HIGH ROUNDOUT

Sometimes when the airplane appears to temporarily stop moving downward, the roundout has been made too rapidly and the airplane is flying level, too high above the runway. Continuing the roundout would further reduce the airspeed, resulting in an increase in angle of attack to the critical angle. This would result in the airplane stalling and dropping hard onto the runway. To prevent this, the pitch attitude should be held constant until the airplane decelerates enough to again start descending. Then the roundout can be continued to establish the proper landing attitude. This procedure should only be used when there is adequate airspeed. It may be necessary to add a slight amount of power to keep the airspeed from decreasing excessively and to avoid losing lift too rapidly.

Although back-elevator pressure may be relaxed slightly, the nose should not be lowered any perceptible amount to make the airplane descend when fairly close to the runway unless some power is added momentarily. The momentary decrease in lift that would result from lowering the nose and decreasing the angle of attack may be so great that the airplane might contact the ground with the nosewheel first, which could collapse.

When the proper landing attitude is attained, the airplane is approaching a stall because the airspeed is decreasing and the critical angle of attack is being approached, even though the pitch attitude is no longer being increased. [Figure 8-33]

Figure 8-33. Rounding out too high.

It is recommended that a GO-AROUND be executed any time it appears the nose must be lowered significantly or that the landing is in any other way uncertain.