Rough Field Landings

"Maule Driver" wrote in message m...
In gliders the mantra was, "land upwind and upslope but upslope is more
important. Down slope is to be avoided."

The challenge is to understand just how steep an approach is required and
how much energy is required to flare properly for steeper slopes. It's not
a minimum speed approach and you must have enough pitch authority to round
out. Much more than one would originally think for steeper slopes.

The rollout or skid will be much shorter which is always good. And it's
easier to hit a spot. Every foot of ground covered after touchdown runs the
risk of hitting something you didn't see. I routinely drove the nose in the
ground with the brake to minimize rollouts over unknown ground.

But for moderate slopes, my experience is that upslope is strongly preferred
even with a moderate tailwind.



When landing upslope judging the moment to flare is also harder...it looks like you are just above the ground but you
will still be high...

Blueskies wrote:
"Maule Driver" wrote in message
m...
In gliders the mantra was, "land upwind and upslope but upslope is
more
important. Down slope is to be avoided."

The challenge is to understand just how steep an approach is
required and
how much energy is required to flare properly for steeper slopes.
It's not
a minimum speed approach and you must have enough pitch authority
to round
out. Much more than one would originally think for steeper
slopes.

The rollout or skid will be much shorter which is always good. And
it's
easier to hit a spot. Every foot of ground covered after touchdown
runs the
risk of hitting something you didn't see. I routinely drove the
nose in the
ground with the brake to minimize rollouts over unknown ground.

But for moderate slopes, my experience is that upslope is strongly
preferred
even with a moderate tailwind.



When landing upslope judging the moment to flare is also harder...it
looks like you are just above the ground but you
will still be high...

Do what I did. Knowing that some of my flying would be onto and off
topdressing airstrips I found instructors who had been topdressing
pilots and learnt from them.
I noticed in a post further back some-one was debating the idea of
landing downhill.
Bad idea.
You not only have the aircraft speed but also the weight and the
downhill slope and nothing to really slow you.
landing uphill is not only a good idea it is also the safest

wrote:

Do what I did. Knowing that some of my flying would be onto and off
topdressing airstrips I found instructors who had been topdressing
pilots and learnt from them.

Depending on how steep the slope is, you must approach with overspeed to
have enough energy to properly flare uphill. It's very good advice to
train this with somebody who has experience.

landing uphill is not only a good idea it is also the safest

Landing uphill is the only way to go. I once landed downhill at an
unknown airstrip, because at that side, the approach was clear of
obstacles, while at the other side it was not, and I, being very low
time then, was afraid to take the approach over trees and between
electric lines.

It was a perfect landing in the sense that the plane remained undamaged
and I'm still alive. But I'm still shivering when I think back.

Stefan