent and talk about some aerodynamics. Just bear with me and we’ll get back to the bounce. The F-16 will fly as slow as about 105 knots at twenty-five to twenty-six alpha. (It used to be even slower before the airplane started getting its middle-age spread. We never seem to learn anything from history.) But we’re forced to land the airplane at only thirteen alpha because of the geometry of the landing gear location and the placement of such things as the engine nozzle, speed brakes, ventrals, and so on The point is that the F-16 is nowhere near ready to stop flying when it touches down. Remember this. You’ll see it again.
Now, back to the bounce. Whether or not you bounced, if you now get in and stir the controls (that is, pull back on the stick) the airplane will come off the ground for sure. Also, you do not have to increase backpressure after touchdown to maintain your attitude, as you’ve had to do in the past with other aircraft. If you insist on doing so, you’ll pull the aircraft off the ground even if you made a perfect touchdown.
So, any combination of slight to moderate bounce – plus not paying attention to the amount of backpressure you’re using – can complicate an otherwise normal landing. Because of the stiff gear, you can expect a slight bounce (or at least an impression of one) on nearly every landing. Just hold the attitude and the aircraft will touch down again shortly thereafter in the same attitude. Of course, if the touchdown has been complicated with an asymmetrical main gear touchdown (that is, one wheel before the other), a gusty crosswind, or jet wash, and so on, then you’re going to have to make a series of control inputs as well as a power change. But if the approach has been otherwise normal, you should have to do nothing but watch the aircraft touch down again shortly thereafter.
You also need to consider crosswinds. The airplane is no problem in crosswinds. It has a large margin built into the Dash One limits. All you have to do is crab into the wind and fly a wings-level approach as you do in normal winds. Again, if the winds are gusty, you’re going to be making more control corrections than normal. Go ahead and touch down in the crab, using the power and flight controls as usual. The only real difference is that, as the nose comes down, be ready for the upwind wing to want to come up. Add whatever roll command is necessary. The airplane will usually align itself with the runway as you lower the nose. If not, then use whatever rudder is appropriate.
For you guys flying those airplanes with the drag chute, the same holds true. Make a normal landing using whatever crab is necessary, then deploy the chute. The airplane doesn’t care if you’re in a two- or three-point attitude. It actually doesn’t care if you’re on the ground yet. Notice that it takes about two full seconds for the chute to deploy fully after you move the switch. If stopping distance is really critical – due to glare ice, combat damage shortening the runway, or whatever – then hit the switch about two seconds short of touchdown. Use a little caution, however, the first few times you try this because the airplane stops when the chute comes fully open.
With a full chute just at the touchdown point and the proper braking procedures, it’s easy to produce landing rolls of less than 1,000 feet on dry runways with a light airplane. If the crosswind is near the limits, you can expect some directional control problems. But the technique is still to use the chute. Just keep your hand on the switch. You can realize the nice feeling of deceleration as the chute opens, then release it immediately if it looks like directional control is becoming a problem – regardless of the runway condition reading, or the RCR.
Let’s digress again and talk about alpha at touchdown. How much is too much? If the aircraft is sitting on the ground in a static condition, parts of it will start hitting the ground not too much past thirteen degrees. But if the airplane has anything near flying airspeed, you can sometimes get away with almost fifteen degrees without problems. A big gotcha, however, is sink rate: If you touch down with too much of it, the clearance angle starts to come back toward thirteen degrees again. A lateral/roll input at the same time (to compensate for a gusty crosswind) is also a big pitfall. The moral: It’s not a good idea to be touching down above thirteen degrees, unless you want to become famous with your supervisor. But once you’re firmly on the ground, you can go to thirteen, or even slightly beyond, without hitting anything. This is important if getting stopped on a slippery runway is the item at hand (that is, aero braking).
While we’re talking about AOA at landing, you guys who are just checking out in the airplane will want to note that the F-16 is one of the few aerospace vehicles where you can see the touchdown point while you’re in a landing attitude. In many other airplanes you’ve flown, you sometimes can’t see the runway – much less the touchdown point – once you establish the landing AOA. The lesson here is that there’s a different (that word, again) sight picture associated with landing the F-16. Resist the temptation to keep pulling the nose up as the ground approaches; it’s a sure-fire way to get the kind of attention none of us need.
Like the book says, the maximum braking occurs in a three-point attitude with maximum anti-skid braking. It’s true on a dry runway but is not necessarily the case if the runway is slick for whatever reason. The unfortunate part is that, once you let the nose down, you cannot get it back up without adding power (not recommended). So it helps to practice the same technique on every landing. I’ve found the following works best: Touch down in the manner we’ve already discussed and hold thirteen degrees or, if you feel real confident, a little more than thirteen degrees. (The point is that aero braking with less than thirteen degrees doesn’t buy you very much.) Then start down on the brakes at a controlled rate. If the braking action is good, the nose will immediately start down; but if the runway is slick, you’ll find you can hold the nose up and the resulting aero braking is more than you would obtain in a three-point attitude. The moment of the brakes will try to bring the nose down, but you can control it by adding backpressure. It’s important to realize that I am not adding any backpressure until after I start wheel braking. If you get too eager, you’ll sure as hell pull the aircraft off the ground, just like we discussed a few lines ago.
Regardless of the RCR, the nose will eventually come down, even if you’re using full back stick. This will happen real quick on a dry runway, but sometimes involves a long delay if the buffers and polishers have had much time to work on the runway. But don’t insist on holding the nose up much below eighty knots, as a gust can rapidly increase the deck angle without your being able to do much about it – in much the same way as you depart if you’re slow while airborne and insist on forcing the issue.
As soon as the nose gear approaches the runway (you don’t have to wait for it to get completely on the runway, but don’t get too eager), hold the override to get the speedbrakes full out, keep the stick full back (every little bit helps, even if it’s only two feet), and bury the pedals if you haven’t already done so (if stopping distance is a problem).
Notice that I bring the nose gear to the runway with the brakes and not the stick. It can be done, but you are asking for problems if you try to pin the nose gear on the ground using forward stick. Doing so can induce a lot of other problems, not the least of which is that the hook will very likely miss the wire if a barrier engagement is in the cards. But if you still have eight thousand feet to go on a dry, 12,000-foot runway, use your head and disregard the last instruction about burying the pedals – just go for a reasonable taxi speed. This technique is the best way to stop the airplane. And it works the same, regardless of the runway conditions. You don’t have to use several different techniques as the conditions change.
So, a lot of words for what appears to be a simple task. Think through the pattern as you approach the break. Avoid further pitch inputs once you get thirteen degrees established – unless conditions really call for them – and control the touchdown/sink rate with power. As you get really conversant with the airplane, you’ll find that you can continue to make pitch corrections all the way to touchdown – but they’re tiny. Expect a slight bounce, or at least the impression of one, and resist the temptation to continue making stick inputs unless they’re really necessary. The airplane will touch down again just fine in about 100 feet. Think about your braking, and the sortie should be just about over.
And let's get one thing straight. There's a big difference between a pilot and an aviator. One is a technician; the other is an artist in love with flight. — E. B. Jeppesen
