SPC100 [CS] Creamy Yogurt — Landings Then and Now

Eighteen years ago, I was a student pilot with a recorder plugged into my headset, learning to land in front of the world. For Episode 100, I went back to those original recordings.

You'll hear the cockpit audio from my own training landings in 2008, what I said about them on the show back then, and what I hear in them now as a CFI. There's the herky-jerky on final, the skipper, the flat landings, my first solo, a 16-knot crosswind, and my instructors saying the same few things over and over.

Then we flip it. I take you along on a landing lesson with my student Cole at Falcon Field, and you'll hear me say a lot of those same things from the right seat. You'll also hear the lesson that mattered most that morning, and it had nothing to do with the flare.

In between is the episode I've wanted to make for years: how not to bounce a landing. We cover the stabilized approach and why I now expect a go-around on every landing, then the roundout, the flare, and why you hold the airplane, not the yoke.

What's your first-solo landing story? Tell me at studentpilotcast.com/radiocheck.

Links:

• Radio Check (leave me a voicemail): https://studentpilotcast.com/radiocheck
• The Friday Flight Brief newsletter: https://studentpilotcast.com/flightbrief/
• All episodes: https://studentpilotcast.com/episodes/
• COPA, Operation Zero Ep. 3 (the stabilized-approach video I mention): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks67TD7aSqU
• COPA, "Are You Stable?" (stabilized-approach criteria): https://cirruspilots.org/Publications/Articles/are-you-stable

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for the student and only for the situation that they happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2026, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams