wrote:

Matt
How can you tell how high you are or how tall the trees are? If you are
near stall speed, it doesn't take much to cause a full stall and you
are just a passenger waiting for the impact!

Yes, that is why we practice flight at minimum controllable airspeed.
You DO practice this regularly, right?


Lots of trees in the western regions that exceed 150' and thats a long
way to fall on your nose!

I live in PA, so our trees are generally shorter. The goal is to land
slowly enough that you don't tear off the wings and fall to the ground.
Even a fall from 50' has a high potential to be fatal or at least
cause very serious injuries. I want to get hung up in the treetops and
have them extract me with a cherry picker. :-)


Once your wheels make any kind of contact with the tops of trees, it
will feel like you're being sucked right down into them with a rapid
deceleration and lots of noise as things start tearing off and bending.

I've never done this, but I assume you are roughly correct on this
point. That is why I want to be going as slowly as possible when I make
contact. I want to have to lose as little energy as possible to get
stopped. Since energy is a function of the square of velocity, every
couple of knots slower that you are makes things much better.


Matt