Introduction
Transitioning from a Seminole to an E175 took some getting used to, especially the landings. As with any other learning endeavor, I cobbled together bits of wisdom from several sources and prior experiences to develop a technique of my own. Many of the ingredients I grasped at an understanding level, the second tier in the Aviation Instructor RUAC hierarchy (AIH 3-14). Getting to the real light bulb moments in application and correlation took a few more steps, so I’d like to share some of my takeaways to help others through the transition from GA twins to an E175 more quickly. At its core, there are three main differences that make landing an E175 different. A thorough understanding of these will help put the puzzle pieces together faster when you start in the sim and later on, the airplane.
Swept-wing aerodynamics and high-lift devices:
Swept-wing jets are designed to cruise at high Mach numbers. Recall the basic lift equation, L= ½ CL * S * ρ * α * v^2. If we want to go fast and optimize a wing for a high v^2, then we need it to be thin and swept to reduce drag. A consequence of this is that as v^2 decreases, there’s only so much we can play with α before we stop producing enough lift and stall. This is why jets have elaborate high-lift devices. On the E175, we have slats along the leading edge that go slightly forward and down. These add camber to the airfoil and keep airflow attached at a higher α, thus increasing both CL and α-max. On the trailing edge, we have double-slotted fowler flaps that extend out and down, increasing camber (CL) and chord (and thus S). These high-lift devices constitute a triple whammy on three of the four variables, thus allowing us a much broader range for v^2. I strongly recommend Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators and Handling the Big Jets, by D. P. Davies, for more on that.
Inertia and energy management
When you go from a 2-ton trainer to a 40-ton jet, it behaves a bit differently due to its much greater inertia. In a Seminole, you get a pretty instantaneous reaction to a yoke input, and there’s not much inertia about an axis because everything’s clustered near the CG. In the E175, on the other hand, you need to make an initial input to get it to rotate around an axis, then dial back some of the input once you’ve achieved the desired rate change, then a counter-input to get it to stop rotating about that axis. It’s like helming a heavy boat versus a dinghy: you need to be 1-2 seconds ahead with your input to keep the boat on track. Keep that in mind in the E175 and life will be easier.
The same way a big boat won’t turn on a dime, neither will it stop. The E175 will force you to plan things out a bit more to go down and slow down. The old trick of throttles back, props forward is no longer an option (again, Davies has a whole section on this). 3, 2, 1 are your new friends:
Throttle response
Jets have a slower reaction time than piston engines, so you need to work on making an input and then leaving it for 1-2 seconds to gauge the output, then reassess. Davies has a good section on this. In the E175, most adjustments should be about a quarter to a half knob width. If you’re more visual than kinesthetic, you can either aim for 3% N1, or use the airspeed trend tape. The advantage of N1 is that it’s easier to assess what worked, what was too much, and what was too little, then refine your next input with that knowledge. The downside of that is that you need to bring your scan across to the EICAS. The trend tape is right in your face, but shows less about why it’s trending (Updraft? Downdraft? Wind change? Overcorrection?). Try both and see what works for you.
Grasping these three concepts will set up the rest of the article. One final note: sim time is generally expensive and rationed stingily, so you want to make the most of your time in there. Before you do this yourself in your own sim session, I strongly recommend backseating someone else’s sim session after you’ve read all of this, especially to see the relationship between pitch and FPV (and in turn, α) while decelerating and making configuration changes. That will help connect the dots and prime you for what to look for when it comes time to do it yourself, so you’ll get better faster. If your schoolhouse is heavy on autopilot usage, go ahead and use it as a tool within the curriculum, but pay close attention to what the airplane is doing so that when you get an inop AP or need to hand fly, you’re better prepared. Let’s jump in.
Swept-wing aerodynamics and high-lift devices:
Swept-wing jets are designed to cruise at high Mach numbers. Recall the basic lift equation, L= ½ CL * S * ρ * α * v^2. If we want to go fast and optimize a wing for a high v^2, then we need it to be thin and swept to reduce drag. A consequence of this is that as v^2 decreases, there’s only so much we can play with α before we stop producing enough lift and stall. This is why jets have elaborate high-lift devices. On the E175, we have slats along the leading edge that go slightly forward and down. These add camber to the airfoil and keep airflow attached at a higher α, thus increasing both CL and α-max. On the trailing edge, we have double-slotted fowler flaps that extend out and down, increasing camber (CL) and chord (and thus S). These high-lift devices constitute a triple whammy on three of the four variables, thus allowing us a much broader range for v^2. I strongly recommend Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators and Handling the Big Jets, by D. P. Davies, for more on that.
