Landing on one wheel

wrote:
On Mar 18, 10:11 am, Dudley Henriques wrote:
wrote:
On Mar 18, 8:04 am, Dudley Henriques wrote:
Ol Shy & Bashful wrote: This is fun stiring the pot! OK ...how many of you practice doing a
one wheel touch and go from time to time. And I don't mean by
accident.
I did it all the time with tailwheel students, and still do it with
students in 172's. We frequently get winds that are 15 G25 90 to the
runway and topography that makes the winds squirrly as hell on the
west end. Learning good crosswind techniques are vital.
I recognize different techniques are needed for different aircraft
with wing clearance, etc but I still did them with lots of different
low wing aircraft like Piper Pawnee, Cessna Ag Husky, Ag Cat,
Stearman, Thrush and so on.
Ol S&B
We had occasion one time to loan Miss America to Bob Hoover to use for
his demonstration. His P51 had been damaged in a forced landing the day
before. The only stipulation we placed on his use of the airplane was
that he not do any one wheel landings. It was strongly felt by all of us
that these "landings" if not directly, at least have a strong potential
to place undue stress on the main gear leg and attach points where the
wheel meets the axle.
True, this was our personal choice, but I would still feel this way today.
I've never actually asked Bob to clarify the issue by disclosing if he
ever had maintanence done on the main gear oleos on his 51, so to be
fair, it was then and is as I write this an open issue and simply a
matter of opinion.
--
Dudley Henriques
Pretty hard to damage the gear on a Citabria doing that.
They're stout, to withstand the abuses of the novice. I've done the
one-wheel thing with students in the past, students who are having
trouble transitioning to the taildragger. The one-wheel touch-and-go
teaches them to fly the airplane ALL the time, not just until
touchdown like they tend to do in a trike. It also develops strong
crosswind skills. After that, they're careful in trikes, too, since
now they know that the airplane really isn't finished flying until
it's tied down. Every so often you hear of another 172 or something
that came to grief after the pilot made a successful touchdown, only
to lose it in the rollout.
Dan
The argument for practicing one wheel landings as a teaching tool can
indeed be made and the technique is not a new concept for instructors
dealing with tail wheel instruction.

The spring type one piece main gear legs are as you say much better
suited to taking any side loads that might be imposed then an oleo leg.
In this scenario, the principal negative is excessive tire wear due to
scrubbing.

It's a toss up really. If monitored closely by the instructor, it most
certainly can be done without serious incident.
I would say that I personally have not used this technique in teaching
tail wheel students having found it unnecessary to do so.

I should say that I have stood facing down a runway while doing safety
work at air shows and watched this being done by pilots who were
experiencing what I would easily classify as excessive and damaging side
loads placed on their main gear as touchdowns were made cross controlled
but WAY off the required correction for the existing wind conditions.

I've used the technique myself doing comedy acts in Citabrias and
Decathlons both. I was a fair stick (on ccasion anyway :-) and I've
stressed a tire or two and felt that "spring released force" myself on
occasion as a sudden wind shift screwed up my carefully planned out one
wheel landing :-))

--
Dudley Henriques

Best way to do it: get into the flare for a wheel landing,
wings level, then just as the mains are ready to touch, lower one
wheel to the surface. Don't need a lot of bank, but as speed decays
more aileron and down-elevator will be required. Add power to keep
speed up. With one wheel off a little, the lift vector isn't much and
the tendency to scrub the rolling tire isn't all that great. Bank into
any crosswind, not away from it. Lifting an upwind wing is surely
asking for a busted airplane. Don't do any of this if you're not
already proficient at wheel landings.
I can't quite maintain it in the Jodel unless I'm near
liftoff speed. The gear is too far apart (F-11 type spring leaf) and
the wings, being so short, make the ailerons a little feeble doing
this.
Taildraggers are fun. They make a real pilot out of you. You
find out just how inept you really are. If you're gonna spend money on
flying, make sure you spend some on a taildragger checkout. Makes the
trike drivers envious in the worst way. And, don't forget, taildragger
pilots drink their coffee black.

Dan

I'll be sure to keep all this in mind. :-)))

--
Dudley Henriques