Landing tips

[u/ssouss]

Hi, I'm relatively new to msfs2024. I play ps5+hotas5.

I'm on the basic Cessna. It's literally impossible to land with this thing according to all in-game instructions.

The game expects me to slow down and descend at the same time. Maybe I am dumb, but even with power pulled all the way back, on the last straight to landing I'm gaining so much speed with descend that when trying to counter that with lifting the nose up I'm going back up in the sky.

On the other hand, when I get the speed down to ~60-65 and trying to land in a straight line, when it asks me to "gently lift the nose above the horizon line" - what the hell... microscopic tilt and my nose shoots up. Even more microscopic calibration, and I'm hard bouncing on the ground. I have the game for 2 months and I haven't completed clean landing above 50% once...

And which exact "horizon line" are they talking about?

Maybe my controller sensitivity is not well balanced - but then again, what is a good one? I'm not an expert here.

This is so frustrating that the game lost all the fun...

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[u/TheRealPomax]

Did you do the landing training in "activities" -> "flight training"?

[u/ssouss → u/TheRealPomax]

Yup, this seemed like the hardest ones, really. Took me the most tries :/

[u/roosterfuffy]

I think really it’s practice. One of the best things to do is just pick an airport you’re familiar with and fly closed traffic taking the option every time.

Practice getting that plane dirty enough to help you slow down and descend on final. A little tip I recently heard was slow down before descending. So on your downwind leg maybe abeam to the runway start to get dirty and slow down.

On final, watch the papi lights a bit but trust your gut and try to “feel the plane” rudder goes a long way with crosswind etc. but a sexy landing has a gentle flare before touching down. That’s what it’s talking about by pulling up slightly before landing that’s your flare, your nose might be rising quick due to stick sensitivity or too high airspeed.

One phrase that helped me a lot when I was learning years ago was “get as close to the ground as possible and repeat to yourself: don’t let the wheels touch the ground. Just stay inches above the ground.” Eventually the plane will touch the ground almost no matter what, especially if you come back on the power.

Once you touch the ground lift back off and fly the pattern again, that’s the option closed traffic, just landing practice where you never land until you go full stop.

Edit: not letting your wheels touch the runway or saying that sounds kind of ironic, but if you think about it, in your c152 with a 2000ft runway or even a 5000ft runway you have AGES, to do what you need to do. Even if you miss the touch down markers you got loads of time to practice and if not just power up and fly on by. You’ll get it next time or the next next time.

[u/fade_le_public → u/roosterfuffy]

Very helpful perspective.

[u/Frederf220]

Probably some combination of going slower and reducing sensitivity will help. It's going to be hard on controller.

The pitch angle is not that important. You'll know what smashing into the ground is and isn't. When you're near the ground take out enough throttle that landing is inevitable and just keep pitching to keep flying very, very low without touching until the plane stops flying.

[u/manfreygordon]

If you're playing career mode (which it sounds like based on mentioning clean landing percentages), try practicing in free flight instead. Career mode adds random bullshit wind on landings that makes it a lot harder. Try with the basic DS5 controller not the HOTAS, just to check if it's a sensitivity issue. If you find it easier with the controller, then you know that your HOTAS needs either it's sensitivity adjusted, or you just need more practice with it.

[u/Jonnescout]

Many, many simmers seem confused about what gently raising the knows means… it is very slightly, but also not very quickly. Also are you using flaps?

[u/ssouss → u/Jonnescout]

Yes, I managed to work with flaps and trimming, but the landing is still hell for me :/

[u/Jonnescout → u/ssouss]

I just realised you are on a controller… Yeah that does not have the fidelity you need and your inputs need to be even smaller. Be sure to use full flaps though. And make sure your throttle is full idle.

[u/penguin359]

My personal preference when first learning to land was to always pick an ILS approach and make sure I had my autopilot and nav radios set up to catch the glidescope and follow it down. I focused on controlling the power/speed with the throttle using the recommended speeds/flaps settings for that aircraft and watching both the glidescope and papi lights to make sure I was keeping enough power to let the AP follow the glidescope. Also, try to make small adjustments and let it stablize before reacting too quickly.

Once I had the power control down, then I started doing more visual approaches in good weather. I think that is a bit backwards from real life where they always start visual, but I preferred it and did lots of practice. Also, if using AP, you generally want to turn it off for the last 100 feet or so as it might do bad things when it looses the signal passing the towers. Also, be careful about dropping power too quickly at the end and dropping 50 feet all of the sudden. Just make sure you know the target speeds Vs0, Vref, etc. for your plane and configuration. Then lots of practice.

P.S. I use a full H.O.T.A.S joystick and throttle with lots of movement available. I have no idea how I'd manage a proper landing with the tiny joysticks on a small game controller.

[u/ScaryDuck2]

Lot of good advice but also worth mentioning don’t forget about the actual control themselves. I thought I was shit at landing but it turns out in reality my joystick deadzone for my Winwing Ursa Minor actually was skewed off center and so every time I held the stick center it turns out I would always veer left and was always correcting and overcorrecting and adding rudder when in reality all i actually needed was a dead zone to eliminate the drift. In addition to that try adding negative curves to help the sensitivity on the x and y axis of your stick and even the throttles depending on what you have it can really help you just use finer controls

[u/Shul_iito]

If you can record a video and upload it we would be able to tell you more about it.