Bruce Greeff wrote in message ...

As an example of habit problems - From comments on this group it appears the
most common approach taught in the USA is to fly the 2-33 onto the ground.
Apparently it is so slow and draggy that it is desirable to carry as much energy as possible to the round out - so they tend to learn to leave the flare out - then it becomes the standard taught. Finesse is one thing, but all that energy has to go somewhere and most glass will not take kindly to this.

Bruce

Close. The 2-33 has an achilles' heel - a weak tailwheel - that will
not tolerate low-energy tail-first or main-and-tail landings. So
pilots are taught to fly it on the runway level, touching down on the
main wheel only, usually still a bit above stall speed. Kind of like
a wheel landing in a tailwheel powerplane.

Note that you can land a 2-33 nice and slow, by holding it off, but
that is not trained often for fear of that weak tailwheel.

So now you have a student taught to land by "flaring" to a level
attitude, then waiting for the glider to settle on it's mainwheel,
then slowing by using the skid if necessary, who now tries to land a
G-103 for the first time without a comprehensive briefing: Level off
(a bit fast probably), touch down on the main (maybe a bit firmly due
to the touchy divebrakes), then a wicked bounce as the nosewheel
bounces off the ground, and the Grob jumps back in the air - and the
cycle repeats, more violently each time! YeeHA - there goes the
nosewheel, and maybe the tailwheel too. Seen it happen a few times.

Of course, if all you fly are Schweitzers (except the 1-35, maybe),
that technique will work fine (in the 2-22, 1-23, 1-26, 1-34 and 2-32,
for example).

Too bad for the Grob-103 fleet, however!

Kirk