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Old June 27th 08, 01:02 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Bertie the Bunyip[_24_]
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Default bouncing off the runway

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in
:

On Jun 26, 11:01*am, Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" wrote in
news:bc1da0d3-1801-4602-8a5b

-
:

On Jun 26, 7:25*am, E Z Peaces wrote:


Doesn't a three-point landing occur at stall speed? *


That is one of the biggest myths in aviation. I've flown a lot of
taildraggers (GA) and few of them had the stall angle and the 3 pt
angle in alignment. As an example the Globe Swift stalls with the
tail about 2 feet off the ground while the Decathlon/Citabria
stalls with the tail on the ground and the mains still several feet
in the air, its very, very much still flying in the 3pt position.
The hard part of landing a Citabria is not to crush the mains after
landing the tail.


You're right about the Citabria, but not the Swift. The Swift's
thing, li

ke
a lot of low wing airplanes, is that the stab gets into roiled air as
it gets near the stall. As further evidence, the alpha on a swift in
three point is about 10 Degrees, no way you're going to have a
critical angle that low on anything this side of a razor blade.

Bertie


Maybe it depends on if you have the stall strips or not but mine would
go thunk on the mains with the stick all the way back and the tail was
no where near the ground. The Swift association would lecture pilots
not to 3 pt the Swift because of this. On the other hand I never flew
a plane that wheel landed as nicely as the Swift. It was like landing
a 172.


It's the stab. Many low wing taildraggers have issues here. The Twin
Beech, for instance. You can three point it if you get it right, but if
you screw up and get it in the three point attitude when the mains are
more than about an inch off the ground, it will pitch forward and start
porpoising all over the place. The DC 3 as well. The Swift does the same
thing.

Bertie