CFI Checkride Guide
Chair flying / Teaching the Normal Approach and Landing

Teaching the Normal Approach and Landing

Coach a student through the pattern and the roundout — the errors that define landing instruction, the words that fix them, and when the airplane becomes yours.

Guided rehearsal is PremiumACS VII.B — Normal Approach and Landing

Setup

  1. Brief the sight picture, not just the numbers — where the aiming point sits in the windshield
    The aiming point stays still in the windshield on a stable approach; it moves up if you are undershooting and down if you are overshooting. Teach that one cue and half of approach control follows.
  2. Brief the stabilized-approach gates and the go-around trigger before entering the pattern“Not stable by short final — we go around”
  3. Brief the exchange of controls and your takeover criteria

Execution

  1. Downwind and base: coach configuration timing and the wind correction, let them fly the pattern
  2. Final: pitch for airspeed, power for the aiming point — say it out loud each time“Pitch for speed, power for the point”
  3. Roundout: move their eyes to the far end of the runway
    Almost every roundout error is an eye error. A student looking just over the nose cannot judge height; looking down the runway they can.
  4. Name each classic error out loud as it happens, with the fix in the same breath
    Ballooning — released back pressure, add a little power and re-flare gently. Floating — too fast, hold it off and let it settle. Flat approach and dragging it in — power and pitch reversed. Wheelbarrowing — forward pressure on the nosewheel. Drift at touchdown — upwind wing down, opposite rudder to stay aligned.
  5. Hold the centerline discipline all the way through rollout

Recovery

  1. Take the airplane for: a developing bounce with power off, drift toward the runway edge, or a sink you cannot talk them out of“My controls — going around”
  2. Debrief one thing, not five — pick the error that caused the others

ACS tolerances

  • Teach and demonstrate to the applicable certification standard
  • Stabilized approach or go-around — no exceptions taught
  • Positive exchange of controls every time

Common errors

  • Taking the controls on every imperfect landing so the student never learns recovery
  • Coaching with numbers when the problem is where their eyes are
  • Letting an unstable approach continue because the runway is long
  • Debriefing five errors at once — the student remembers none of them