Wheelbarrowing and Flare

Cub Driver wrote:

I probably shouldn't say this, but taildraggers can porpoise too.

Mine loves to. My wife refers to landing practice as "dribbling the plane."

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

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.

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.

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote

And doing it (nosewheel landings) 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


George, is this a confession? g ducking and running
--
Jim in NC

Morgans wrote:

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote

And doing it (nosewheel landings) 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

George, is this a confession? g ducking and running

Nope -- still thinking about that Cessna pilot at Sussex.

I fly a Maule. There's an entire 'nother category of possibilities for
embarassment. We won't discuss my first arrival at Oshkosh ( at least I didn't
run down the Ford tri-motor).

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

On Sun, 26 Dec 2004, G.R. Patterson III wrote:
Morgans wrote:

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote

And doing it (nosewheel landings) 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

George, is this a confession? g ducking and running

Nope -- still thinking about that Cessna pilot at Sussex.

I fly a Maule. There's an entire 'nother category of possibilities for
embarassment.

"There are two categories of tailwheel pilot: those who have groundlooped
their aircraft, and those who will."

Been there, done that, just once. Didn't ding self, plane or runway
lights, and went up to do another two touch-n-goes to get back on the
horse that threw me...

The wind was gusty & getting close to my X-wind limits (nowhere near the
Citabria's limits, just my personal ones at the time...), so I planned one
last touch-n-go before the full stop. My approach was squirrelly, the wind
gusted hard just at touchdown, and I may have tapped the brakes;
the next thing I knew I was rolling down one of 09's taxiways and Tower
was saying, "Juliet Tango Mike, you OK out there?"

I should have gone into the grass, but Golf taxiway was at exactly the
right spot for me... Got the plane looked at when I went back to the Club;
no stress on it. I was another matter!

We won't discuss my first arrival at Oshkosh ( at least I didn't
run down the Ford tri-motor).

Likewise, I missed the runway lights!

Brian
www.warbard.ca/avgas/

Brian Burger wrote:

"There are two categories of tailwheel pilot: those who have groundlooped
their aircraft, and those who will."

Been there, done that, just once.

So far, the only time I've done it was deliberately. Landed long on a grass
strip. The trees were approaching rapidly, so about 60' short of them, I locked
the right brake. She spun around just as advertised. The left wingtip got within
3' of the ground. The next time I changed the tires (years later), I found
blades of grass trapped between the bead to the left tire and the rim.

Don't mistake that for a claim that I've kept the plane under perfect control
during all my landings. :-)

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

"Brian Burger" wrote

the next thing I knew I was rolling down one of 09's taxiways and Tower
was saying, "Juliet Tango Mike, you OK out there?"

Brian

The proper response for that situation should have been, "Give me a minute.
I ain't done crashin', yet!" VBG
--
Jim in NC

On Sun, 26 Dec 2004 00:17:49 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:


"G.R. Patterson III" wrote

And doing it (nosewheel landings) 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


George, is this a confession? g ducking and running

Welll... on one of our Young Eagle Saturdays for EAA Chapter 1093 we
had a Beech Musketeer, or Mousekateer start a porpoise in front of
about a hundred or so spectators., many of which were getting to send
their kids out for a ride. He busted the nose gear off on the third
bounce. What an impression that must have made.

To top it off he landed down wind. Fortunately it was a light wind.

We explained to the audience he wasn't any one any of us knew.
Probably from one of those big cities.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

That was back in his tricycle days.
Since he became a "taildragger" pilot, he doesn't do that anymore.

"G.R. Patterson III" wrote
And doing it (nosewheel landings) 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

Roger wrote:
George, is this a confession? g ducking and running