Definition
A landing technique in which the airplane is held just off the runway during the round out and flare, with elevator back pressure progressively increased so that the wings reach their critical angle of attack and stall at the moment the main wheels touch down. The result is a touchdown at minimum airspeed, in a nose-high attitude, with the airplane no longer capable of generating enough lift to remain airborne.
Plain English
A landing where you slow the airplane down so much, so close to the runway, that the wings stop flying at exactly the moment the wheels touch. The airplane settles onto the ground because it can no longer stay in the air.
Context Anchor
You see this term in landing technique discussions, especially when learning how much to raise the nose near the runway and what can go wrong after rounding out too high.
Derivation
"Full" means complete or total; "stall" in aviation refers to the wing exceeding its critical angle of attack and losing lift. A full-stall landing is one where the stall is allowed to fully develop right at touchdown, rather than being avoided.
Why Pilots Care
Allows the shortest landing distance and prevents the airplane from floating farther down the runway after an overly high roundout.
Intuition Check
Do not read “full-stall landing” as an uncontrolled fall or an engine failure. It means a controlled touchdown made as the wings are reaching the limit of how slowly they can keep the airplane flying.
Example Sentence 1
On a calm day with a long runway, the instructor demonstrated a full-stall landing, holding the nose up until the main wheels gently settled on.
Example Sentence 2
The short-field procedure called for a full-stall landing so the airplane would settle onto the numbers without excess rollout.