High on Final, Summary; was Polar with spoilers extended?

Tim Taylor wrote:

'Maybe, but can you dive, lose the altitude, decelerate
and get it on the ground for a tail wheel first, full
stall landing?'

Don't miss out an a VERY important lesson I nearly
learnd the hard way, on the home field, in front of
many of my friends. And that lesson is:

'NEVER let the disire to make a NICE landing over-rule
the need to make a SAFE one.'

If you are going into a short field, I would suggets
that you NEVER hold it off to get a full stall, tail
first landing. Get over the obstacles and get it
on the ground. A wheel rolling through dirt will slow
you down much faster than just about any set of divebrakes.
And if working in concert with open divebrakes will
stop you that much faster.

My situatuion was a down wind landing after a training
rope break. We had more than enough runway to land
ahead, not quite enough behind to do a 180 and land
back in the other direction, but not really enough
to do a 360 and not end up as far down the runway.
I didn't want to put it all the way at the upwind
end of the field, so I told the instructor I was going
to fly straight ahead to get lower, then turn around
and land downwind. (Yes, you can see mistake number
one, can't you!) We were as something between 300
and 400 feet in a 2-33.

All went well on the upwind glide, good speed established,
and a good turn to downwind. Trouble is, we didn't
get as far upwind as I thought we would be, and we
were going downwind faster than I thought. I (stupidly.
See mistake number two!) was holding it off to get
a smooth landing, with the end of the runway (and the
cars and trees and all my fellow clubmembers) coming
at us rather fast, when the insturctor said 'PUT IT
ON THE GROUND!' Which I promptly did, put the nose
skid on the ground, and started the turn to go off
the side of the runway instead of into the cars and
trees.

We stopped before getting to any of the above (cars,
trees, or the edge of the paved runway).

Emphasis of the above lesson: Landing out, one mile
from the airport, in the outflow of a thuderstorm,
into the corner of center pivot irrigated field. So,
the diagonal is maybe 700 feet, and there are power
lines on the approch end. My last off airport landing
was on a gusty day. The airplane went quiet and pretty
much dropped in from about 50 feet. I grabbed the
last of the flaps, rounded out, and touched down right
at the edge of the field. For a photo from this landing,
see:

http://www.gliderforum.com/photos/sh...umid=122¤tpos=
3

So, I was a bit high, (it was a straight in to the
field, with a 45 degree turn into the wind and to align
with the diagonal of the field), and a bit hot, as
I didn't want to end up in the lines. I rounded out,
felt like the field was going by faster than I wanted,
but knew I needed to stop. I eased the stick forward
and put the nose and wheel into the dirt. The plane
hopped up, and I put it back down. Not hard, but firm.
Stopped, and still had at least 250 feet of field
remaining.

If the field is short, don't hold it off for a slow
touchdown. Get it on the ground so it can get stopped
before you get to trouble.

Sorry, I got a bit away from the topic of the thread,
but I feel it is important to remember that not every
landing should be minimum energy at touchdown. There
are times when you should stick it on, as you will
then be minimum energy where it counts the most: at
the edge of the safe landing and rollout area.

OK, I should have changed this to 'The approach is
important, but so is the landing!'

Steve Leonard
Wichita, KS