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102 U. S. CIVIL AERONAUTICS AUTHORITY

which the student forms. Usually an advanced student does not execute a take-off nearly as well, or with as good a demonstration of judgment, as he did on his solo flight.
As a general rule such students will either hold the ship on the ground too long after it is ready to leave, or they will allow the atil to remain too low, resulting in stalled take-offs and too steep a climb. Attention should be given to the take-off on all check or instruction rides throughout the student's training and his habits moulded into the correct pattern. Constant nagging does more harm than good, but well-timed instructions and suggestions will greatly assist in the formation of proper habits.
A thorough knowledge of "take-off" principles, both in theory and practice, will often prove of extreme value to the pilo throughout his career. They will often prevent an attempt that would result in critical conditions when a pilot with a less well-founded knowledge and technique would fail and crack up.
the take-off, though relatively simple, often presents the most hazards of any part of flying. The importance of thorough knowledge and faultless techniques and judgement cannot be overemphasized.

LANDINGS

To the average student, at the start of his career, landings are the sum and total of flying. He feels that if can just learn to land the airplane he will have learned about all there is to know.
This attitude, if allowed to exist, results in two unfortunate mental conditions: (1) mental hazards, based upon this idea of the undue importance, may hinder progress due to overeagerness; (2) the student may be prone to quit after a solo and refuse further instruction under the impression that he has learned all that is necessary for him to know.
If the student has been properly instructed and handled, neither of these ideas will exist. The landing will be only another maneuver, the logical result of all the preparation that has gone before and one of a long series of extensions of principles by which the student has progressed, adn will continue to progress, toward his goal of becoming a competent pilot.
Any landing is the last of a series of events leading up to it. The take-off must precede it, followed in order by the climb, climbing turns, normal turns, straight and level flight, more turns, the glide and gliding turns. During these, altitude must have been controlled, traffic observed, and all maneuvers performed safely and with a fair degree of proficiency.
The practice which has been devolved to stalls, as well as the instruction received in glides, will prove of great benefit to the student in the practice of landings. Having followed the instructor through on landings since the initial flights, he will have some idea of the process and the sounds, with reference to the relative attitudes of the ship, incident to a landing. A landing is nothing more than a very slow mushing stall started about 10 feet above the ground and progressively increased and continued as altitude is lost until the complete stall occurs just as the wheels and tail touch the ground or preferably just an instant before. (see fig. 10.)