Inertia and energy management
When you go from a 2-ton trainer to a 40-ton jet, it behaves a bit differently due to its much greater inertia. In a Seminole, you get a pretty instantaneous reaction to a yoke input, and there’s not much inertia about an axis because everything’s clustered near the CG. In the E175, on the other hand, you need to make an initial input to get it to rotate around an axis, then dial back some of the input once you’ve achieved the desired rate change, then a counter-input to get it to stop rotating about that axis. It’s like helming a heavy boat versus a dinghy: you need to be 1-2 seconds ahead with your input to keep the boat on track. Keep that in mind in the E175 and life will be easier.
The same way a big boat won’t turn on a dime, neither will it stop. The E175 will force you to plan things out a bit more to go down and slow down. The old trick of throttles back, props forward is no longer an option (again, Davies has a whole section on this). 3, 2, 1 are your new friends:
- 3:1 rule: plan 300 ft/nm or 3 miles per 1000 feet to descend at roughly 3 degrees.
- 20 knots per mile deceleration with full boards.
- 10 knots per mile clean.
Throttle response
Jets have a slower reaction time than piston engines, so you need to work on making an input and then leaving it for 1-2 seconds to gauge the output, then reassess. Davies has a good section on this. In the E175, most adjustments should be about a quarter to a half knob width. If you’re more visual than kinesthetic, you can either aim for 3% N1, or use the airspeed trend tape. The advantage of N1 is that it’s easier to assess what worked, what was too much, and what was too little, then refine your next input with that knowledge. The downside of that is that you need to bring your scan across to the EICAS. The trend tape is right in your face, but shows less about why it’s trending (Updraft? Downdraft? Wind change? Overcorrection?). Try both and see what works for you.
Grasping these three concepts will set up the rest of the article. One final note: sim time is generally expensive and rationed stingily, so you want to make the most of your time in there. Before you do this yourself in your own sim session, I strongly recommend backseating someone else’s sim session after you’ve read all of this, especially to see the relationship between pitch and FPV (and in turn, α) while decelerating and making configuration changes. That will help connect the dots and prime you for what to look for when it comes time to do it yourself, so you’ll get better faster. If your schoolhouse is heavy on autopilot usage, go ahead and use it as a tool within the curriculum, but pay close attention to what the airplane is doing so that when you get an inop AP or need to hand fly, you’re better prepared. Let’s jump in.
Setup and slowdown
Let’s say you get dropped off on a STAR at about 5000 feet and 250 knots. Approach then gives you a slowdown to 210. As with any other plane, roll the throttles back and let the airspeed start bleeding off. You’ll need nose-up trim to maintain level flight. Your airplane symbol, representing pitch, will need to come up to maintain level flight (v^2 goes down, so α needs to go up to maintain L). Your FPV should stay right on the horizon. When you get close to 210, you’ll be around 5 degrees nose-up, sometimes more if you’re heavy. Somewhere around 210 you’ll probably want to start grabbing flaps 1 (some friends told me their operation prohibits F1 at >210 KIAS, so follow that if that applies to you). Check out the sketch below at right. Flaps 1 gives you a pretty mild increase in CL, due to some slat movement and mostly aft-ward flap movement that increases wing area. It also seems like flaps 1 takes pretty long to deploy, so if you’re hand flying, all you need is a small nudge of nose down to keep that FPV on the horizon (more CL and S, less α).
As you decelerate through 215, gradually start walking the throttles up so that you converge on 210, generally 65ish N1. If George (AP) is flying, note the pitch change. If you get a descent from 5000 to 2000, either go idle, or at least a knob width or 20ish N1 from your starting value, that should get you started downhill. The FBW thrust couple compensation does a pretty good job, so all you need to do is nudge the nose down to get FPV around -3, then maybe a click of trim to maintain 210 KIAS. If you’re on AP, FLCH is often your friend if you’re expecting vectors to final as soon as you hustle down, otherwise FPA -3.0 should work. As you level, roll back on the throttles to 65ish N1 or start with a full knob width and then keep the speed trend centered.
