Ballooning on Landings

[N3368K]

Once I'm rounding up for landing, I'm not 'focusing' on anything, I am looking forward but paying more attention to my peripheral vision because it gives a better perception of climb and sink.

Concur. Can't say I focus on any given point. Head and eyes to the front and using peripheral vision for everything. Years of tail dragging.

After reading the posts on this thread I understand better why many pilots find tail wheel transition difficult. Most of you would benefit from some tail wheel time including full stall landings!

Absolutely.


Jim R
Collierville, TN

N7155H--1946 Piper J-3 Cub
N3368K--1946 Globe GC-1B Swift

 

[Jimmy cooper]

After reading the posts on this thread I understand better why many pilots find tail wheel transition difficult. Most of you would benefit from some tail wheel time including full stall landings!

Aaaahhhhhh men to that! It makes all the difference! Going from a champ , t craft to a mooney, bonanza was a piece of cake. The gentleman on this site who owns the 180 cessna may respond. Hope so.

 

[FastEddieB]

Nice illustration.

Note the height of the beginning of the roundout in the second example - a close approximation to one wingspan of the little plane.

Finally, there's a third method sometimes seen: usually called the "stall down" method. In that one you begin the roundout so as to arrive at the ground in a stall - no flare needed. NOT recommended for students or as SOP, but if you ever watch the Valdez landing competitions, you'll see it demonstrated with quite some skill.

 

[danhagan]

Actually, I own the plane and he's neighbor that only charges $30/hr. He's thrown in a bunch of freebies, just because he likes to fly with me. But, he's actually very good and is constantly critiquing me. I've improved immensely with his guidance.

The approach speed area is a concern (he should be emphazising). My CFI years ago covered the air speed indicator after a few days of landings. That day's lesson was sight picture and air speed control by tach. I only balloon if a gust strikes now. It also came in handy a couple of times when the air speed indicator failed on the rentals. I fly by tach and only look over at ASI for a split second glance on short final (usually not necessary). Most Cessna 152/172's will do fine at 1700 RPM with the slicker planes (like my Tiger) doing well at 1500 RPM from abeam approach. Soon you'll just pull power and do a power off 180 all the way in ...

After reading the posts on this thread I understand better why many pilots find tail wheel transition difficult. Most of you would benefit from some tail wheel time including full stall landings!

I tried in a Luscombe during intial PPL training and decided to just go nose dragger instead. Trying to keep the Luscombe straight on pavement was harder than not ballooning. I had no trouble with full stall.

 

[poadeleted20]

The approach speed area is a concern (he should be emphazising). My CFI years ago covered the air speed indicator after a few days of landings. That day's lesson was sight picture and air speed control by tach

The real trick is to do airspeed by attitude (sight picture) and glide path control by power (tach). When you do that, you're ready start learning how to land on an aircraft carrier.

 

[coma24]

I'm not a carrier pilot, but I can't imagine doing it any other way than pitch for speed and power for glideslope.

Regarding the plane that I'm flying that runs out of trim, that would be a Lancair 360. From what I'm told, the previous owner set it up such that he had enough nose down trim to be able to do a hands off shallow descent at WOT (just as well, because that's precisely what I do when coming down from 11k, all the way down to the point where I'm making 24" MAP, then I start backing off power to maintain 24").

The downside of this is that there isn't enough nose up trim to be hands off (or anything close to it, honestly) on final. Hands off at 80kts on final would generate a 2000fpm+ descent rate, if I had to guess.

When he first got the airplane, it was set up for hands off on final, but he wasn't a fan of holding forward pressure for 20+ minutes on the descents.

I'm very happy with how it's set up and agree with the decision.