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Old June 27th 08, 12:44 AM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Robert M. Gary
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Default bouncing off the runway

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, like
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.

-Robert