C172 chirp on landing?

itsjames2011

itsjames2011

Pre-takeoff checklist
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James
I recently transitioned from a 1892 Warrior II to a 1967 Cessna 172H. No matter how slow I come down final approach, the wheels always seem to chirp on touch down. In the video below I touched down on the stall horn and still noisy. What am I missing? There is nothing more than a light crosswind today.
http://youtu.be/dFQbeU3Zxng

James
 
itsjames2011 said:
I recently transitioned from a 1892 Warrior II to a 1967 Cessna 172H. No matter how slow I come down final approach, the wheels always seem to chirp on touch down. In the video below I touched down on the stall horn and still noisy. What am I missing? There is nothing more than a light crosswind today.
http://youtu.be/dFQbeU3Zxng

James
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Keep your feet off the brake?
Sticking Caliper(s)?

-Skip
 
I'm not a CFI, so I won't comment with specifics, but it seemed to me that the stall horn sounded more as a result of the change in angle of attack more so than a decay in airspeed.
 
SkyHog said:
I thought chirps were a good thing....
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If it's because you are slowing to stall speed at landing, yes. OP seems to be coming in quite fast with lots of power, and then quickly pulling hard enough to load the wing up near stall AOA before driving the plane onto the ground, but not dissipating energy or breaking the sink rate.

It's a carrier landing with a 172, basically.

Here's a video I found on youtube of another 172 landing at the same airport. Notice the flare before touching down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxclRGlHafw
 
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You landed hard, that's all.

Move your sight to the runways numbers on the far end after starting to flare. Judge your height with your peripheral vision. Hold the nose off for a few seconds. It'll click soon.
 
Tires will chirp at warmer temps and on the right surfaces. Nothing wrong with it.

Dan
 
Unless you have a device to spin up the tires to landing ground speed prior to touchdown, they are going to chirp when they touch. No big deal.
 
Hi James.

I wonder if in the Warrior the tires were chirping, only since they were under the wings, you just didn't hear them. On a 172, they are right outside your window.
 
somorris said:
Hi James.

I wonder if in the Warrior the tires were chirping, only since they were under the wings, you just didn't hear them. On a 172, they are right outside your window.
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I've never heard them in the warrior but that doesn't mean they didn't. I only have 125 hours TT and that's the airplane I did all of my flying in minus my whopping 7 hours in the 172H :]
 
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Very soft touchdowns on the 172 do seem to result in no chirp. I wonder if the spin-up is gradual enough that it doesn't make that sound.
 
Different strokes and all that, but I consider a chirp to be a sign of a perfect landing.

Bob Gardner
 
warthog1984 said:
Need to flare and slow it down. The stall horn went off, yes, but you were still way fast and coming down like a brick.
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Good point about the stall horn going off but being to fast. Early in my training I thought the stall horn going off meant I was at landing speed. Then the whole thing about being able to stall at high speeds was taught and I realized the horn had more to do with my AOA than my speed.
 
Precisely, the stall horn AND the stall are entirely AOA based. In fact, if you're wheels are on the ground (well the mains), then it's unlikely you're going to be at a stalled AOA
 
1892 warrior? Made before Orville and Wilbur made flying possible. :)
 
What is worse than a chirp? I think mine screeched or squalled Friday. Those big feet on those incorrectly designed pedals of mine. No biggie, first time. I would not worry about the chirps.
 
itsjames2011 said:
I've never heard them in the warrior but that doesn't mean they didn't. I only have 125 hours TT and that's the airplane I did all of my flying in minus my whopping 7 hours in the 172H :]
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Oleo struts on Pipers will absorb a lot of the landing shock that you'll notice with the steel gear on the Cessna. It's a lot like using the rudder- on some planes you can almost fly feet on the floor, in others you'll notice immediately if you don't get your feet moving.
 
Cpt_Kirk said:
You landed hard, that's all.

Move your sight to the runways numbers on the far end after starting to flare. Judge your height with your peripheral vision. Hold the nose off for a few seconds. It'll click soon.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't call that landing hard.
 
