Tracking the centerline with a lateral imbalance

Old Geek

Old Geek

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Old Geek
Suppose I'm flying down the centerline getting ready to flair. The plane and gas weighs about 850 pounds, evenly distributed. I weigh 190 and I'm on the left side. No passenger. I consistently land on the right main first. I've been told that if I'm properly lined up and there's no crosswind, I have to land with the wings level. That seems intuitively wrong given the weight imbalance. And it seems equally wrong that I'd land on the right main first.

I can't seem to get my head around whats going on. Any observations?
 
Old Geek said:
There's that. I was thinking more about the right main tire I have to change this weekend...
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Landings are usually not the main reason for tire wear, taxiing is. Getting a plane's tire alignment straight, and keeping it that way is not easy.
 
Have you looked at the airplane on the ground? There is a thing called dihedral - and in most single engine airplanes driven by American turning engines the left wing dihedral is higher than the right - so if you are flying wings level according to the horizon the right wing is lower . . .
 
Firstly flair on your airplane gains you nothing. On the other hand Flaring to land could be helpful. Secondly the wings have a huge amount of leverage and you can land on either wheel even with a full tip tank and all the rest empty. As noted you're worrying about something that won't help to worry about. Fly the plane and you'll find it works fine. With a bit of practice and some knowledge you'll find you can pick a wheel to land on regardless of loading. 190 lb just off the centerline doesn't have much of a moment arm compared to the lift at the wingtip with very small amount of aileron tossed in.

Hope that helps ( and sorry about the Flair vs Flare comment, english is tough)

Frank
 
Just read something though cannot remember where concerning bald spots on tires being more often on the right than the left. The comment was that because of car driving experience and the use of the right foot for the break some of us(and especially students) tend to be heavy on the right pedal(and thus brake), and thus the uneven wearing of the tire.
 
douglas393 said:
Just read something though cannot remember where concerning bald spots on tires being more often on the right than the left. The comment was that because of car driving experience and the use of the right foot for the break some of us(and especially students) tend to be heavy on the right pedal(and thus brake), and thus the uneven wearing of the tire.
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If that were the case, airports wouldn't need to mow the grass on the right sides of runways, because pilots would do it for them.
 
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