Let’s say approach slows you to 190 through your base, so you should think to start grabbing more flaps. Flaps 2 at 190 will give you a similar sight picture to flaps 1 at 210, because you’ve added S and CL without changing the chord line too much. Next, you get “Airline 123, right turn xxx, maintain 2000 feet until established and 170 knots until 5-mile final, cleared approach.” Now you need to slow down, and in a brief moment, go down as well. Flaps 3 will give you a lot more drag and help you go down. Something to note for flaps 3 is what happens with the wing (see flap sketch and PFD drawing): the trailing edge flaps now extend out and twice as far down as they were at flaps 2 (20 versus 10 degrees), which rotates the chord line and results in a more aft-ward lift vector (compare angles of the purple lines on F3 with other flap configs). This gives you a massive increase in CL and α and will lead to ballooning due to all the resulting excess lift if you leave the pitch where it is. On previous flap extensions, you typically end up with a 2-3 degree pitch over FPV. With flaps 3, you need to plan a pretty big (3ish degree) nose-down pitch input as they extend and be ready to add a few forward trim clicks to reduce α. In a light airplane at 180 knots, you may even see the FPV go above the airplane symbol (compare PFD drawings above of F2/190 and F3/180). As you intercept and start down, watch your airspeed trend and use the rubber speedbrakes (early gear extension) if you’re fast and need more drag. The gear will also give you drag below your CG, which will give a slight nose-down couple. I think this why a lot of pilots like to do gear down/flaps 3 simultaneously. When starting out, I recommend giving yourself ample margin on whatever configuration gates your operator requires, there’s little benefit in late configuration.
Something that may be new to you, especially when they give you “170 to 5-miles” is an ongoing deceleration on final until you hit your “airspeed bug” gate. If, like me, you flew final in Cessnas and Seminoles at constant airspeed from the FAF to mins with only small adjustments, slowing down on final will be a new thing. As you slow, you will be in the game of trading v^2 for α, so you’ll need to gradually pitch up and give yourself some nose-up trim clicks on an ongoing basis to avoid drifting low on glidepath. When you go flaps 5, watch the jump on the speed bug when using FMS speeds. Flaps 5 doesn’t change the trailing edge; it just gives you more slat. Think of it as a license to increase pitch without detaching airflow. Flaps 5 also shifts the front of the chord line back down, getting you back to a more normal pitch angle about 3 degrees above FPV at 160 knots, so get ready to pitch and trim up again. Let’s say you go flaps 5 at 5 miles to start slowing down from 170 to Vref (let’s call it 130 today). Recall that lift scales quadratically with speed, so from 170 down to 130 you end up with a 71% decrease in lift at the same α (170^2/130^2=1.71). This means that α needs to increase a huge amount to make up for that (usually about a 3-degree pitch increase in total). Once stable on final, your FPV will be -3 while your pitch will be about +3, give or take (depending on weight, weather, CG, etc., see bottom right PFD drawing). As you get close to your Vref, roll onto the throttles and aim for 53% N1. That’s usually a good number to start with, then make 2% adjustments as needed or walk the throttles up and back in 1/4-knob increments. Be mindful of the response times to avoid overcontrolling. If you’re using AT, ghost the throttles and be prepared to make quick adjustments for wind changes (the AT can be slow sometimes).
Let’s say approach slows you to 190 through your base, so you should think to start grabbing more flaps. Flaps 2 at 190 will give you a similar sight picture to flaps 1 at 210, because you’ve added S and CL without changing the chord line too much. Next, you get “Airline 123, right turn xxx, maintain 2000 feet until established and 170 knots until 5-mile final, cleared approach.” Now you need to slow down, and in a brief moment, go down as well. Flaps 3 will give you a lot more drag and help you go down. Something to note for flaps 3 is what happens with the wing (see flap sketch and PFD drawing): the trailing edge flaps now extend out and twice as far down as they were at flaps 2 (20 versus 10 degrees), which rotates the chord line and results in a more aft-ward lift vector (compare angles of the purple lines on F3 with other flap configs). This gives you a massive increase in CL and α and will lead to ballooning due to all the resulting excess lift if you leave the pitch where it is. On previous flap extensions, you typically end up with a 2-3 degree pitch over FPV. With flaps 3, you need to plan a pretty big (3ish degree) nose-down pitch input as they extend and be ready to add a few forward trim clicks to reduce α. In a light airplane at 180 knots, you may even see the FPV go above the airplane symbol (compare PFD drawings above of F2/190 and F3/180). As you intercept and start down, watch your airspeed trend and use the rubber speedbrakes (early gear extension) if you’re fast and need more drag. The gear will also give you drag below your CG, which will give a slight nose-down couple. I think this why a lot of pilots like to do gear down/flaps 3 simultaneously. When starting out, I recommend giving yourself ample margin on whatever configuration gates your operator requires, there’s little benefit in late configuration.
