Wheel Fairings on Grass Strips

Tom-D said:
A thought occurred to me, (that happens once in a while)
Differential brake steering on Grass, it is dependent upon traction for directional control.

Any more worries than say an aircraft with nose wheel steering?
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Along this line; one of the high time Grumman pilots I ran into in the lounge at M04 last weekend told me the only time he ever really had a problem with a Tiger was when one wheel brake failed.

He said, "with differential braking, if one brake quits it's impossible to taxi, best just to shut it down."
 
kontiki said:
Along this line; one of the high time Grumman pilots I ran into in the lounge at M04 last weekend told me the only time he ever really had a problem with a Tiger was when one wheel brake failed.

He said, "with differential braking, if one brake quits it's impossible to taxi, best just to shut it down."
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Oh my ... :banghead:

Perhaps you should find a quiet, empty ramp and taxiway and give a simulated single-brake failure a try.
 
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JoeSelch said:
Oh my ... :banghead:

Perhaps you should find a quiet, empty ramp and taxiway and give a simulated single-brake failure a try.
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Once at 4 corners regional I had a rudder pedal pivot pin fall out, of my 170. The pedal fell forward and blocked steering and lost the brake operation on that side.

I told Tower what was happening and it would take a couple minutes to fix. stopped where I was and fixed it.

The point? steering is important. Ron makes a very good point here, when he says know your landing spot, but that goes for all airports.

My concern with differential brake steering is getting one wheel in tall grass, or standing water to one side and not have enough traction on the other side to bring it back.
 
Tom-D said:
My concern with differential brake steering is getting one wheel in tall grass, or standing water to one side and not have enough traction on the other side to bring it back.
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You shouldn't need differential braking for high speed/landing/takeoff steering, just rudder and ailerons for a boost if needed.

I teach my guys in the Grumman to slide their feet to the floor when that rudder gets authority (which doesn't take much)

Only time we really touch the breaks is to turn off the runway and for taxi
 
Don't know about your Tiger, but I once bent a Mooney gear door on an above-average grass strip, so now I'm VERY discriminating. :redface:
 
Was it the lower gear door? There are two. The manual specifies the removal of the lower one for unpaced runways. Cost ya 2-4 knots
 
NineThreeKilo said:
You shouldn't need differential braking for high speed/landing/takeoff steering, just rudder and ailerons for a boost if needed.

I teach my guys in the Grumman to slide their feet to the floor when that rudder gets authority (which doesn't take much)

Only time we really touch the breaks is to turn off the runway and for taxi
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You don't need to be at high speed to loose control on the ground. You get more drag on one side, you best hope you have enough traction on the other to bring it back.

Wet grass is a good example, tall wet grass has a lot of drag, short wet grass doesn't offer much traction.
 
Tom-D said:
What do you do on slippery runways?

Ice? does the Grummies have skis?
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I would think that you would treat the Grumman as a taildragger.
They seem to behave nicely with rudder input, as well as a tapping of the brake when needed.
But I've only owned and flown an AA1.
I did have a Cherokee on floats once. but it went back to wheels after a very short time. ;)
 
Tom, and Ron,
Suffice it to say that while relatively fast, and very fun to fly, Grummans are under powered, and short winged. So their short/soft field take-off performance is somewhat lacking.
Other than that, they fly, and land.
The only thing I don't like about them is the location of the stall warning switch. and it has to be there due to the short wing.
 
Tom-D said:
You don't need to be at high speed to loose control on the ground. You get more drag on one side, you best hope you have enough traction on the other to bring it back.

Wet grass is a good example, tall wet grass has a lot of drag, short wet grass doesn't offer much traction.
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I've landed sandbars, short grass, tall grass, river beds in tailwheel never had those issues, especially in the docile lil Grumman.

For the types of strips he's going to (remember EAA meet ups!) this aint going to be backcountry flying.
 
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