Hey guys. I generally consider myself to be good at landings. I regularly grease heavies and supers. However, I can never really do a good landing in the A320. I have IF Assistant which gives me the, “Retard, retard” callouts, and it helps for me on other Airbuses. However, on the A320, I find that despite how much I flare, I still hit the ground pretty hard and my nose gear slams into the ground. Any tips, please? Thank you!
2 Likes
For your troubles regarding flare, check out this topic which covers it:
Landing speed: 140-150 knots
Flaps: 3 or full, depending on runway length
5 Likes
What I like to do is balance the weights. I put more cargo on the back of the plane and less on the front and that helps a tiny bit with smoothening out the landings. In general, the 320 series in game is very stiff and hard to land.
2 Likes
This usually works for me :
at 200’ eyes outside and focus on touchdown zone
at 100’, focus at the end of runway now / hold attitude
Don’t do anything until after 30’ (apart from flying towards your aim point / hold attitude)
after 30’, set idle thrust
(apply rudder to straighten out if any crosswind about now)
after 20’, a very small flare (very slight back pressure only)
then
hold (slowly increase) a very slight backpressure to hold off and minimse rate of descent
(keep wings level)
sometimes I release back pressure/apply forward pressure just before touchdown (this can often give a nice greaser and in the zone)
Most important is not too flare until “AFTER” the 20; call, otherwise most likely :
- it will be a long landing if you try to make it a smooth one
or - it won’t be smooth if you try to get it down in the zone
7 Likes
This is a glitch spoilers up gear down
2 Likes
This is a known issue with the A320 family. The problem is the spoilers go up and the nose slams down. To get the smooth touchdown of the nose for the A320 family leave you spoilers off and manually engage them to armed after your nose is on the ground.
4 Likes
Try and aim the circle thing (unprofessional I know) on your HUD at the end of the runway. This should give you easy butter. Flare around 20-30 feet. If you are constantly loosing lift due to speed, don’t cut your engines as much at ~50 feet.
1 Like
I would actually add to what @Haifan_Day said, and not to per say aim for the end of the runway, but aim for as close to level with the horizon as you can, this is more important as the end of the runway can be a bit relative…
If you have any Q’s feel free to PM me…
Guys this isnt an issue of his Flare technique. It’s an issue of the spoilers armed glitch on the A320 family.
2 Likes
He mentioned his nose wheel hitting the ground, but also the rest slams, besides I was mostly adding to what @Haifan_Day said, let him tell us what his issue is…
I think you should put the throttle a little bit more down I tried it and it worked for me.😄😜
1 Like
Thanks guys. I will try this later to see if this works. Thanks!
2 Likes
The will slam down no matter what speed you are doing with the spoilers armed. As stated it is a known glitch. The nose slams extremely hard on the A320 due to this. As the original poster said he considers himself to be good at landings but only one aircraft is causing him problems. This same aircraft has a known glitch that is the same thing that his plaguing his landings. 1+1=2
2 Likes
If you want to butter with the nose still standing for a while, turn off the brakes before you land. When you touch down, keep the nose up if you want, and then finally slowly raise the nose down and turn on the brakes. For some reason if you touch down with the brakes on, its impossible to keep the nose up after landing. Otherwise, keep the speed at around 160knots and then when he calls retard, throttle all the way down and flare, but not too much, or else tail strike obviously. I hoped this helped because i’m not really used to fixing problems but I know something about this.
I keep autothrottle on 150 until 1000ft and then I disengage. I’m pretty good usually at keeping my speed, and I never have the brakes on before landing. I don’t believe that I have ever had a tail strike. It sounds like it is an issue with the spoilers upon landing. I’ll try it when I have the chance. Thanks for all of your guys’ help!
1 Like
Land at 135 knots and raise the nose at 20 feet with minute raising of the nose at 5 feet. Slowly idle down the engines at 20-30 feet depending on wind. You will find the A320 lands better in a slight headwind, at least that is what I found out.
This is not necessarily answering the question directly so forgive me for this but as some of the information that has been provided is incorrect I thought I would add my two pence for what it is worth…
Approach Speed
Your final approach speed will vary dependent on multiple factors but most namely, weight. To get the correct speed for ‘your’ weight I recommend that you target a pitch attitude.
Flap 3: 5 degrees nose up
Flap Full: 2.5 degrees nose up
Keep reducing the speed until the aircraft is able to fly 5 or 2.5 degrees nose up (dependent on flap setting) with the Flight Path Vector (the green circle) sat at 3 degrees nose down (the standard glidepath angle for an ILS).
The approach speed will be between 120 and 141kts (as the A320 is a Cat C aircraft).
Landing
The airbus technique for landing is to simultaneously close the thrust levers and select the landing attitude (the flare is quite literally a few degrees if that!). The flare height will vary (dependent on weight) but can be expected between 20 and 30ft.
Do not ‘hold off’ - there is a common misconception that a pilot ‘greasing’ or ‘buttering’ the aircraft onto the runway is a good landing; actually, it’s not! A good landing is a landing that is on the centreline, and within the touchdown zone. In the real world if you try to ‘hold off’ you are at risk of a tailstrike, invalidating the performance by landing outside the touchdown zone, destabilizing the landing; the list goes on…
I have no idea about the ‘glitch’ with the A320 on IF - quite possible. I would argue that it is not too dissimilar now from what it is like in real life! When the main gear touches down, you need to ‘fly’ the nose gear onto the runway without delay. To do this I would suggest the following:
- do not have the brakes on before touchdown
- on main gear touchdown, apply a slight backpressure on your device that will prevent it slamming down
- however start to release this backpressure to allow the nose gear to settle onto the runway
- do not delay in doing this, as the speed drops, you are at risk of it dropping suddenly
Hope the above helps - happy landings
3 Likes
I was recently in your situation, but doing this has helped (it’s still a 50/50 chance of a slam though)
- Once you hit 30 feet AGL, don’t make any big adjustments
- Cut your throttle around 15 feet AGL
- As you head down towards the runway, slowly increase your flare and apply throttle as needed
- Once you touch down, pull back, but not too hard, because if you do your nose will eventually come down hard and you can’t do anything about it
- Don’t apply the reverse thrust until your nose is tracking down the center
1 Like
As far as I’m concerned landing the plane is the butter, not setting the nose down softly. Spoilers are pretty much the only thing keeping you on the ground, so it’s something you just have to deal with.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.