Something that may be new to you, especially when they give you “170 to 5-miles” is an ongoing deceleration on final until you hit your “airspeed bug” gate. If, like me, you flew final in Cessnas and Seminoles at constant airspeed from the FAF to mins with only small adjustments, slowing down on final will be a new thing. As you slow, you will be in the game of trading v^2 for α, so you’ll need to gradually pitch up and give yourself some nose-up trim clicks on an ongoing basis to avoid drifting low on glidepath. When you go flaps 5, watch the jump on the speed bug when using FMS speeds. Flaps 5 doesn’t change the trailing edge; it just gives you more slat. Think of it as a license to increase pitch without detaching airflow. Flaps 5 also shifts the front of the chord line back down, getting you back to a more normal pitch angle about 3 degrees above FPV at 160 knots, so get ready to pitch and trim up again. Let’s say you go flaps 5 at 5 miles to start slowing down from 170 to Vref (let’s call it 130 today). Recall that lift scales quadratically with speed, so from 170 down to 130 you end up with a 71% decrease in lift at the same α (170^2/130^2=1.71). This means that α needs to increase a huge amount to make up for that (usually about a 3-degree pitch increase in total). Once stable on final, your FPV will be -3 while your pitch will be about +3, give or take (depending on weight, weather, CG, etc., see bottom right PFD drawing). As you get close to your Vref, roll onto the throttles and aim for 53% N1. That’s usually a good number to start with, then make 2% adjustments as needed or walk the throttles up and back in 1/4-knob increments. Be mindful of the response times to avoid overcontrolling. If you’re using AT, ghost the throttles and be prepared to make quick adjustments for wind changes (the AT can be slow sometimes).
Short Final and Aimpoints
The glideslope antenna is a few feet below you, so if the GS takes you to the 1000-footers and you follow the GS, your eyes will start to wander above the 1000-footers on short final. One of my sim instructors, Steve, pointed this out and recommended easing the nose down just a bit and aiming your eyeballs at the 1000-footers if you’re VMC inside 500 AGL. That will help you get on target and land on them. My variation on this technique is to look at the far end of the fourth centerline stripe, which is right between the thousand-footers. If you’re in the soup and expect to be all the way to mins, it might be worth planning an aimpoint based on where the GS spits you out, runway length and SOP permitting. On a 3-degree glidepath, we go about 20 feet laterally for every foot we descend, so for each 200-foot centerline stripe, we have a 10-foot height change. If it’s a normal 50-foot TCH, you know it should put your GS antenna on the 1000-footers, so your eyeballs should be looking at stripe 5 when you break out. If the approach chart says TCH=60, it might help to plan stripe 6 so that you’re not destabilizing your glide on short final. RoT: aim point stripe is TCH/10.
Several larger airports have runways with a higher TCH and PAPIs that put you at 60 or 70 feet (usually for larger airplanes). Usually, your runway numbers assume TCH=50. If you aim for stripe 4 on a TCH=50 GPA, you will likely go below the TCH=70 PAPIs on short final. You have two options here:
Several larger airports have runways with a higher TCH and PAPIs that put you at 60 or 70 feet (usually for larger airplanes). Usually, your runway numbers assume TCH=50. If you aim for stripe 4 on a TCH=50 GPA, you will likely go below the TCH=70 PAPIs on short final. You have two options here:
- Stick with TCH=50 and brief your pilot monitoring that you will likely see three red on short final.
- Move your target stripe T to abeam the PAPIs using the 1 stripe per 10-feet TCH rule and add 200 feet landing distance for each 10 feet above TCH=50).
