Sloppy Piloting

On Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:33:13 +0000 (UTC), Bertie the Bunyip
wrote:

"Roger (K8RI)" wrote in
:

Wow! I never would have guessed!

I would have thought more like 75 knots. Learn something new.

Best glide (at gross) is 120:-)) = ~ 600 fpm which makes for a pretty
good glide ratio.


Pretty good? That's an L/D of 20/1.. Couldn't be. I'd be seriously
impressed with 14/1

5280 feet / 300 feet per statute mile = 17.6:1
We're relying on a foggy memory here, but next time out I'll try to
remember to refresh it. :-))

It's considerably more than that of a 172. On my last biennial flight
review the CFI pulled the power right as I was taking the hood off
after a bunch of instrument work. We were at 4000. He said, "find a
spot", I suggested the airport which was about 6 miles to the East. I
received the usual, "think you can do it", and I replied "with room to
spare". Actually it was a LOT of room to spare, as I had enough extra
altitude to fly the pattern (with a close base) while slipping all the
time. Pattern altitude is about 1700 with field elevation being 630.
So we had 4000 - 1700 = 2300 feet to lose in 6 miles and ended up
reaching the airport at roughly 500 above the pattern or 2700. That
figures out to about 4000 - 2200 = 1800/6 = 300 FPM. (These are rough
figures) other than the starting altitude, and knowing I was well
above the pattern altitude when I got there) I don't usually have to
slip all the way down wind to base, to the runway. :-))


OTOH with a normal VFR landing, final is 80 MPH/70 knots minus 1 MPH
for each 100# under gross. With just me and half fuel at about 75-76
MPH (and a fair amount of power, the old girl can make some really
short landings. With only my 40 minutes and 3 landings since last
March I'm not quite that proficient... yet. :-)) of course the
weather has been crap ever since that flight except yesterday and I
had too much to do. Maybe I can get out again this Saturday or Sunday
between snow showers. (winter storm coming in tonight.)

The the old V tail I once flew was extremely good at short field stuff.
I remember being amazed.

Book figures are better than many 172s. :-)) It's a slippery plane
but the wing loading on mine is the same as many Cherokees (~17#sq ft)
The older V-Tails like the one you flew are lighter yet.
The wing loading on the G-III I'm building is 29# plus change.


BTW that difference between best glide and a normal landing really
screws with some pilots minds. Little high on final. Lower the nose
and you find the extra speed will move your landing spot farther
down the runway. OTOH get 'er down to the proper speed and with those
big flaps she'll come down right steep with a surprising rate of
descent too. :-))

Yeah, thsat makes sense.

Add some slip and you can scare some Cherokee and Cessna pilots. For
that matter you can scare a lot of Bo pilots too. :-)) Most of 'em
land way too fast and aren't used to seeing the VSI wayyyy over
"there". That's what Maynord was laughing about when I made the one
pattern a U-turn from down wind to the numbers. He knows more about
flying Bo's than I'll probably ever learn.


Power off landings use a lot more runway than normal landings
Roger (K8RI)


Well, you could fiddle around with that with some odd technique, but
it's true of most airplanes that you can touch down a bit more slowly
with the power on.

Power off landing is 90 while the normal is the 80 minus listed above.
The manual states you need the extra speed to have enough energy to
flare.

Roger (K8RI)

Bertie