brcase
En-Route
Adding 10mph to your over the fence speed will have the same affect as adding a bit of power. It gives you just a bit of time and energy to round out and float just a bit so you can gently set it on the mains.
Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
Wheel Landings?
- Thread starter Arnold
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Adding 10mph to your over the fence speed will have the same affect as adding a bit of power. It gives you just a bit of time and energy to round out and float just a bit so you can gently set it on the mains.
Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
People saying you shouldn’t wheel land isn’t a thing. Find someone who said that. Don’t act like wheel landings are hard. You have to demo them to get the endorsement.
I've been working on getting proficient on wheel landings after a period of no tailwheel flying. My instructor advised me to watch the far end of the runway, and that has made a big difference. On a solo practice flight a few days ago, I was having trouble with it again. Then I realized that I was forgetting to watch the far end of the runway, and suddenly it was all better.
Oh well, at least I got some practice in recovering from a bounce!
Oh well, at least I got some practice in recovering from a bounce!
Fearless Tower
Touchdown! Greaser!
Actually, it is a thing, sadly. Lots of people have gone on record as saying you shouldn’t wheel land, including Jesse who used to post extensively here. And then there is Roy Redman from Rare Aircraft who wrote a short article about not wheel landing that someone posted in one of the other recent tailwheel threads.
These blanket statement black and white people do exist.
I like wheel landings.
Yep. Landing on them wheels is sure better than not...
Yep. Landing on them wheels is sure better than not...
Stewartb
Final Approach
There’s nothing prettier than watching a Skywagon fly the final approach to a wheel landing without any change in power or pitch. Just flying a very stable AOA and speed right to the ground. Not difficult.
MauleSkinner
Touchdown! Greaser!
If you’re flying a Maule, you don’t have to do wheel landings for the endorsement, as Maule recommends against them.
pretty hard to find in writing, but I used to have a fax from Ray Maule to that effect.
Arnold
Cleared for Takeoff
Watching the far end of the runway cures a multiple of sins.
Dan Thomas
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dan Thomas
I've seen both taildraggers and trikes do that, and they touch down way too fast. Approach speed is too high for touchdown speed. That's something not understood by so many people. A taildragger can get away with it a lot easier than the trike, though, since the trike's nosewheel is going to hit first and start a porpoise.
Let's review that:
Now, that picture shows the relative wind coming from straight ahead, level flight. In the approach it's from below and ahead, so the airplane's attitude is nose-low. A higher speed puts the nose lower. Touchdown should be in slow flight, nose high.
Attachments
Stewartb
Final Approach
Your error is thinking the relative wind is parallel to the ground. Steepen the approach, lower the nose, the AOA is still high. STOL flying 101.
Coinneach
Guest
I had to demonstrate 3-point, 2-point, 1-point (fly down the runway on one wheel, then the other), transitions from 3- to 2-point and vice versa. The takeaway for me was to be proficient in all possible ways to land a taildragger and recover from any possible WHOADOGGIE situations. At no point did my CFI ever say "Thou shalt not land on the mains under any circumstances."
Dan Thomas
Touchdown! Greaser!
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Dan Thomas
Did I not make it clear?
Wagondriver
Line Up and Wait
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375Taylor
Flying it onto the ground is pretty easy. Landing short in a wheel landing is another story. I typically have a very high descent rate at about 55mph, I use that extra energy to arrest my sink and when the mains touch the stall horn is just starting to go off. Shut down in about 800' or at DA of 8000 or so. If I am going into a one way, short strip that I have never been into before, I carry power all the way down indicating about 45 mph and get it shut down in about 500 to 600' I don't like to land that way all the time because in the even of an engine problem, you are guaranteed to end up short.
Flying it onto the ground is a decent way to practice the touch down.
Flying it onto the ground is a decent way to practice the touch down.
RyanShort1
Final Approach
And too many people overlook the other needed skill of processing peripheral cues.
MauleSkinner
Touchdown! Greaser!
I had to make a student turn her head to look at something on both sides of the runway before going back to the far end in order to actually make a landing that wasn’t just parachuting her Chief onto the ground from 30 feet…that Aeronca gear is amazing!
wilkersk
Pattern Altitude
My little Sonerai doesn’t like to wheel land in calm winds. It takes me a lot of runway to paste it on the mains when the winds are calm.
but, give me 10 knots of wind, and it’s the most natural thing in the world. A crosswind is even better.