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Chapter 11 — Approaches and Landings
Touchdown
The touchdown is the gentle settling of the powered
parachute onto the landing surface. The roundout and
touchdown should be made with the engine slightly
below level flight power levels. As the powered parachute
settles, the parachute is flared to smooth out the
landing.
Some pilots may try to force or fly the powered parachute
onto the ground without flaring. It is paradoxical
that the way to make an ideal landing is to try to
hold the powered parachute’s wheels a few inches off
the ground as long as possible. In most cases, when
the wheels are within a foot or less off the ground, the
powered parachute will still be settling too fast for a
gentle touchdown; therefore, this rate of descent must
be retarded by the use of flare. [Figure 11-6]
Flare is accomplished by pushing both steering bar
tubes simultaneously. That pulls the entire trailing
edge of the parachute down. That increases drag, lowers
the forward speed, and most importantly (for land-ing) increases the lift of the parachute. The amount
of flare needed depends on the rate of descent right
before landing. If the rate of descent is very gradual,
very little flare is needed. Conversely, in an engineout
situation a lot of flare is required. Accurately
determining how much flare is needed for a given
situation is developed with practice. A general rule is
to begin the flare one second before you would otherwise
touch the ground.
Flare is used rather than engine power because the
wing is much more responsive in controlling descent
and pitch than engine power. When you add flare, the
drag on the wing increases and the wing quickly responds
by rotating backwards and increasing its pitch
angle. In order to achieve the same effect with engine
power, you add throttle, the propeller speeds up, and
the thrust pushes the cart (which is much heavier than
a parachute) forward of the wing. It is easier to change
the inertia and positioning of a 25-pound wing than a
500+ pound cart-engine-pilot-fuel assembly.
It is extremely important the touchdown occur with
the powered parachute’s longitudinal axis exactly
parallel to the direction in which the PPC is moving
along the surface. Failure to accomplish this imposes
side loads on the landing gear. To avoid these side
stresses, you should try to not allow the PPC to touch
down while drifting.
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