The HondaJet Owners & Pilots Association (HJOPA) has released a video and developed a training program that outline the correct landing technique for the HA-420 HondaJet. A spate of recent and past HondaJet runway excursions has raised concerns in the business aviation community, and HJOPA chair of safety and board member David DeCurtis is leading the effort to make sure HondaJet pilots understand precisely how to prevent them.
According to AIN research, there have been 21 HondaJet runway excursions, including nine since publication of this comparison of excursions between aircraft types on Sept. 1, 2023. The latest took place at Chubu Centrair International Airport (RJGG) in Japan on April 13.
The new HJOPA Proficient Pilot Program (P3) is multi-pronged, according to DeCurtis. It consists of a video showing why it’s important to use the correct technique when landing a HondaJet and how to do it, a mentorship component, and data gathering using AirSync hardware to capture flight data that is then uploaded to ForeFlight’s CloudAhoy flight debriefing software for post-flight analysis. The CloudAhoy analysis is available for individual pilots and also as de-identified data for trend analysis across the AirSync-equipped HondaJet fleet.
HJOPA, Honda Aircraft, and HondaJet training provider FlightSafety International worked together to produce the video, according to DeCurtis. “[Honda Aircraft] has been very supportive of our efforts…and we’re quite thankful to FlightSafety as well. Honda Aircraft, especially their test pilot team, worked hand in hand with us to make sure the video was completely congruent with the flight manual.”
While learning to fly in Cessna 172s with traditional avionics and instruments, DeCurtis bought his first airplane, a new Cirrus SR22 with an Avidyne glass cockpit. He added the instrument rating in the SR22 and spent 150 hours flying with an instructor to reach a high level of proficiency. For 13 years, DeCurtis flew Cirruses, eventually owning an SR22 G6 with the latest Garmin avionics before buying his first HondaJet. He is now on his third HondaJet, the latest model Elite II.
“I took a similar approach in my HondaJet training,” he said, “which I immersed [myself] in.” He flew 100 hours in his jet with Tim Frazier, a Honda Aircraft mentor and, as a company demo pilot and flight operations manager, one of the most experienced HondaJet pilots in the world. They flew those 100 hours before DeCurtis went to FlightSafety’s training center at Honda Aircraft’s Greensboro, North Carolina headquarters campus for his type rating course. “I had no trouble with it. I was very well prepared,” he said.
As it turned out, DeCurtis sat next to an older pilot who had logged 40,000 hours, mostly flying for airlines. “He was a wonderful gentleman,” DeCurtis recalled, “very kind and generous in his sharing of his vast aviation knowledge and wisdom.”
While DeCurtis soaked up as much knowledge as he could from his new friend, he also helped the older pilot learn how to use the unfamiliar Garmin G3000 avionics, which at this point DeCurtis was intimately familiar with. “Not only was I familiar with Garmin, but I had 100 hours in the aircraft,” he said. “I was an absolute whiz, and my business is computers, so I ended up being this guy’s tutor from the avionics perspective, and the HondaJet itself because I completely immersed myself in all the data.”
Well before going to FlightSafety, DeCurtis had read all the HondaJet and Garmin documents cover to cover. “I’m one of the few people [who] actually read all the manuals,” he said. “I was helping him at that level, and he’s helping me with all this vast aviation experience.”
After earning the type rating, DeCurtis spent more time flying with another mentor, who said after 15 hours that DeCurtis was ready to fly the HondaJet by himself. “The insurance company agreed with him, and I was off on my own in my jet,” he said. “But then something remarkable happened, and it changed everything for me.”
A Significant Excursion
“The gentleman who had 40,000 hours of experience and became a friend of mine flew off a runway. He called me and walked me through the experience he had, and it just shook my world. If this guy—[an aviation] legend with 40,000 hours, an expert to say the least—can go off the runway, then I certainly can go off the runway. I needed to understand exactly what’s going on with how to land the jet and what to do to avoid having a runway excursion. That is what started my journey, in terms of becoming an expert and deep diving into the HondaJet landing technique, it was self-preservation and a deep respect for this gentleman who had this excursion.”
