High or low wing?

The solution (for anyone interested) is either (a) add some power in the
flare to keep the nose up, or (b) keep your approach speed right to the
flare, rather than beginning a gradual roundout higher up like you would in
a 172.

I wonder if you're noticing the different ground-effect behaviour with the
Mooney not because the wings are low, but because the Mooney is such an
amazingly clean plane. I personally lust after a Mooney 201, which would
give me 165 ktas burning only a couple of GPH more than my Warrior at 126
ktas.

David, I think I'm tuned into the ground effect so much because I fly the M20J
150 hours a year or so. If you carry too much airspeed into the flare, you're
in for a long, long settling time, and the chances are you'll not hear the
stall warning before the mains touch.

Lots of Mooney pilots, when in the flare, retract the flaps. that helps the
airplane stop flying sooner (and the trailing edge of the flaps are really
close to the ground, which makes ground effect issues become GROUND EFFECT
issues).

The other thing is, what one does when landing is try to burn off the energy
the airplane has, and clarn airplanes don't lose energy very quickly. Again,
that's an argument for managing airspeed carefully.

tony wrote:

Lots of Mooney pilots, when in the flare, retract the flaps. that helps the
airplane stop flying sooner (and the trailing edge of the flaps are really
close to the ground, which makes ground effect issues become GROUND EFFECT
issues).

I learned that trick in the Cessna 172, but I've never needed it in my
Warrior -- it stops flying just fine on its own in the flare, whether I want
it to or not.

The other thing is, what one does when landing is try to burn off the energy
the airplane has, and clarn airplanes don't lose energy very quickly. Again,
that's an argument for managing airspeed carefully.

I have to think of some reason not to be jealous of your Mooney ... let's
see ... with good airspeed control and full flaps in my Warrior, I can often
make a turnoff at the approach end of the runway, saving me maybe 5 minutes
in taxiing time. That will have to be my compensation for the hour you
saved in your Mooney during cruise.

Seriously, with all the hype about the Cirrus and Lancair composite planes,
I'm still not all that impressed -- for all the new materials and techniques
no one (except maybe Diamond with their TwinStar) seems to come close to a
1970's Mooney aircraft's combination of speed and efficiency.


All the best,


David

I have to think of some reason not to be jealous of your Mooney ... let's
see ... with good airspeed control and full flaps in my Warrior, I can often
make a turnoff at the approach end of the runway, saving me maybe 5 minutes
in taxiing time. That will have to be my compensation for the hour you
saved in your Mooney during cruise.

Seriously, with all the hype about the Cirrus and Lancair composite planes,
I'm still not all that impressed -- for all the new materials and techniques
no one (except maybe Diamond with their TwinStar) seems to come close to a
1970's Mooney aircraft's combination of speed and efficiency.

You may have something, although if one is familiar with the airplane and
controls airspeed brfore going into the flare, , Mooneys can stop pretty short
too w/o burning up breaks. There aren't too many airports I fly into where the
first turn off is less than 1000 feet or so from the approach end. In fact,
it's fairly common for me to plan my touchdown pretty far down the runway to
get close to the turn off, since I'd rather fly over the centerline than taxi
on it.

A lot of this discussion isn't really fair, though -- as I mentioned, I'm a
fairly high time pilot (for not having been taught to fy in one of the
services) and lots of that time is in the same aircraft. I read its mind, and
it reads mine, pretty well.

You can say the same thing about your airplane, can't you?

One thing about the Mooney -- in fairly stiff cross winds, it's easy to run out
of rudder authority before you'd like, so sometimes it has to be flown onto the
runway. I hate touching down before the airplane doesn't have enough airspeed
to fly!

OTOH, if you start adding power in the flare, you can actually make the tail
skid touch down before the mains. that's won me a few hamburgers when flying
with pilots who don't like their tail backwards.

But Warrier or M20, we're among the lucky ones.

tony wrote:

A lot of this discussion isn't really fair, though -- as I mentioned, I'm a
fairly high time pilot (for not having been taught to fy in one of the
services) and lots of that time is in the same aircraft. I read its mind, and
it reads mine, pretty well.

You can say the same thing about your airplane, can't you?

About my airplane perhaps, but not myself -- I'm still under 300 hours. I
agree, though, that after even a couple of hundred hours in the same
airplane, you start to know its behaviour very well.


All the best,


David

Bob Fry wrote:

But at some point the boy must grow into the man, ....

Sez who?

"I wanna be a pilot when I grow up!"
"Son, you can't do both."

George Patterson
If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

Why do so many Cherokee drivers extol the "manliness" of low wing airplanes.

Because they have an inferiority complex that makes them proclaim characteristics
they do not actually have.

George Patterson
If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

"C. Paul Williams, MD" wrote:

Do you prefer flying a high wing or low wing
aircraft and why?...

John Price said that the question is usually settled the first time you try to set up
the lawn chairs in the shade of the wing at Sun'n Fun.

George Patterson
If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

Ray wrote:

Why do all fighters since the biplane era have low wings?

Because attackers will probably be approaching from either the same level or above -
it's difficult to make an effective attack from below. It's also important to be able
to see in the direction of a turn when you turn in to attack an opponent. And not all
fighters are/were low-winged; many were mid-winged aircraft.

Why do most military transports (C-130, C-17, C-5) have high wings, but all
airliners have low wings?

The wing spars have to pass through the fuselage. With a low-wing, that means a hump
in the floor. With a high-wing, that means a lwo ceiling at that point. Planes that
carry cargo would rather have a flat floor to ease loading. People, on the other
hand, will step over a hump in the floor and bang their heads on a drop in the
ceiling.

Why are a lot of cold weather/high altitude planes high wing?

Dunno about "cold weather" planes, but the high-altitude aircraft which come to my
mind are mid-wing aircraft; the U-2 and SR-71.

George Patterson
If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

Teacherjh wrote:

But when your'e out of gas, you're out of gas.

But when the fuel pump breaks, my engine keeps running.

George Patterson
If you don't tell lies, you never have to remember what you said.

In article , C. Paul
Williams, MD wrote:

Hi, I'm new to this group and new to piloting, just having passed my
private pilot FAA written and about halfway through flight school.
I'm training in a Cessna 172SP and have a question for the experienced
pilots out there. Do you prefer flying a high wing or low wing
aircraft and why?...I apologize if this is a redundant question on the
newsgroup.

high wing advantages:
- better short and soft field operations
- more rugged landing gear
- higher prop clearance
- better off airport clearances

Ever try to taxi through a fence/gate opening with a low wing?
High wings pass comfortable over the tops of the posts.