The Flare: Introduction
If you’re coming out of 1000-hours in small GA planes, the flare in the E175 will feel weird due to the different design and behavior of the aircraft on final. In a Cessna 172, you fly final at Vref (typically 1.3 Vs1) with a nose-down attitude, then round out and flare to bleed off the additive, and finally touch down at about your stall speed. This involves going from 5ish degrees nose-down to 3ish degrees nose up. In a Seminole, you need a bit less angular change in the flare because a) the main gear oleos extend further down and hit the ground earlier than the nose and b) bringing both engines to idle substantially destroys lift over the wing and helps it settle, so there’s a bit more of a “fly it onto the runway” approach. The E175, by contrast, has a much lower speed additive. Take a look at this:
Some of my flare technique comes from James Albright’s wonderful article on landings and aimpoint flare geometry mixed with things I took from the schoolhouse, AOM/AFM (very little is in there), guidance from several captains, and adaptations of my modified Jacobson Flare techniques from the 172 and Seminole. I've written a more detailed piece on why I use the intermediate and secondary aimpoint (ISAP) technique and how I figured out the geometry; here I'll focus just on the takeaways and application of those findings.
- Vref is close to Green Dot
- Green Dot is 1.3 * shaker load factor
- Load factor scales linearly with lift
- Lift scales quadratically with speed
- Therefore, load factor scales with v^2
- Therefore, Green Dot is √1.3 shaker speed = 1.14 * shaker speed
- Therefore, Vref is close to 1.14 * shaker speed
Some of my flare technique comes from James Albright’s wonderful article on landings and aimpoint flare geometry mixed with things I took from the schoolhouse, AOM/AFM (very little is in there), guidance from several captains, and adaptations of my modified Jacobson Flare techniques from the 172 and Seminole. I've written a more detailed piece on why I use the intermediate and secondary aimpoint (ISAP) technique and how I figured out the geometry; here I'll focus just on the takeaways and application of those findings.
Seating position and lookdown
Seating position is crucial if you plan to use the flare cutoff technique. I wondered why my flare was inconsistent for a while until I understood and fixed the issue that I had. If you’re a pilot of average height, you should be able to line your eyeballs up with the alignment balls under the windshield center post and see down the glareshield to the windshield heating elements. If you’re over 6 foot, you will likely have to scoot back, which will obscure your view of the heating element and make it harder to judge your flare cutoff. The solution I’ve adopted is scooting my chair so that my eyeballs are in the same angled line with the glareshield, which puts them behind and above the three alignment balls. Bottom line: if you can’t see the heater element, adjust until you can.
When and how to flare
As you get close to the runway, aim your eyeballs at your target stripe T, usually the top of stripe 4.
- If you're an auditory person, listen to the radar altimeter count down "50...40...30," then start flaring just after the "30" callout.
- If you're more visual, hold your profile until you start seeing the beginning of stripe 2 (or T-2 if using a different stripe) go under the glareshield heater element (this is why eyeball alignment is so important).
Your flare should take 4 seconds from initiation to touchdown. If you want to use the ISAP method, follow this exact sequence:
- Stay on profile with your eyeballs going for the top of stripe 4, wait until you start seeing stripe 2 go under the glareshield and heater element, then start flaring.
- Aim your eyeballs at the top of stripe 5 for one second and make that your new aimpoint.
- Aim your eyeballs at the base of stripe 7 or the 1500-footers for the second second.
- Aim your eyeballs at the middle of stripe 9 or the 2000-footers or for the third second.
- Aim your eyeballs at stripe 15 or the far end of the 3000-footers for the fourth second.
As your mains touch, your nose gear is still 3 feet off the runway, so you need to fly it down to the runway deliberately to avoid slamming it down. If your mains had a firm touchdown, that will give you a slight nose-down pitch couple, so you may need to hold or even add a bit of back pressure to arrest that and then fly the nose to the pavement.
