How do you land an airplane?

Answer 1

This is not an easy question to answer as there are probably about as many techniques to land an aircraft as there are pilots. Then, too, there are different types of landings in addition to what most would think of as a normal landing at an airport...there are short field landings, water landings, grass strip landings, beach or rough terrain landings, carrier landings, etc., not to mention the differences between jet and prop landing techniques...and then there are the dreaded cross-wind and downwind landings. However, most incorporate the same or similar principles. Basically, the aircraft is slowed down as much as is safely possible, often through the use of leading and trailing edge devices (slats and flaps), so as to allow the engines to remain spooled up and ready for a go around. It's important to stabilize the aircraft on it's approach to the runway so as to be able to maintain a constant heading and sink rate (300-400 feet per minute is pretty normal). As the aircraft enters ground effect, it will tend to float so power must be reduced, and as power is reduced, the aircraft will want to sink so pitch must be gradually increased to counteract the sink. As the aircraft nose comes up and power is reduced, speed and sink rate also diminish and (hopefully) the aircraft wheels touch down softly. After touchdown, the aircraft is slowed through the use of spoilers, reverse thrust (if equipped), brakes, etc. until under control, and then taxied clear of the active runway. Simply put, landing a normal type of aircraft is a coordinated maneuver involving slowing the aircraft, descending, flaring, touching down, and stopping. Oh yeah, did I mention...don't forget to put the gear down!
It depends there are two ways a pilot can land his planes.

Either Visually (VISUAL FLIGHT RULES) OR a procudure call ILS(INSTRUMENT LANDING SYSTEMS)-this would guide the plane down to the runways. (But not all airports are equipped with this technology)