Wheel Landing - By The Numbers

[BillWhiteInsurance]

(Portion taken from Bill's Blog)

For all of you diehard pilots who prefer the 3 Point Full Stall landing technique, stay with it since that's what you know best. The following explanation of a specific wheel landing technique is for the pilots who were never taught correctly, or for you 3 pointers with a curiosity. This IS the BEST way to land a C180/185 for most situations, in my opinion.

This specific WHEEL LANDING technique is so good, I've used it on short 800' Idaho dirt strips and in gusty crosswind situations - basically everything except a really soft surface that calls for a 3 point landing. And even if you only fly 20 hours a year, it's easy to maintain proficiency with this technique, provided you learn..it. correctly. For me, it is the most consistent, reliable way to land a C180/185. Why is it the BEST way to land? Because your cockpit workload is MUCH LOWER compared to the 3 point/stall method. ** WHAT CAN GET A PILOT INTO TROUBLE LANDING A TAIL WHEEL AIRPLANE? Poor approach, or flair technique at touchdown, and/or loss of focus on the rollout, in other words, high workload.

TOO MANY VARIABLES in your landing procedure (or routine) makes every 3 Point Full Stall landing a unique event. During a 3 Point Full Stall landing you have to recognize, adapt and overcome many potential problems, make quick decisions and constant adjustments. A few of these variables might be: a varying rate of descent just prior to touchdown, height above the runway, airspeed bleed off prior to the stall, crosswind drift in a stalled nose, high attitude at touch down, floating, bouncing, limited forward vision due to a nose high flare, drifting on rollout, and possible impaired directional control when you only have the side windows on rollout.

Why do all that, and fight a 600 pound tail with its own mind? With this technique you ELIMINATE most of these problems. You eliminate changing speeds on final, eliminate stalling, eliminate floating, completely eliminate nose high forward vision problems, minimize and view any drift tendencies immediately, and you can view the touchdown area all the way to touchdown.

Continue reading this blog at http://www.bwhiteinsurance.com/uncategorized/wheel-landing-by-the-numbers/
Bill (Comments greatly appreciated)

[birdog[_2_]]

"BillWhiteInsurance" > wrote
in message ...
>
> (Portion taken from Bill's Blog)
>
> For all of you diehard pilots who prefer the 3 Point Full Stall landing
> technique, stay with it since that's what you know best. The following
> explanation of a specific wheel landing technique is for the pilots who
> were never taught correctly, or for you 3 pointers with a curiosity.
> This IS the BEST way to land a C180/185 for most situations, in my
> opinion.
>
> This specific WHEEL LANDING technique is so good, I've used it on short
> 800' Idaho dirt strips and in gusty crosswind situations - basically
> everything except a really soft surface that calls for a 3 point
> landing. And even if you only fly 20 hours a year, it's easy to maintain
> proficiency with this technique, provided you learn..it. correctly. For
> me, it is the most consistent, reliable way to land a C180/185. Why is
> it the BEST way to land? Because your cockpit workload is MUCH LOWER
> compared to the 3 point/stall method. ** WHAT CAN GET A PILOT INTO
> TROUBLE LANDING A TAIL WHEEL AIRPLANE? Poor approach, or flair technique
> at touchdown, and/or loss of focus on the rollout, in other words, high
> workload.
>
> TOO MANY VARIABLES in your landing procedure (or routine) makes every 3
> Point Full Stall landing a unique event. During a 3 Point Full Stall
> landing you have to recognize, adapt and overcome many potential
> problems, make quick decisions and constant adjustments. A few of these
> variables might be: a varying rate of descent just prior to touchdown,
> height above the runway, airspeed bleed off prior to the stall,
> crosswind drift in a stalled nose, high attitude at touch down,
> floating, bouncing, limited forward vision due to a nose high flare,
> drifting on rollout, and possible impaired directional control when you
> only have the side windows on rollout.
>
> Why do all that, and fight a 600 pound tail with its own mind? With this
> technique you ELIMINATE most of these problems. You eliminate changing
> speeds on final, eliminate stalling, eliminate floating, completely
> eliminate nose high forward vision problems, minimize and view any drift
> tendencies immediately, and you can view the touchdown area all the way
> to touchdown.
>
> Continue reading this blog at http://tinyurl.com/85lv5zo
> Bill (Comments greatly appreciated)
> --
> BillWhiteInsurance

I don't know. All those work intensive obsticles you mention - It's my
opinion that any tailwheel pilot with maybe 50 hours in type makes all these
corrections without even being aware of it. An exception might be a
crosswind gust trying to swing the tail around, but that's one thing
individual wheel brakes are for. Not if only the mains are down though. I've
never experienced it, but I think this condition would be a bear during a
wheel landing. Full throttle immediately?

