Landing Tips
 

While playing CTA I've noticed a lot of people crashing on a failed attempt to land. To be really honest, most of the attempts just look pathetic. I'm guessing this is because people either don't practice, or don't know the basics. So, here are the basics:

• Most important!: Speed. This is what I think is the reason many people crash. They swoop down from the spawnpoint and just pull back on the stick above the ground and hope they 'land'. Doesn't work this way. You'll have to lose your speed before trying to put your plane on the ground. Just make some horizontal S's or a 360 or what not. There is a landing speed topic going on, but my advice is just to get it to 200-250 km/h. Most planes can handle a slightly slower speed, but that's not really necessary.
• Second most important: Flare. Flaring is the 'technique' where you go from a descending flight into a horizontal flight just above the runway. Look up any landing of any plane on youtube and you'll find an example. Basically what you have to do is pull back on the stick when you're just above the runway, and try to keep it as close to the runway as possible for as long as possible. The airplane will lose it's speed, and thus lift, and will eventually go down by itself. The closer you are to the ground, the smoother the landing.
• Do not descent too fast. This differs a lot per plane, but be sure you know how far in advance to level your airplane. Pulling out of a dive 40ft above the runway and land is certainly possible, but not advisable. If you're not too good at landings, be sure you pull out of a dive or steep descent some distance before the airfield, so you can make your final approach nice and easy. This will also make it easier to flare, as you won't have to jerk back on the stick at just the right time. You can smoothly pull back on the stick as the airplane loses speed and altitude.
• A controller is advisable. At least before the update, since you can brake on the ground with a controller, and not (yet) with a joystick.
• Practice. Cliché but true: practice makes perfect. The landscape of IL2 is usually smooth enough to be able to land just about anywhere where there's no trees or buildings, so you can practice anywhere you want.
• 3rd person view is practical. When you use third person you can see your own shadow over the airfield, enabling you to make a perfectly smooth touchdown, since this is the best height reference there is.
• Gear. Don't forget it. I just put this here for all you wise-asses out there :P.
• Sim Mode: Landing Flaps. If you select flaps after selecting landing gear down, the flaps will go down to Landing flaps. This will cause an increase in lift and drag, helping you to slow down without stalling. Thanks King Jareth

I fly mostly in realistic, so these tips definitely apply to that mode. I have made landings on sim, and did not find these much different, apart from the 3rd person obviously. I have not made any landings in arcade, and so I have no idea if they are much different. I can't imagine they are. I might try it out sometime soon and I'll edit this post if I notice anything much different.
If anyone has anything to add, please feel free.

I'm ok at landing (got my 50 realistic CTA landings trophy :) ) but I often crash simply because I'm trying to get on the ground before the other guy and cut it too fine.

But in a nutshell it's just a controlled stall onto the airfield lol.

Arcade landings aren't hugely different from any other difficulty, but the time it takes you brake is a lot shorter. So if you're used to landing on arcade make sure you leave enough room to come to a stop on higher levels!

I was quite impressed at the damage model the other day too - there I was, capturing an airfield having broken off one of my wheels. It was awesome. Luckily I didn't get any grief off the OpFor, and needless to say I had to "bail out" when I was done capturing. Looked pretty cool on the external camera though.

I would just like to also add that for those using the Virtual cockpit; Try and maintain a glide angle. Its easy to do with the VC since you have a climb angle indictator. I personally try to use a 10~20 degree climb angle when landing, as this is just about right for a perfect 3 point touchdown. Also when using a pad, pulling back onthe right stick and simply gliding in also helps. When timed right, you dont even need to flare as your angle of attack should be as noted above and the plane works like its got an airbrake.

Also as a tip for those playing sim mode; When your landing and you think your coming in a bit to fast, do a rudder slide (eg left/right/left/right rudder). This will slow you down considerably before touchdown.

