"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" wrote in message
. com...
Ron W wrote:
Hello George. I was right down ther road from you at Yokota flying
WB-29's and Wb-50's from 1954 to 55, when I was grounded for a
bad eye! Also checked out in our C-54. I learned how to land it
the Berlin Air Lift way: 800 ft final, nose touching the runway, cut
power, full flaps & cowls, gear and nose down. Flare and land on the
stripes. It took a while to get one's courage!


You want to explain that again? I'm having trouble getting a mental
picture of
what you did. You grind the nose on the runway, then lower the gear?
After
grinding, then you flare? I'm missing something.

Sorry I guess I was a little too terse. We flew our final at 800 ft
altitude above ground, (IIRC) until the nose of the a/c just passed
over the end of the runway below, then chopped power, etc, and
flared out of the rather steep end of the final approach.. We didn't
grind anything along the runway if we did things right. Remember during the
air lift, they were hauling loads onto relativly short runways surrounded by
buildings. Their approaches needed to be steep! We
certainly didn't need to did this at Yokota, but the demonstration was
an effective learning tool, if it was needed else where!

When we returned from our weather recce missions off the eastern
coast of Japan we would head for Oshima Island in Tokyo Bay and
with the approval of flight control, again chop power, lower gear,&
flaps with cowl flaps open wide. Airspeed was controlled with the
angle of the dive, again quite steep. The FE maintained engine temps
with a little throttle and cowl adjustments. After using this as a method of
rapid descent in the WB-29's and 50's, the steep final approach in the C-54
wasn't too disconcerting. Exept we were leveling out at about 3000 ft
rather than just above the runway as with the C-54.

During primary, my instructer liked to lose altitude with spins. I
became fairly proficient as most other instructors didn't spin the
T-6 that frequently. I contrast, my ex crop-sprayer T-28 instructor
hated spins, After I successfully demonstrated I could recover, I had
to spin on my solo's if I want to continue. Spining the B-20/50 and
the C-54 wasn't recomended, though I understand a number of 4-engine
a/c, such as B-17's were recovered from spins in WWII

Good luck with the C-54. I enjoyed the short time I spent in in.

Ron