After researching the proper landing technique and interviewing his friend, DeCurtis discovered why he had experienced an excursion. “He was not following the technique. Having thousands of hours in an airliner does not make you a great HondaJet pilot. You have to forget about what you know from other aircraft, respect the aircraft that you’re flying, and learn the technique of that particular aircraft.
“I don’t think the HondaJet is unique in that respect. It’s just that the HondaJet has a particular landing technique. It’s laid out in the flight manual. I realized that this was really important to get out there.”
With his newfound knowledge, DeCurtis crafted a presentation and showed it to HJOPA leadership, which invited him to give a seminar at the organization’s annual safety summit in Phoenix in 2022. A year later, he was asked to join the HJOPA board as chair of safety, and he continued his research on how to prevent HondaJet overruns. This culminated in another presentation at the safety summit, this time in Colorado Springs in 2024. “The feedback from that presentation, both from Honda and from pilots in the community, was heartwarming.”
He realized, however, that this valuable information needed to be shared more widely, so he began working on the video and developing the P3 program, modeling it after the CJP Safe To Land program, which addresses stable approaches, precise speed control, drift, and other factors.
The Proper Process
Here is a summary of the proper landing technique from the HondaJet flight manual and the video, which DeCurtis learned in his exploration of HondaJet excursions.
- Crab technique only
- Avoid excess airspeed - target Vref
- Feet up on the brake pedals
- 50 feet agl - throttle rapidly to idle
- Minimum flare
- De-crab just prior to touchdown
- Apply aileron into the wind
- Attempt to align with the centerline
- Touchdown upwind landing gear first
- Place downwind wheel down without delay
- Full landing gear compression
- Aileron into the wind—full aileron if wind is 15 knots or greater
- Prompt de-rotation
- Rudder to track centerline
- Forward pressure on the yoke
- Symmetrical moderate to heavy braking
What DeCurtis has found is that using this technique is, in fact, less work than many pilots put into landings. “You just let the airplane come to the runway,” he explained. “You don’t flare. It’s what I call the artist doing nothing, which is difficult to do when you’re a pilot, because you see runway coming at you and you want to do all these things.”
The P3 program is modeled after CJP’s Gold Standard program, which not only encourages members to fly safely but also rewards attendance at more frequent recurrent training sessions and other training events.
“When you join the P3 program, you’re committing to matching the parameters of the stable approach and using the flight manual landing technique. But it goes a lot deeper than that,” he said, to include HJOPA-certified mentor pilots who will make sure new and existing HondaJet pilots become proficient at following the flight manual procedures.
This means, he added, “not just checking boxes that we flew 25 hours, to check the box for the FAA, but having the mentor program be proficiency-based, not hour-based.” This will be supplemented by the AirSync and CloudAhoy flight data analysis, both on an individual basis and using the aggregated and de-identified data for benchmarking purposes.
Simulator Success
Having attended the type rating training program at FlightSafety, DeCurtis knows that pilots are taught the correct HondaJet technique there. However, after they start flying their HondaJets, they may forget or modify the landing process. “It’s like there’s an attitude out there, ‘Okay, that’s how you land the simulator.’” In real life, these pilots may be trying to grease the landing to make it smoother for the passenger, which isn’t the correct procedure.
There is a simulator phenomenon that may contribute to this problem, he pointed out. “When you land correctly, the simulator models it with a bit of a bump. It can be jarring. You’re flying the simulator and you think, ‘In the real aircraft, I don’t want that bump.’ So you could be incentivized to flare, which is contrary to the flight manual. It’s minimal flare in the HondaJet.”
Speaking to HondaJet pilots about flying their airplanes exactly how they are taught in the simulator, DeCurtis has heard them claim that “the training is a baseline to which they can add all their experience and expertise.”
This manifests in pilots trying to flare the HondaJet to grease the landing or to employ aerodynamic braking, and it also comes up in relation to adding knots to Vref (landing reference speed).