Throttles
According to the AOM Volume 2 14-03-20, the autothrottles begin to retard at 30 feet to reach idle at touchdown. If you use them a lot, your flare technique will likely adapt to the gradual throttle ease they give you. One captain pointed out to me that the AFM 5-12 says that landing performance is predicated on idle at 50 feet, so you will use a bit more runway if you leave the ATs on. If you need to make the book numbers, you’ll need to override the ATs at 50 feet. The more rapid thrust reduction will lead to a slight nose-down from greater deceleration and a prompter reduction in the thrust-pitch couple, so plan a bit more back pressure to avoid the aircraft slamming down. If you’re coming in with a big speed additive for Stall Prot Ice Speeds or wind, you may also want to plan to ease them back around 60-70 feet to hit your Vref number at 50 feet. Especially when you’re fast, using a secondary aimpoint will help you keep the plane coming down instead of floating. If you see your eyeballs coming up above your secondary aimpoint, you'll immediately know you're over-flaring, so ease up and let the plane keep flying toward the runway.
Crosswinds
The E175 should be flown down final in a crab, then de-crabbed right around 20 feet as you’re entering the flare. Most of what I learned is from Albright’s article and Barry Schiff’s comment to it, I highly recommend reading those. If you’re coming in from a straight-winged plane, one thing that will take some getting used to is the required upwind aileron. In a straight-winged plane, kicking the crab accelerates your upwind wing a bit and decelerates your downwind wing, so you need a nudge of aileron in the flare. In a swept-wing jet, your upwind wing has a more chordwise airflow, which means the thickness/chord ratio (thus CL) and the effective span both increase, leading to a massive lift increase. Meanwhile, the downwind wing has a lower effective T/C and span, so it loses a bunch of lift.
You need to fight this and the speed differential with aileron. If you’re only kicking out a few degrees of crab, the speed-induced lift change is minimal, so you basically crank the yoke over and then hold it there as you give the rudder a small nudge to get centered. From 20 feet, you should plan about 2 seconds to straighten it out, then use the last second for any final adjustments before touchdown. Keep the aileron input in and “fly it through the rollout.” As the airplane decelerates, your apparent wind vector will move aft, exacerbating the T/C and span issues, and your ailerons will become less effective, so plan to add more roll input.
By a happy accident of trigonometry, your upwind flight deck displacement can be approximated as XWC/3. Crab angle is asin(XWC/Vref), and upwind displacement is 41.7*sin(XWC). Punching in Vref=130 and XWC=15 kts gives us 4.8 feet, thus the RoT. If you fly with the XY wind arrows, just glance at that on final, divide that number by 3, and fly that many feet upwind of centerline. Small changes in Vref won’t materially alter the rule.
You need to fight this and the speed differential with aileron. If you’re only kicking out a few degrees of crab, the speed-induced lift change is minimal, so you basically crank the yoke over and then hold it there as you give the rudder a small nudge to get centered. From 20 feet, you should plan about 2 seconds to straighten it out, then use the last second for any final adjustments before touchdown. Keep the aileron input in and “fly it through the rollout.” As the airplane decelerates, your apparent wind vector will move aft, exacerbating the T/C and span issues, and your ailerons will become less effective, so plan to add more roll input.
By a happy accident of trigonometry, your upwind flight deck displacement can be approximated as XWC/3. Crab angle is asin(XWC/Vref), and upwind displacement is 41.7*sin(XWC). Punching in Vref=130 and XWC=15 kts gives us 4.8 feet, thus the RoT. If you fly with the XY wind arrows, just glance at that on final, divide that number by 3, and fly that many feet upwind of centerline. Small changes in Vref won’t materially alter the rule.
Braking and Reversers
The carbon brakes on the E175 are great at stopping the aircraft under most circumstances. Reversers are most effective at high speed, so have a good argument for leaving them in your toolbox if you plan not to use them (e.g. landing on the 28s at SFO and rolling through the 1s). Safety should be your top priority, so there are some situations where you definitely should plan to use the reversers:
- Slippery or contaminated runways (pretty self-explanatory).
- Short runways (pretty self-explanatory).
- Hot/high/heavy: when you’re heavy or go someplace like Denver in the summer, you run the risk of cooking the brakes. You will fly a faster TAS on approach due to the thin air, and have a correspondingly fast GS on touchdown. Kinetic energy scales as mass * GS^2, so you'll want to set autobrakes LOW (generally the computer is smarter than we are about applying pressure to avoid overheating) and then select reverse so that the resulting drag chews up more of that kinetic energy and you dump less into the brakes.
