"zatatime" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 21:34:12 -0500, "Reid & Julie Baldwin"
wrote:

I took some advice to change my landing technique and carry
some power through the flare instead of cutting power as soon as I had the
runway made.


Thanks for the story. I hope you're re-thinking the above advice at
this point. Carrying power into the flare isn't necessary, extends
your landing distance, and can get you in trouble as you found out.
Also in x-wind conditions like you describe, a three point landing is
a better idea in my opinion. You talked about wanting to get the tail
wheel down so you had steering. If you did a full stall landing, you
would have had the controllability you were looking for as soon as you
touched the ground, as well as having better control of the airplane
while it was flying. You also would have been slower than what's
needed for a wheel landing which may have allowed you to avoid the
problems you had completely.

It's great you stuck with it and I'm glad it all worked out. Hope its
a mild winter so you get to exercise the bird some.

z


I think I see the three point vs. wheelie thread coming around again, which
is ok by me as it is usually a good one.

I just did a Goggle groups search on +"three point" +wheel and got 2,700
hits. The fourth hit listed was

http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.av...46c09d7c32c538

which was a post by our once frequent poster highflyer which pretty much
said everything I would want to say but better than I would. He even
comments on holding a bit of power into the flair.

I will comment that none of my better tailwheel instructors were fans of
wheel landings (for light aircraft) and the best of them refused to teach
wheelies at all. They agreed that wheelies usually meant too fast, with too
much energy, needing too much rollout and with too little authority. The
tail has to come down sooner or later, and a pilot's best friend is a firmly
planted steerable tailwheel.

The only time I have ever felt that I was just along for the ride was on my
second (ever) solo (no instructor in backseat = more forward CG) landing
(PA18) where I got caught with full flaps (shadowed rudder) and the
tailwheel not fully planted. A blast of power helped and I did not ground
loop but did talk with alligators, and had to explain how I got mud on the
underside of the wings (no wheel pants).

Happy landings,