snippets

How to correct it? Forget the nose of th airplane. Put one of your
feet on each side of the centerline and keep them there. Even as you
flare, don't try to put the airplane on the centerline. Put your butt
on the centerline instead. If you do, you'll land on target every
time.

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Once established on a short final, use the AILERONS to keep the
airplane over the extended centerline of the runway. Use the
rudders independantly to keep the nose pointed toward the far
end of the runway. Once the wheels are firmly on the ground
you go ahead and steer with the rudders. Still, however, toward
the far end of the runway! :-) Keep trying to keep the airplane
over the centerline with the ailerons even when you are on the
ground. It doesn't hurt a thing, and helps a lot with directional
control.
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Just hang in there. I, like others here, think the whole flare thing is a
feeling. Although I have noticed that for me I would momentarily pause at
level flight and wait for the sink. It almost feels like the seat falls out
from under you. It is not violent, it is subtle so you have to feel for it.
Then start an nice smooth rotation right to the stall hour and wait for it
to settle on the runway. For short field let the sink feeling settle a
little more than usual.

As far as the center line. On final, line it up between your peddles. Allow
it to slightly drift toward the center of the plane as you progress down
final. Most people want to line the center line up on their dominate eye.
Normally if you are right handed it is your right eye.
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Center it, Aim it, 60 knots (Cessna 152, anyway)
Your best bet is to roll out on the centerline for final. If you're
not on the centerline, sideslip. Sideslipping is great because you
can move quite far while still being parallel to the runway. If
you try just using the ailerons to center, you will be very frustrated
as you overturn the centerline and "overcorrect yourself to death".

Make sure you don't make the mistake of thinking the ailerons and
rudder are "welded" together - they are separate controls and a little
rudder goes a long way in centering over the theshold.

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There are two parts to road out of the "never gonna get it" stage.

First is technique.
Make sure your approaches are as consistant as possible. A
consistant approach makes a consistant landing. If you're flying
from a controlled airport where you must constantly adjust your
pattern, try a couple sessions at a quiet uncontrolled airport
where you can fly a consistant pattern. You may find it helps
you to make a written list of what you should do at each point
ie "abeam numbers-pick a point to track towards, power to 1700,
10 deg flaps, trim for 70 kts. Check track. Rwy halfway between
wing and tail, pick a point to turn towards, check power 1500,
20 deg flaps, trim for 65 kts. Check track, look at runway rectange,
ask "am I too high or low?" Extended runway center just ahead
of nose (or as required for wind), turn final, pick aim point
and be sure it doesn't move, adjust power if necessary (decrease
if aim point is dropping in windshield, increase if aim point is
rising in windshield), 30 deg flaps if necessary, trim for 60 kts."
If you're not a written list kind of guy, you might try "chair
flying" through a pattern where you visualize everything which
happens, or recite what you need to do out loud. Strive to turn
final at the same height and distance every time. Go over this
list with your CFI before the lesson.

Airspeed is critical, be sure it is in and *trimmed*. If you're
having trouble with the pattern, you might just practice the
pattern or practice a rectangular ground reference maneuver using
a road as a runway, to help get the hang of the power changes and
when to turn.

You may find it helpful to ask your CFI to do the first landing,
while you watch. As you cross the threshold, look down at the
end of the runway and note both how the end of the runway looks,
and how the grass, runway edges, lights etc look in your peripheral
vision when your CFI starts to flare. Watch where the nose is
relative to the end of the runway as he flares (this is different
depending on how tall you are and what plane you're flying). Note
that the flare doesn't so much increase the pitch of the nose, as
constantly increase the elevator to keep the nose in the same place.
Now when you fly, try to reproduce this view. Ask for feedback --
too high, too low, flaring too soon, too late, too slow, too fast.
If you lose "the Picture" of what a good landing should look like,
ask for another demo.

You might try full stop landings if you're doing T&Gs, so that
you have extra time to think about and talk through each pattern
and landing with your CFI.
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