[sim mode]If you put your landing gear down first then flaps you get Landing flaps instead of Combat flaps, no hard numbers to back it up but general concensus is that Landing flaps give you more lift[/sim mode]

Thanks, I'll put it in the post. Not sure if the people reading the forum are the people needing tips on landing, but I thought I'd still post it :rolleyes:.

Yes, they do, but I also find that they can give you so much lift you find it hard to touch down. I think they are best as brakes, then put them back up before attempting to touch the wheels to the ground. Seems silly...but it's a game after all, and not perfect

Whatever floats your boat :P. Be sure not to try it in RL though.. that might not be so pretty :rolleyes:.

No, when I landed I did it the more orthodox way. I didn't really want to take any chances, it being a real plane, and me be a real living person and all.

If your having landing trouble, practice with the po-2. It's unbelievably easy to land, then once you get the maneuvers down you can move on to harder planes.

Most IMPORTANT piece of advice..........


Make sure your landing gear is down ;)

Pfft, that's just a failsafe for noobs. REAL men don't have gear on their planes

Whats the general consensus on sim mode, when you you are trying to slow down after landing, and the plane takes a sudden nose dive and crashes even when you are holding back on the stick. Bug or intended?

vertical speed!!!!!
more throttle guy!

I think he means the one when you slow down to 30mph on the ground and the plane pitches nose first into the dirt.
I hope its a bug.

Oh, you're braking to much. If the tail starts to lift when you're braking, let off some. The tail-draggers only had brakes on the front wheels, and the CoG tends to be forward of the wings, so there's almost no force on the tail wheel, so its pretty easy to pitch the thing if you're not careful. Think of it like a motorcycle, where you only have the front brake.

Tricycle gear planes, like the P-39, and most modern planes have much less problem with that, though if the nose gear is not well built (Me-262), you can still snap it off with to much brakeforce and turn.

One other handy landing manuver if you've got indendent rudder and roll control is the side slip. You roll in one direction, and aply rudder in the other direction, and instead of turning, you sort of end up going sideways. It increases your drag and helps you slow down if you're coming in to hot, and if you're lined up you can snake back and forth to keep from getting to far off the landing path. Just remember to let up when you're in the final approach. I recall in Il-2 1946 one landing in the Mig-15, where I ended up having to side slip down 3km of altitude, because I just couldn't bleed enough speed off of that thing. I think I was pointing 15 degrees off flight path for most of that landing.

Harry Voyager

Theres a bug with flightsticks right now where you have no wheelbrakes at all so it isnt that.

Thanks for the side slipping tips, I've tried it once or twice but never seem to get it right....

I can land He 111 to the streets of Berlin, but I can't stop Spitfire, La5FN and La-7 from nosing at 30 mph (57 km/h). You don't really even need brakes with Aviator, the speed decreases quite well with just landing flaps. I would just like to see this flipping bug be patched. And it is a bug for sure, and there is no way to avoid it. Because of the "flip 57" bug, inspect airfields cannot be accomplished in Sim-difficulty. Landing in the sim is quite fun with other planes though, and I play a lot landing-take off's in training mode (which is the salvation of the game, since no game mode requires you to land and take off really). It would be fun if ammo could be replensihed by landing and taking off at airfield.

Well, if the FM is anything like Il-2 1946, you shouldn't slow down that well with just landing flaps. I'm going to guess that they stop-gapped the no brakes bug by making breaks always active, and that's why you're getting the Spit's and Lagg's pitching, when the He-111 isn't.

Does this 'bug' also happen when you don't pull back on the stick? In 1946 when you'd land a plane somewhere else then on a runway, it would bounce like mad and you'd have a better chance of keeping the nose up by just letting the controls be.

Oh yes, I am sorry to misunderstand.
Its a bug and i hope will be fixed soon. At 30 mph aircraft dig.

For free flight I use to fly in Simulation mission in tutorial. I start to fly then when instructor ask to "zoom" I ignore it and I fly everywhere in Kent with my Hurricane. I enjoy it landing everywhere, on the street also.
hurricane at 30mph pitch down too, but just a little bit and landings can be accomplished.