In a stalled landing, the wheels are planted solidly on the ground at less
than flying speed..

Pilots have been making three pointers since before WWI.

[Dudley Henriques[_3_]]

On Dec 10, 1:41*pm, "birdog" > wrote:
> "BillWhiteInsurance" > wrote
> in messagenews:BillWhiteInsurance.925cba0@aviationban ter.com...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > (Portion taken from Bill's Blog)
>
> > For all of you diehard pilots who prefer the 3 Point Full Stall landing
> > technique, stay with it since that's what you know best. The following
> > explanation of a specific wheel landing technique is for the pilots who
> > were never taught correctly, or for you 3 pointers with a curiosity.
> > This IS the BEST way to land a C180/185 for most situations, in my
> > opinion.
>
> > This specific WHEEL LANDING technique is so good, I've used it on short
> > 800' Idaho dirt strips and in gusty crosswind situations - basically
> > everything except a really soft surface that calls for a 3 point
> > landing. And even if you only fly 20 hours a year, it's easy to maintain
> > proficiency with this technique, provided you learn..it. correctly. For
> > me, it is the most consistent, reliable way to land a C180/185. Why is
> > it the BEST way to land? Because your cockpit workload is MUCH LOWER
> > compared to the 3 point/stall method. ** WHAT CAN GET A PILOT INTO
> > TROUBLE LANDING A TAIL WHEEL AIRPLANE? Poor approach, or flair technique
> > at touchdown, and/or loss of focus on the rollout, in other words, high
> > workload.
>
> > TOO MANY VARIABLES in your landing procedure (or routine) makes every 3
> > Point Full Stall landing a unique event. During a 3 Point Full Stall
> > landing you have to recognize, adapt and overcome many potential
> > problems, make quick decisions and constant adjustments. A few of these
> > variables might be: a varying rate of descent just prior to touchdown,
> > height above the runway, airspeed bleed off prior to the stall,
> > crosswind drift in a stalled nose, high attitude at touch down,
> > floating, bouncing, limited forward vision due to a nose high flare,
> > drifting on rollout, and possible impaired directional control when you
> > only have the side windows on rollout.
>
> > Why do all that, and fight a 600 pound tail with its own mind? With this
> > technique you ELIMINATE most of these problems. You eliminate changing
> > speeds on final, eliminate stalling, eliminate floating, completely
> > eliminate nose high forward vision problems, minimize and view any drift
> > tendencies immediately, and you can view the touchdown area all the way
> > to touchdown.
>
> > Continue reading this blog athttp://tinyurl.com/85lv5zo
> > Bill (Comments greatly appreciated)
> > --
> > BillWhiteInsurance
>
> I don't know. All those work intensive obsticles you mention - It's my
> opinion that any tailwheel pilot with maybe 50 hours in type makes all these
> corrections without even being aware of it. An exception might be a
> crosswind gust trying to swing the tail around, but that's one thing
> individual wheel brakes are for. Not if only the mains are down though. I've
> never experienced it, but I think this condition would be a bear during a
> wheel landing. Full throttle immediately?
>
> In a stalled landing, the wheels are planted solidly on the ground at less
> than flying speed..
>
> Pilots have been making three pointers since before WWI.

Wheel landings are fine really, and in some aircraft are actually a
preferred method of planting the gear on the runway. The problem, I
see with Mr White's "method" is that he attempts to be a bit too rigid
and regimented with his pre-emptive approach. Stabilized approaches
are fine, but no matter how hard a pilot tries to solve preemptively
for every contingency, there will always be the wind to contend with,
thus changing the real time dynamic on every approach.
Mr White I believe has a good idea. I just wouldn't recommend it the
way it's written. With a little thought his idea could be useful.
Dudley Henriques