How to Groundloop your Taildragger

Corky Scott wrote:

Another war story:

Yet another; in England this time.

A B-17 pilot landed successfully but didn't get it stopped until after the last
turnoff. Rather than wait for a tug, he locked the left brake and ran the left
outer engine up to full power. That pulled the left wingtip around, shoving the
right wing backwards. Then he idled the left outer, locked the right brake, and
ran the right outer up to full power. He kept this up until he had backed the
plane up past the turnoff and got off the runway.

He said the mechanics hated it when pilots did this, since it didn't take long
to ruin the engines, but he got unofficial kudos from the base commander for
freeing up the runway rapidly.

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.

On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 18:14:20 GMT, George Patterson
wrote:

He said the mechanics hated it when pilots did this, since it didn't take long
to ruin the engines, but he got unofficial kudos from the base commander for
freeing up the runway rapidly.

I've heard of this technique of backing up, and I can imagine that it
must have required a lot of power from the outer engine to get the
entire mass of the airplane to swing. So I can see where it would
burn out the engine in a hurry.

Corky Scott

I've heard of taildraggers being parked in their tiedowns by being
taxied in backward. The pilot gets a bit of speed, aims at the
tiedown, intentionally groundloops it, stopping the swing with opposite
brake as it lines up and the momentum originally built up drags the
airplane into the tiedown spot.
I don't have the nerve to try it.

Dan

wrote:

I don't have the nerve to try it.

I wouldn't if I were you. I came into a grass strip with a bit of a float and
wound up with the trees at the end approaching a bit too fast. Braking action is
worse on grass than pavement. About 40' from the trees, I kicked right rudder
and locked the right brake. She spun around nicely; the wing dipped about
halfway to the ground, but nothing touched and everything was fine.

When I changed the tires a few years later, there was still grass trapped
between the left tire bead and the rim. I think that spinning it around at
enough speed to result in backwards motion would result in a flat.

George Patterson
Why do men's hearts beat faster, knees get weak, throats become dry,
and they think irrationally when a woman wears leather clothing?
Because she smells like a new truck.