Landing hot

Twice in the last couple of flights I've had slight directional control issues when landing the ASK-21 in a crosswind.

Each time, it has been a good touchdown but then a sudden swerve to one side and a not so pretty rollout.  Nothing to worry too much about, but it reeks of sloppy technique.

The complicating factor is the crosswind, of course, but after some analysis, I think it goes beyond that.  I think I've been landing hot -that is, too fast.  The right speed to fly when coming down final, barring gusty conditions, is right around 55 knots.  The ASK-21 stalls at considerably below that speed, perhaps 37 knots or even less.

Both times I've swerved, I've been right on the approach speed.  Problem is, I think, is that I'm touching down at that speed.  Touching down too fast means you have too much energy in the glider and it makes it easy to bounce.  In both cases, I've bounced.  Once because I didn't flare quite enough, the other time because I crossed the taxiway which is a slight mound, and bounced into the air briefly.  Each time, the crosswind swung me a bit and I touched down in a crab and swerved.

I've been touching down too fast because I was not happy with getting too slow on landing in previous attempts.  Those touchdowns were all quite good but I thought I was slowing too much in the flare.  I need to re-evaluate that.  Previously, I was flaring at just the right altitude and slowing to touch down, just a bit low with the tail first.  But recently, I've been touching down faster in that crosswind, probably because I'm worried about getting blown sideways as I touchdown.

Also, I may still be carrying a bit too much altitude into the landing.  I'm using full spoilers to get to the point I want to touch down on and I'm still going 55 knots when I get there.  In the ASK-21, if you do that, you can get a rather quick settling of the glider if you let it slow up too high and that requires you to put the spoilers in a little bit and pick that speed back up.  An unstable approach leads to a poor landing.  I'm going to work on trying to prevent that from happening.

It's a delicate balance between floating in that flare too long and touching down with too much energy.  I'm going to redouble my efforts to try and put the airplane down where I want to and stop where I intend to, all at the right speeds and numbers.