I've seen porpoising. And wheelbarrowing. Very bad juju! Very dangerous.
Everyone *must* learn not to do either!

The most physically dangerous thing that I see with porpoising is the
possibility of stalling at the top of the second or third porpoise, after
the a/c finally runs out of lift, while you are 15-20 feet off of the
ground! Not good.

-Frank

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...


Ramapriya wrote:

Has anyone seen wheelbarrowing occur? Prima facie, it appears too
improbable (ludicrous almost) a thing to happen but even the FAA
Airplane Flying Handbook copy that I have mentions it!

I've seen it at least twice. The worst case was a Cessna trying to get in
before
the field closed for the Sussex County Airshow. The nosewheel hit first
and
bounced. Then the mains hit and bounced. The nosewheel came down again,
harder.
The plane started porpoising. The third time the nosewheel hit, the tire
was
nearly flattened. The noise was impressive. He managed to keep it down on
the
fourth strike -- I think the plane had just given up trying to fly by that
time.

Also, while the ways of performing a flare is mentioned at many places,
the reason for a flare is conspicuously absent everywhere. Just why is
a flare needed vis-a-vis a 3-point landing?

Typically, the nosegear is more delicate than the mains. The steering
mechanism
also may give trouble at high speeds (shimmy is a problem with many
designs).
The general idea is to keep the nosewheel off the ground until you're sure
there
won't be a problem.

It's also true that the consequences of "wheelbarrowing" can be severe. If
the
nosewheel touches before the mains, the back end of the plane continues
down
until the mains hit. Once the mains hit, the back end stops traveling
down, but
the plane continues to rotate, and the nose wheel leaves the ground again.
Over-reaction by the pilot may cause the nosewheel to come back down even
harder. There have been cases of prop strikes, flattened tires, loss of
directional control, and even cases in which the nosegear broke off. And
doing
it in front a a thousand people or so is embarrassing. Flaring properly is
an
excellent way of ensuring that this never happens to you.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.