Tamed by the Tailwheel

Dudley
Of course not. Your points are well taken. Why not take a hard look at
my point of view as well? I still think too many pilots simply are
afraid of working in the low airspeed region where most accidents are
developed and happen. Forget the high performance aircraft that you are
fond of and think of the low speed stuff that most of the pilots here
fly.
Why are there stall/spin accidents? Because the pilots didn't know how
to fly in the low speed region and got crossed up. Was it because of
cruise speed? Nope. It was in the pattern and misuse of speed or at
least lower speeds. How about running out of runway? A blown approach
due to excess speed and unable to make the first 1/3 of the runway
(assuming it is shorter than 5000').
I'll still maintain, most modern pilots don't know how to fly at the
lowest range of their aircraft envelope and that is a major contributor
to accidents.
Best Professional Regards
Rocky

On 13 Jan 2005 06:29:29 -0800, wrote:

In thousands of hours in crop dusting in a variety of aircraft,
dirt/grass/asphalt/concrete for landing areas, I never knew if it was
going to be a 3 point or a wheel landing. Most of the time it was a
slow speed wheel landing with minimum roll and braking

That's been my experience as well (except for the thousands of hours,
and the crop dusting).

I generally expect to do a wheelie, but if it works out that I can't
see over the cowling, I just explain to myself that this one is a
three-pointer. They work out about the same, except that it seems to
me that the wheelie is more likely to track straight down the runway.

There's a banner tow operation at the local field, summertimes for the
tourist beaches. His operation is very like what you describe for
crop-dusting, except that most of the time he doesn't actually land


-- all the best, Dan Ford

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Want to break their excessive speed habits?
Take them to a 1000 - 1500 grass strip and watch how long it takes them
to learn that their choices are slow down or crash long.

wrote:
The biggest flaw I have seen in modern pilots is speed control and
right behind that is not knowing how to use rudder/aileron coordination
for landings. It continually amazes me at the lack of skill or even
knowledge of CFI's when it comes to slips with any degree of accuracy.
It all seems to be very pedantic with little or no pilot skills
involved. I am continually reminded of that when I fly with pilots who
have gotten their certificates in the past 15 years or so.

JS
You make me smile with that one! So many of the strips I have worked
from are about 1200' and require reduced loads which is why I hate
them. One I worked on in Egypt -300 meters - had corn growing at each
end. As the corn grew it caused my wheels to drag through the tops.
I've got some pics where you can see the strips where my gear trimmed
the corn through the season! the landings never bothered me since you
seldom need more than 500' for rollout.
Regards
Selway Kid (from the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness)

Believe it or not, it's okay to roll the tailwheel first.

There was no better way to get a pat on the back from our Navy
instructors at Pensacola than hitting the tailwheel first. That was
back in the days when airplanes had tailwheels, of course.

vince norris

Someone else pointed out here or maybe on the citabria group about the
advantage of hitting the tailwheel first. That is, if the tailwheel
hits first, when the mains drop the angle of attack lessens reducing
lift. Is this significant? I suppose that if the landing speed is as
slow as it should be, it really doesn't matter. Personally I like
landing as slow as reasonably possible. Less wear and tear on the tires
and it's more fun.

Dave
68 7ECA
vincent p. norris wrote:
Believe it or not, it's okay to roll the tailwheel first.


There was no better way to get a pat on the back from our Navy
instructors at Pensacola than hitting the tailwheel first. That was
back in the days when airplanes had tailwheels, of course.

vince norris

In the Maule, the tailwheel first thing eliminates bounce completely, at
least if you airspeed is close to right. But it's always seems sloppy
to me. If you can tailwheel first, you can 3 point it. If you TW first
on purpose all the time, when you miss, you are going slam it on a few
times. Why do that?

dave wrote:
Someone else pointed out here or maybe on the citabria group about the
advantage of hitting the tailwheel first. That is, if the tailwheel
hits first, when the mains drop the angle of attack lessens reducing
lift. Is this significant? I suppose that if the landing speed is as
slow as it should be, it really doesn't matter. Personally I like
landing as slow as reasonably possible. Less wear and tear on the tires
and it's more fun.

Dave
68 7ECA
vincent p. norris wrote:

Believe it or not, it's okay to roll the tailwheel first.



There was no better way to get a pat on the back from our Navy
instructors at Pensacola than hitting the tailwheel first. That was
back in the days when airplanes had tailwheels, of course.

vince norris

dave wrote:

Someone else pointed out here or maybe on the citabria group about the
advantage of hitting the tailwheel first. That is, if the tailwheel
hits first, when the mains drop the angle of attack lessens reducing
lift. Is this significant?

With full flaps in a Maule, you can drag it in tail-low with power. When that
little wheel hits, the mains will drop, bounce once, and you're glued to the
ground. You'll be doing something like 40 to 45 mph when you touch down. If your
engine hiccups once the speed gets real low, you're going to hit hard; the plane
will stall almost immediately.

You can also do an approach at a bit higher speed and bring the tail down to
touch when the mains are still several inches in the air. Again, the ground roll
will be impressively short. The problem with this to me is that you will be
pretty much at power-off stall attitude. If you are six inches higher than you
think you are when you bring the tail down that last little bit, it'll be
uncomfortable.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

You need to get out that POH and do the weight and balance
figuring for that airplane, especially if solo. It's easy to be out the
front of the envelope in these airplanes.
We use 40 lbs of ballast in some cases to get the CG legal and safe.
Dan

Even if you are legal and hanging on the front end of the envelope, it
helps to throw a few things in the back. In practically any a/c, the
controls will be a bit more sensitive, especially in terms of elevator
control in the flare. A case of Champagne does it perfectly for us.

wrote:
You need to get out that POH and do the weight and balance
figuring for that airplane, especially if solo. It's easy to be out the
front of the envelope in these airplanes.
We use 40 lbs of ballast in some cases to get the CG legal and safe.
Dan