Sterling SilverFebruary 18, 2015, 9:27pm
The year - 1972
The plane - Stearman PT-17, 450 Pratt & Whitney, Rouletta wings (high lift) - sounds out of the ball park for this forum, but when empty the stall speed was very low - stay with me, please.
The terrain - flat as a Marine Drill Instructor's hair cut - Texas Coastal Plains, anything not flat is just a bayou or a hole. Could be an overpass over Interstate 10.
The day - beautiful, sunny, summer afternoon with strong westerly wind
The strip - about 1,000 ft. north-south down eastern fence row of a pasture.
The job - put about 40 loads of artificial manure on a bunch of rice.
I was proud to finally have my own assigned "high lift" so it wasn't so much work to stay up with the seasoned pilots. I had one year flying a standard wing, and they couldn't carry as much and they landed faster, meaning the turn around time was longer, so the other plane was often waiting on me.
Today we were landing toward the trucks. I was doing 3 point (full stall) landings, holding the left wing down into the wind and keeping the plane pointed down the strip with the rudder. I had perfected short field landings in #39 the year before when she had standard wings. 80 takeoffs and landings per day were not unusual. Today, with these Rouletta wings, the landings were squirrelly. (I just hit some wrong key and lost the last half of this post. Let's try again.) Apparently I was more concerned about the three point attitude than about the airstrip. I finally noticed that I was drifting sideways. This meant that the plane was wanting to ground loop as soon as the gear hit the grass. I started making wheel landings, just above a stall, left wing down into the wind, nose straight down runway, just as I had been taught, and from that point on the landings contained only the normal amount of entertainment.
Why do I post this on this forum?
Because you are most likely flying very light aircraft or ultralights that might be subject to the same problem if you are attempting full stall landings in a strong cross wind.
I know that there are 698 theoretical ways to land an airplane in any given situation.
Based upon what I have seen work for myself and those with whom I have worked, almost entirely in tail wheel airplanes in "off airport" flying, please, never, ever, never use a three point landing in a strong cross wind that approaches the cross wind component of your machine. This landing should always be two point. If not a wheel landing, then the tail wheel and the up-wind main tire. If this type landing might put too much stress on the main gear then you are trying to land in too much cross wind and the plain should go "too" the hangar.
Perhaps you and everyone you know have used the three point, full stall landing in strong cross winds and it has proven successful, though exciting, to this point. O.K., but perhaps that is why the saying persists concerning those who have ground looped and those who will. It does not have to be that way.
When the snow melts, the rain stops, the air temp becomes safe for flight, practice those wheel landings on some calm days until you have them nailed. That gives you another reason to be flying. Then, the next time you are caught with a strong cross wind, try the one wheeler, wing down into the wind, nose straight down the runway, more and more aileron and rudder as the other main wheel and then the tail wheel comes down, and now be on your toes until you slow down.
By the way, a ground loop doesn't matter if you are going slowly enough that nothing gets broken. That is a free learning experience.
You people build nice airplanes. I hate to think of their getting broken.
The plane - Stearman PT-17, 450 Pratt & Whitney, Rouletta wings (high lift) - sounds out of the ball park for this forum, but when empty the stall speed was very low - stay with me, please.
The terrain - flat as a Marine Drill Instructor's hair cut - Texas Coastal Plains, anything not flat is just a bayou or a hole. Could be an overpass over Interstate 10.
The day - beautiful, sunny, summer afternoon with strong westerly wind
The strip - about 1,000 ft. north-south down eastern fence row of a pasture.
The job - put about 40 loads of artificial manure on a bunch of rice.
I was proud to finally have my own assigned "high lift" so it wasn't so much work to stay up with the seasoned pilots. I had one year flying a standard wing, and they couldn't carry as much and they landed faster, meaning the turn around time was longer, so the other plane was often waiting on me.
Today we were landing toward the trucks. I was doing 3 point (full stall) landings, holding the left wing down into the wind and keeping the plane pointed down the strip with the rudder. I had perfected short field landings in #39 the year before when she had standard wings. 80 takeoffs and landings per day were not unusual. Today, with these Rouletta wings, the landings were squirrelly. (I just hit some wrong key and lost the last half of this post. Let's try again.) Apparently I was more concerned about the three point attitude than about the airstrip. I finally noticed that I was drifting sideways. This meant that the plane was wanting to ground loop as soon as the gear hit the grass. I started making wheel landings, just above a stall, left wing down into the wind, nose straight down runway, just as I had been taught, and from that point on the landings contained only the normal amount of entertainment.
Why do I post this on this forum?
Because you are most likely flying very light aircraft or ultralights that might be subject to the same problem if you are attempting full stall landings in a strong cross wind.
I know that there are 698 theoretical ways to land an airplane in any given situation.
Based upon what I have seen work for myself and those with whom I have worked, almost entirely in tail wheel airplanes in "off airport" flying, please, never, ever, never use a three point landing in a strong cross wind that approaches the cross wind component of your machine. This landing should always be two point. If not a wheel landing, then the tail wheel and the up-wind main tire. If this type landing might put too much stress on the main gear then you are trying to land in too much cross wind and the plain should go "too" the hangar.
Perhaps you and everyone you know have used the three point, full stall landing in strong cross winds and it has proven successful, though exciting, to this point. O.K., but perhaps that is why the saying persists concerning those who have ground looped and those who will. It does not have to be that way.
When the snow melts, the rain stops, the air temp becomes safe for flight, practice those wheel landings on some calm days until you have them nailed. That gives you another reason to be flying. Then, the next time you are caught with a strong cross wind, try the one wheeler, wing down into the wind, nose straight down the runway, more and more aileron and rudder as the other main wheel and then the tail wheel comes down, and now be on your toes until you slow down.
By the way, a ground loop doesn't matter if you are going slowly enough that nothing gets broken. That is a free learning experience.
You people build nice airplanes. I hate to think of their getting broken.
Bert