I'd have rather seen a landing on the mains only, and slowly lower the nose wheel. Rather, the OP landed three point.
 
That was from not having enough energy to flare, your descent angle is too shallow for how early you shut down the power and you got too slow so you didn't have any energy left to stop your descent before stalling on. The good thing is you've got your flare on height down perfect, you just got too low on energy. May I suggest cutting the distance you pass the threshold on downwind in half and see what happens? Or you could also leave just a touch of power in all the way to the runway. You're just a touch short on energy for the flare.

Also out of curiosity, what was your flap setting? Didn't seem like you had full flaps.
 
Ron Levy said:
Unless you have a device to spin up the tires to landing ground speed prior to touchdown, they are going to chirp when they touch. No big deal.
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What Ron said. I have had baby smooth landings and carrier landings, they all have a chirp. It is nothing more than the tires spinning up from zero rotation to ~60 MPH instantly. No big deal. Move on.
 
Yep....
My front tire on my motorcycle chirps when it touches down at 100 mph also. Normal.
 
A thought comes to mind with regards to the way the springs on Cessna landing gear affect it's travel as you put load on it.

On the Piper, landing shock is absorbed by the vertical strut. On the Cessna, it is absorbed by the spring which comes out the fuselage at a 45° angle, so the main wheels spread out as the load is applied. That, combined with the fact that you don't have a wing between you and the wheels to mask out some of the chirp might make the chirp more noticeable than in a comparable landing on the Piper.

N.B. Most of my recent C172 landings are on grass runways, so I might not be an expert on chirp-ology.
 
kgruber said:
I'd have rather seen a landing on the mains only, and slowly lower the nose wheel. Rather, the OP landed three point.
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It's very evident on the video the mains came down before the nosewheel. Upwind main followed by downwind main followed by nose...
 
Henning said:
That was from not having enough energy to flare, your descent angle is too shallow for how early you shut down the power and you got too slow so you didn't have any energy left to stop your descent before stalling on. The good thing is you've got your flare on height down perfect, you just got too low on energy. May I suggest cutting the distance you pass the threshold on downwind in half and see what happens? Or you could also leave just a touch of power in all the way to the runway. You're just a touch short on energy for the flare.

Also out of curiosity, what was your flap setting? Didn't seem like you had full flaps.
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Flaps were at 30.
 
kgruber said:
I'd have rather seen a landing on the mains only, and slowly lower the nose wheel. Rather, the OP landed three point.
Click to expand...

Only way to make a three-pointer in a trike is to be way too fast. Angle of attack is directly related to speed. Tires will certainly screech in such a case. They're protesting poor technique.

Dan
 
Dan Thomas said:
Only way to make a three-pointer in a trike is to be way too fast. Angle of attack is directly related to speed. Tires will certainly screech in such a case. They're protesting poor technique.

Dan
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Not the only way. Speed is not the only energy you fly by, he was low on energy. Here's the thing to look at, he barely got the nose up to get a flat 3 wheel landing and the stall horn was going off. That means his maximum angle of attack still left him in a descent. Fortunately it was at an acceptable height and everything came out well, but the plane planted on firmer than intended due to not having the energy to arrest the final rate of descent.
 
You ought to hear the horn sounding for a little longer and the pitch ought to be a little higher before the mains touch. That landing looked flattish to me, although not necessarily 3-point or nosewheel.

As far as the stall horn goes - the horn *can* be sounded by horsing the nose up at the last second producing a minor accelerated stall which would cause the mains to touch first but harder than usual. I would expect this more in a steep descent and this landing didn't look steep enough to make me suspect that.

Pictures are worth a thousand posts so the PIC knows best.
 
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The chirping is normal. And it looked to me like you just misjudged your roundout/flare height and came in too firm. Which is certainly something I'd never do. And I'd certainly never do it two Sundays ago. :redface:
 
Theres nothing wrong with a chirp, just means it was a solid landing:D
 
kgruber said:
It is not "evident" at all.



That was a three point, and very poor technique, landing.
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Agree. From a quick look, appeared it was a flat landing. Three point is only good in a taildragger.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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