Kawa rough landing?

The airfield I learned to fly at had a significant slope on one approach, the trick was to touch down just before the slope, on the close to level ground.
On several occasions whilst training, I touched down on the slope, it was tricky to handle, but will stand me in good stead should the situation arise.
As with all potential emergencies, one should try and predict them, and have a plan to deal with such an ocourance.
Even fields that look fine from the air can have a significant slope that is difficult to pick from the air.

It sure gets tiring listening to all the second guessing and after the fact 20/20 hindsight. The fact is **** happens to all of us irreguardless of general experience level. The experience that really counts is the experience directly related to the type of accident. In this case it is experience at off airport landings.

I would venture to guess that the great majority of guys flying higher performance modern machines (including some of the top ranked pulots) have very little if any experience with setting them down on marginal fields. The skill levels in off field landings are not there anymore simply because it is a realitively rare occurance these days with the higher performance birds and the different flying/contest mentality that exists today.

On Monday, September 16, 2019 at 6:53:04 PM UTC-4, wrote:
...The skill levels in off field landings are not there anymore simply
because it is a realitively rare occurance these days with the higher
performance birds and the different flying/contest mentality that exists
today.

That is incorrect for non-USA competition flying, where tasks and
scoring mean frequent outlandings. Check out the recent world Juniors
for example...

Don't begin a restart until you are within a mast-up
gliding distance of a good landing place - just in case it doesn't retract after a
failed start. Good advice. I have owned an ASW24E, ASH26E, Nimbus 4T ... It was explained to my during my motor glider glider sign-off. Never ever extend and attempt a start unless you are within gliding distance of a landing place. "To do so otherwise can make you look like a real asshole." I have had a land out where I got to the landing area too low for safe start.. The engine is a convienience that might work, not a death sentence, treat it as such.

In Kawa's case it looks like the prop was feathered back so he had much less drag than some of us have to deal with but regardless, I agree with others, starting a retractable propulsion system over some unknown landing location can lead to anything from minor scratches to broken glider and injured pilot. NTSB accident query here in the States lists several such cases where the engine did not work. In some cases it appears the pilot became distracted by the engine failure and either crashed into trees or cartwheeled the aircraft. So the other important thing here is to fly the airplane ..and not a bad thing to say out loud.

On Saturday, August 31, 2019 at 1:31:32 PM UTC-6, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Not sure how accurate FB translate is, but it appear as if Mr. Kawa had some sort of incident with an electric motor not working and a rough uphill landing. Gas, electric or jet be careful guys!

Kawa's translated words on FB today.

"Unfortunately, the mountain landing in pavullo would have me at least three months. Initially Invisible, but ultimately thanks to ortho in bygone accompanied spine fracture is an important thing.
Fortunately, I can tell you about it and share my observations and warn others."

He then goes on and shares his thoughts. The good news is he will recover in a short time. Some haven't been as fortunate.

Best. Tom #711.

On Saturday, August 31, 2019 at 12:31:32 PM UTC-7, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Not sure how accurate FB translate is, but it appear as if Mr. Kawa had some sort of incident with an electric motor not working and a rough uphill landing. Gas, electric or jet be careful guys!

Have we not leant anything from Bill and Kennth, define "plummet". A MD500 in a 180 degree auto will peg the -3K VSI hard against the stop. But it is not consider "plummeting " just sporting. It is a known and we practice. Same in a glider, know your bird.

On Saturday, August 31, 2019 at 3:31:32 PM UTC-4, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Not sure how accurate FB translate is, but it appear as if Mr. Kawa had some sort of incident with an electric motor not working and a rough uphill landing. Gas, electric or jet be careful guys!

Re prop drag;
At the end of towing in the Citabria, I would cut the engine and then stall
it to stop the wind-milling. This reduced the for a reasonable L/D.
However, a wind-milling prop running free probably has much less drag than
stationary prop.
Who will perform a test?

John F

john firth wrote on 9/23/2019 1:48 PM:
On Saturday, August 31, 2019 at 3:31:32 PM UTC-4, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Not sure how accurate FB translate is, but it appear as if Mr. Kawa had some sort of incident with an electric motor not working and a rough uphill landing. Gas, electric or jet be careful guys!

Re prop drag;
At the end of towing in the Citabria, I would cut the engine and then stall
it to stop the wind-milling. This reduced the for a reasonable L/D.
However, a wind-milling prop running free probably has much less drag than
stationary prop.
Who will perform a test?

http://www.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/misc/prop.pdf

The article concludes "it depends"; briefly, high pitch - let it rotate, low
pitch, stop it. Other sources pointed out helicopters autorotate to slow their
descent with the engine disconnected, and clearly that's slower than stopping the
blades!

I'm guessing a 26E with a broken belt has more drag from the spinning prop than a
stopped prop, but do not plan any testing; however, I will be happy to do a
comparison glide with another 26E that has the belt removed. That could be done on
the ground, and then glider towed to height required for the test glide.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1

Interesting rotating verses stationary, I always was taught in power that a rotating prop was more drag than a stopped one as the rotating one acted more like a "disc" than just 2 blades stopped. But know real evidence of that.

CH