“The flight manual says, ‘Fly Vref,’” he said. “There’s no ‘Add half the gust factor to Vref’ in the HondaJet flight manual. You fly Vref. There’s 27 knots of buffer between Vref and stall. You’ve got plenty of room to bounce up and down around Vref. But there are pilots out there who [think], ‘Vref is a baseline. Then you add to that [they say], if it’s gusty conditions, you’re going to want to add to Vref, to add a margin of safety.’ I tell them, ‘You’re not adding a margin of safety, you’re adding a margin of danger.’”
Information that DeCurtis has gathered supports this conclusion. After his 40,000-hour friend suffered the excursion, DeCurtis researched more incidents and interviewed the pilots. “I can tell you that it is a common theme, without exception, that the technique was not followed…in every case.”
A more troubling aspect of this was that the worse the weather conditions, the more these pilots deviated from the recommended procedures. “They feel like they need to do all this extra stuff to gain additional control, because the conditions are so bad, and that typically means adding to Vref,” he explained.
While the pilot properly crabs, not slips, to compensate for a crosswind, they de-crab too early instead of just before touchdown. Then, to make it smooth for passengers, they flare too much and don’t de-rotate (lower) the nose because they think holding the nose off the ground will shift weight to the main wheels and generate aerodynamic braking.
“These are the four common practices or elements that have been either all present or at least some of them have been present in a particular flight [with an excursion],” he asserted. “But zero cases have I seen [where] the technique was followed and there was an excursion. That hasn’t happened.”
What Pilots Think
The reception from HondaJet pilots varies. In a telling example, after DeCurtis explained to a pilot who had experienced an excursion why it happened, the pilot said he found the information “mind-blowing.” He told DeCurtis that his explanation was contrary to everything he’d been doing in his flying career until then, which included adding speed to Vref and de-crabbing early in the approach to landing.
This pilot said, “'You’re telling me this is all wrong,'” DeCurtis recalled. “I’m saying, ‘Yes, all wrong, it’s 100% not what you do, and it’s not just me. Let’s open the book, pages 4-36 in the flight manual. This is not Dave’s technique, this is the flight manual. What you’re [the pilot] describing is contrary to the flight manual.”
That pilot exhibited a positive attitude about the feedback and dove into studying the proper landing technique and even participated in the beta testing of the P3 program. He also installed an AirSync in his HondaJet and returned for more frequent training at FlightSafety with a focus on crosswind landings.
“He’s the model example of the right attitude,” DeCurtis said. “Other pilots have been receptive. But I haven’t had anybody say, ‘No, you’re wrong!’ Or ‘That’s crazy!’ Nobody’s pushed back like that.”
Some pilots are befuddled to learn that the way they’ve been flying is not helping them keep their HondaJet on the runway after landing.
“I just walk through it mechanically,” he said. “Let’s step back a bit. Are you on Vref? When did you take the crab out? Did you hold the nose off? Did you put forward pressure on the yoke when you [touched down]? Was the aileron into the wind? If you add up all these things you didn’t do that the flight manual says you should have done, that’s all making physics work against you. You’re taking all these elements of physics, and you’re making them your enemy instead of your friend. What the flight manual is doing is taking physics and making it your friend.”
Here is how DeCurtis explains the physics of the flight manual procedure and how that helps HondaJet pilots: “You’re coming in at the [minimum] safe amount of kinetic energy, that’s Vref. If you add [speed] to Vref, you’re adding kinetic energy. You add kinetic energy, you’re adding lift [and] braking workload. So the flight manual holds you back to a minimum amount of kinetic energy. It also helps you dump lift, because it’s telling you to de-rotate promptly. So you’re lowering your angle of attack [and] you’re dumping lift.
