How to perfect rudder work in the last 10 feet?

[JulietSierraBravo79]

Hey,

My CFI tells me I am right on the cusp of solo. He says my pattern work is flawless, radio work is well above what would be expected at this experience level and that in general my final approach is spot on until we start to flare. He tells me while flaring, I often become fixated on rounding out and stop working the pedals so that we are not always bang on the centerline as we touch down. Certainly I recognize this sometimes, but other times, we look lined up and I'm not seeing the issue in my sight picture. To make matters more confusing, from time to time we land perfectly, smooth flare, lined up on centerline, stall horn just starting to chirp as we touch down and the sight picture looks good to me and little to no rudder input is needed. In these cases he will tell me the landing was very nice, but chide me for not working the rudders more. I suppose to some degree I feel like the rudder work is being so overemphasized that sometimes it distracts me from smoothly rounding out. Do I really need to be "dancing" on the pedals on EVERY short final? Any tips on how to mentally sort this and get my sight picture down so I can grease enough on in a row that he let's me solo already? Thanks!

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

The aforementioned gripe he has with my lack of "dancing" on the pedals is when we're on short final/flaring on calm days. He says the ailerons are good and we're lined up properly over the runway, he just wants "more" movement

Some instructors are fixated on this idea that you have to be constantly shuttling the petals back and forth. Those who teach tailwheel seem particularly prone to this.

While dancing back and forth probably does make one a bit faster to react to a change, the average effect of the rudder whether applied in an oscillation or just the proper average is going to be the same.

I had an instructor like this and just had to ignore that advice and learn to apply the proper average rudder deflection. It is a bit harder to anticipate in a tailwheel but can be done.

Like the advice to do some dual in a tailwheel if the issue persists.

 

[PeterNSteinmetz]

I know and had that done...what’s the basis or history behind it though??

My understanding is that it comes from the days of teaching before intercoms with tandem seating. The instructor used to pull on the student’s shirttails to get their attention or provide a command.

After solo, the shirttails weren’t needed so much anymore. Might be apocryphal - I’ve not seen a definitive source.