Is every touchdown a stall?

"Jim Macklin" writes:

Real airplanes and real simulators "care" about such
details, desktop PC games and simulators don't, which is why
you can log take-offs and landings in an airplane or a $20
million full motion/visual sim.

PC simulators do, too.

--
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RK Henry wrote:
On Mon, 02 Oct 2006 18:34:05 +0200, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Dave Doe writes:

While the poster can probably put the C182 in MSFS on the ground at
100kts, or even 75kts - this doesn't happen in the real world.

I'm certain that it can be done in the real world. Are you saying
that a C182 cannot be made to descend at 100 kts? That the only
directions it can go at that speed are straight ahead or up? I find
that hard to believe.

Of course you can put the airplane on the runway at 100 knots. It's
just bad practice. Tires and brakes are expensive. Excess stress on
the landing gear can cause expensive damage. Some runways are not as
long as might be desired. When you're barrelling down the runway at
100, the airplane is going to take longer to slow down. Maybe
especially because of ground effect. The tires get shredded from
touching down so fast. The brakes get burned up trying to stop. And
you may have that much farther to taxi back to the ramp. Some pilots
have touched down going so fast that they couldn't get stopped before
running off the end of the runway, damaging a perfectly good airplane.

It's generally better to touch down as slowly as practicable. And
what's the slowest speed you can touch down? While touchdown speed may
need to be adjusted slightly for conditions such as wind or
turbulence, it's generally better to do your slowing down while on
approach instead of carrying so much energy all the way to the runway.
A good reference is the aircraft's POH, or the guidance of an
instructor. But then, you don't get either of those with a simulator,
do you?

Touching down at 100 knots in the average light
tricycle-geared airplane will result in "wheelbarrowing" and probably
an accident. The AOA of a wing at that speed is very low, and with
flaps deployed the nose will be well down at touchdown, placing the
nosewheel on the runway with the mains still well above the runway. Now
you have a really nasty taildragger, with the CG a LONG way behind the
landing gear, and it's not controllable.
We land our 172s with the stall horn blaring before touchdown.
The stall horn will sound at 5 to 10 knots above the stall, and if it's
not sounding the touchdown is too fast and flat. The only time any
student here has struck the tail on landing was in soft-field practice,
where too much power was carried into the flare and the nose was raised
too high so that the tail hit when the wing finally gave up. Most light
airplanes are nowhere near stall angle in the max nose-high landing
attitude. The L-19 and maybe the Zenair 701 and 801 might achieve it.
You need long gear legs or really high tail clearance.
Too much speed is often more dangerous than too little.
Porpoising can start if the nosewheel hits first. The airplane can run
off the end of the runway since it spends so much time floating in
ground effect, and with flaps down and too much speed the brakes are
useless. A bounce or a sudden flare often results in ballooning, and
the airplane is likely to run out of airspeed far above the runway and
end up busted.

Dan

I try to get my stall with the wheels barely touching the pavement. A really
good landing is one where you can't even tell you've touched down.

There are 3 secrets to the perfect landing. Unfortunately, nobody knows what
they are.

mike

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...

Stalling 20 feet above the runway can do lots of damage, too. I
suppose that a stall six inches above the runway is harmless, but if
it's only six inches, why bother? And it cuts things really close to
try to get a stall only within the last six inches above the runway,
no more and no less.

There are 3 secrets to the perfect landing. Unfortunately, nobody knows what
they are.

mike

Snarfed into my sig file.

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.

"mike regish" wrote in message
. ..
I try to get my stall with the wheels barely touching the pavement. A
really good landing is one where you can't even tell you've touched down.

There are 3 secrets to the perfect landing. Unfortunately, nobody knows
what they are.

mike

1. Fly really low.
2. Fly really slow.
3. Keep flying until it stops.

Al G