Sim-isms
The sims I flew had a few habits that were different from the airplane:
- More float: the sim liked to float more than the airplane does.
- Even more float in a crosswind: the sim nose comes up almost by itself in a crosswind landing.
Errors
Floating
If you find yourself floating a bit (easy to spot with secondary aimpoint), you can simply ease some backpressure to help get the mains settled. Unlike in a Cessna, you have plenty of air under your nosewheel to play with (3ish feet), so use some of that to get the plane on the ground. You will bleed speed while floating, and as we already discussed, you don't have much to spare. If you’re gobbling up 200 feet a second, you need to act promptly. Keep in mind the pitch inertia of the aircraft: once you let the nose down, you may need to arrest that pitching with a bit of backpressure when the mains touch to avoid the nose slamming down. In any case, have a go around cutoff that has some margin within your SOP.
Late Flare
If you use the ISAP technique and start your flare late, there's a good chance you'll have a solidly firm touchdown as the airplane's flare arc intersects the runway at a substantially steeper angle. If you think you're late to the party, immediately look up to the secondary aimpoint at the back of the TDZ and start flying your airplane up to that. You might still have a slightly firm landing and might be deeper in the TDZ, but you'll still be safe and inside the box.
Profile errors
If you’re used to making small tweaks to your profile in GA aircraft and expect a quick response, you may be at risk of over-controlling minor profile deviations on short final in the E175. If you’re looking at the runway and realize that your eyeball FPV is a stripe long but you’re still on your target sink rate and GPA, your best move on a runway where your numbers allow it is to make that stripe your new aimpoint and move your flare cutoff a stripe long as well, then you will land roughly on that new target, well within the TDZ. If you’re looking at stripe 3 on short final, you don’t have much wiggle room vertically, so you should shallow your descent to stripe 4 or 5 to give yourself sufficient TCH. Keep in mind your mains will hit 313 feet behind your eyeball FPV, and each stripe is 10 feet of profile error. If you have an eyeball FPV on the piano keys, numbers, or stripes 1-2, that should be an immediate go-around.
If you find yourself floating a bit (easy to spot with secondary aimpoint), you can simply ease some backpressure to help get the mains settled. Unlike in a Cessna, you have plenty of air under your nosewheel to play with (3ish feet), so use some of that to get the plane on the ground. You will bleed speed while floating, and as we already discussed, you don't have much to spare. If you’re gobbling up 200 feet a second, you need to act promptly. Keep in mind the pitch inertia of the aircraft: once you let the nose down, you may need to arrest that pitching with a bit of backpressure when the mains touch to avoid the nose slamming down. In any case, have a go around cutoff that has some margin within your SOP.
Late Flare
If you use the ISAP technique and start your flare late, there's a good chance you'll have a solidly firm touchdown as the airplane's flare arc intersects the runway at a substantially steeper angle. If you think you're late to the party, immediately look up to the secondary aimpoint at the back of the TDZ and start flying your airplane up to that. You might still have a slightly firm landing and might be deeper in the TDZ, but you'll still be safe and inside the box.
Profile errors
If you’re used to making small tweaks to your profile in GA aircraft and expect a quick response, you may be at risk of over-controlling minor profile deviations on short final in the E175. If you’re looking at the runway and realize that your eyeball FPV is a stripe long but you’re still on your target sink rate and GPA, your best move on a runway where your numbers allow it is to make that stripe your new aimpoint and move your flare cutoff a stripe long as well, then you will land roughly on that new target, well within the TDZ. If you’re looking at stripe 3 on short final, you don’t have much wiggle room vertically, so you should shallow your descent to stripe 4 or 5 to give yourself sufficient TCH. Keep in mind your mains will hit 313 feet behind your eyeball FPV, and each stripe is 10 feet of profile error. If you have an eyeball FPV on the piano keys, numbers, or stripes 1-2, that should be an immediate go-around.
Summary
To sum it up, here are the big things to keep in mind when landing the E175:
- Get your seat position right and keep it consistent.
- Flaps 3 is a big nose-down pitch change, plan for it.
- Bleeding speed on final requires constant upward pitch and trim changes.
- Look at stripe 4, then start flaring when you see the start of stripe 2 go under the windshield heater element.
- Make a 4-count to the far end of the touchdown markings or TDZLs.