Learning to Land: The Role of Perceptual Feedback and Individual Differences

Over 50 years ago, Langewiesche (1944/1972) commented that learning to land was the most difficult part of flying training. This was largely due to the difficulty of perceiving the aircraft's position relative to the glideslope angle (GSA). However, Langewiesche felt that this judgement was a skill that could be taught, and detailed several perceptual strategies that pilots could use to determine their position vis-a-vis the GSA. The most important of these he termed 'perspective', known in the psychological literature as form ratio.