Mush control should not be an instrument maneuver. There are engine sounds and relative wind sounds and stick/yoke pressure and kinetic feel of lift/sink that must be learned for safety of flight. Is fear of stalling on short final the reason why many landings at our local airports are too fast to quit flying until well down the runway? Should we be decelerating and mush controlling on short final instead?

If you ever get the chance, a very safe way to experience maximum mush control is in the Ercoupe. Its elevator is limited to the extent that it cannot be stalled (exception whip stall. don't do that). Yes, it will mush like a bandit. At idle power, pull the yoke back slowly to decelerate and eventually mush with the yoke full back to the stop. Now add power slowly to control mush to achieve the glide angle and rate of descent desired. Using this technique on short final will result in touchdown slowly and softly on the numbers with power.

The same mush control can safely be learned in normal elevator control airplanes if we learn engine sound, relative wind noise, yoke pressure, and kinetic lift/sink feel. Again, no whip stalling.

Why mush control to begin with? Airspeed at pitch attitudes that do not produce mush, 1.3 Vso say, will be too fast to land. A round out and hold off will be required to decelerate to well below Vso in ground effect in order for the wing to mush and finally quit flying or stall. The throttle will never truly be a control of glide angle and rate of descent unless mush is achieved on short final. The pilot will become a passenger in the hold off necessary after round out.

Full stall practice with and without power misses the preparation of our senses for the landing aspect of stall practice when we pitch up quickly to achieve a nice clean break. Stalls done that way are useful only for stall recovery practice at altitude and teach neither inadvertent stall recovery or proper landing attitude and feel. Besides really slow flight practice, a good technique to learn the sounds and feel of landing properly is hover taxi in low ground effect. After arriving close to the runway all slowed up and ready to squat, add a little power to remain in that pitch attitude and airspeed down a long runway. Multiple touchdowns are fine. Just reduce power a bit, touchdown, add power to return to low ground effect, etc. Each touchdown is a soft field landing. The "who knew" part is that this mush control can be used on short final to make every soft field landing also a short field landing slowly and softly on the numbers. Wolfgang's apparent rate of closure sensing helps with this but that is another story.