View Single Post
  #10  
Old February 2nd 13, 02:40 AM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
BobW
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 504
Default Question about spoilers and pitch stability

On 2/1/2013 11:02 AM, wrote:
On Friday, February 1, 2013 12:57:09 PM UTC-5, kirk.stant wrote:
This may border on "scab picking", but I wonder how many pilots who have
been involved in G-103 PIBs had initial training in 2-33s. I know of one
incident of a pilot trained in 2-33s and 1-26s, transitioned to our club
G-102 (retract gear taildragger version), and proceeded to drag the nose
via full forward stick after a hot touchdown. Law of Primacy? Just
sayin'... Kirk 66


I teach the same principles descibed above when teaching in the 2-33.
Transition to the ASK-21 is a non issue because the habits started right.
UH

Apologizing for contributing to thread drift, but Kirk's mental exercise seems
a good entry for a "related safety bull session"...

The particular pitfall of "landing hot" was the only thing I ever thought my
basic training - done entirely in a 2-33 - might've been lacking, as in,
perhaps off-the-mark/incomplete. Natcherly I'd been taught to dial in "proper
approach speed/target point" and land accordionly...and doing so worked well
in both the 2-33 and subsequently in 1-26s.

But when I "advanced" to practicing short-field landings in the 2-33 on grass
- with its widely varying drag wet/dry - I soon encountered a "slightly
snaking" rollout when I used full forward stick as part of braking to a halt
as rapidly as possible (which of course was part of the exercise). My
instructor not being there that day, I sussed out the reason on my own,
concluding that - depending on the magnitude of the drag produced by the
forward-of-the-main-wheel skid - my nose-dragging 2-33 could in effect become
(briefly) a tail-dragger in ground stability terms...i.e. CG behind the
primary rotational drag point (skid), should I somehow get sideways.
Definitely food for thought for this newbie...

The next summer, probably having grown somewhat ignorantly complacent in my
1-26, I recall being distinctly surprised when the first sound I heard during
an "only slightly hot" paved runway landing, was the sound of metal scraping.
My first "thought" was I'd a flat tire, but the reality was I was fast enough
to put the skid plate below the level of the tire. (Duh!)

Those two "minor learning experiences" convinced me of the soundness of
landing as slowly as safe under existing conditions being a generally good
pattern policy...regardless of ship type/configuration. Never found any
reason(s) to change that thinking in the 30+ years since.

Different ships/configurations will react differently when landed
gracelessly/thoughtlessly fast/etc. And it's usually not good for either ship
or pilot to be surprised under such circumstances...

Bob W.