“It’s also increasing friction because you’re putting three tires on the runway immediately, and then you’re dumping lift, which is putting weight on those tires, which is giving you friction. So in just that little sequence, you have physics working massively in your favor, compared to somebody who’s doing the opposite, carrying extra kinetic energy, holding the angle of attack up, creating more lift, decreasing friction, having no directional control, especially from the nose wheel because it’s floating, so you have no nose wheel support. So you put it on the ground to help you with a crosswind. It’s not magic.”
The No-braking Problem
While pilots cited in post-accident reports claim that they experienced no braking action after landing, DeCurtis explained that keeping the crab all the way to just before touchdown and de-rotating will enable proper brake response. “Promptly de-rotate. That is, reduce your angle of attack, which is dumping lift. It’s putting three tires [on the runway]. That configuration is going to give you your fastest path to wheel spin. That’s conducive to braking.”
If the pilot lets the HondaJet touch down on one main wheel, then that one lifts and the other wheel touches, due to de-crabbing too early and then slipping or drifting, then the brakes won’t work properly. “The brakes aren’t going to engage and hold,” he said. “They will engage, but they won’t continue to engage, because one wheel will be spinning freely and the other wheel will lock, especially if you’re panicked and you’re slamming on the brakes. So it releases the brakes.
“If you follow the technique, you put the nose down on the ground. You put forward pressure on the nose—not back pressure—so you’re stabilizing the aircraft. You’re getting your fastest path to symmetrical wheel spin, and you apply the brakes, and then you hold the brakes, even if they release. You do not pump. You hold the brakes because you have an anti-lock controller that’s monitoring the wheel spin for you, and it’s putting the brakes on more effectively and more efficiently than you could ever do yourself. Just hold the brakes, let the anti-lock do its thing.”
When transitioning from another airplane to the HondaJet, pilots must be willing to learn the techniques unique to the HondaJet. “You could fly a Pilatus PC-12 for 20 years and have absolutely no issues and be a happy pilot,” DeCurtis said. “Then you take that experience and bring it into a HondaJet, and if you don’t adjust and have respect for the HondaJet technique, you’re going to be at risk. You can’t have any emotional attachment to a technique. You’ve got to forget everything you know about the [previous airplane] and learn the technique of whatever type you’re going into.”
No Aircraft Fix Required
“CJP has been successful, and we’re going to model that, because the good news is the aircraft doesn’t need to be fixed,” DeCurtis said. “That would be the hard part. If the aircraft needed to be fixed, that would be a real problem. What needs to be fixed is the way the aircraft is flown, and that’s a much easier problem to address.
“I’m approaching 2,000 hours in type. I can tell you that this aircraft is incredibly confidence-inspiring when landing correctly. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be flying my family in it, and I wouldn’t be on my third one. I would have moved on to another airframe if I had any concerns.”
DeCurtis is looking forward to working with ForeFlight, FlightSafety, and CJP on the P3 program. “I think we’re going to have a tremendous amount of penetration.”
He is concerned, however, that misinformation will continue spreading about the HondaJet landing technique. The P3 program is all about countering this misinformation, but flight instructors, pilots, and designated pilot examiners (DPEs) can undermine these efforts.
“I have talked to DPEs, and they tell me, ‘When [conditions are] adversary, add a margin of safety. When you have people in roles of influence evangelizing, contrary to the flight manual, that’s a problem. We intend to work together to eliminate that. It’s through communication and community. I think that’s going to be the most effective way to do it.”
He also sees an opportunity to invite insurance underwriters to witness the P3 program and to ask HondaJet pilots if they are participating.
“The insurance companies should be paying attention to this,” he said. “We can look at the aggregated data and look for trends in our community. The more pilots that participate in the program, the stronger that data becomes.” This should help make HondaJet pilots easier to insure.
“If I’m an insurance adjuster and I look into this program where they’re dedicated to using safe, stable approaches and proper landing technique…it’s factual data that cannot be deleted. You can print out a report and say, ‘Here’s my personal data. You can see my trends. You can see my improvement.’ If I were an insurance underwriter, I’d be highly interested in people who are dedicated to maintaining proficiency and fighting complacency, which is what our program does.”