Comments on: Wheel Landings

By: steveH

steveH — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:51:42 +0000

And if (when) you do it wrong, scared is the right adjective.

By: Comjam

Comjam — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:45:22 +0000

Lex:
Don’t gloat, it’s unbecoming. My turn int he barrel with Sundog (8GCAA) comes this week, mushy oleo gear and all. I look forward to the adventures in future humility.

VR,
Comjam

By: OldT6Pilot

OldT6Pilot — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:24:41 +0000

You don’t start a round engine you wake them up. Most times they act like a bear in hibernation being stirred – don’t much like it and can bite if you’re not careful.

When the starter whine begins and the first cylinder fires you’re not there yet as you need to coax the rest into joining the chorus by not getting too aggressive with the throttle while being ready to stroke the primer if it seems to be lacking enough go juice to get everyone in sync. Of course you are watching for oil pressure to rise so you can move the prop forward to lessen the load on the engine while not wanting to, as the engine engines stumbling, get the manifold pressure too high as, if the temperature is at all on the cool side, the engine oil will be still thick enough to blow a hose off as the oil pressure surges past red line.

But soon all the elements are aligned and the cough, wheeze, hack, BANG, settles down into a full-throated rumble that you experience with all your senses. It always provides another dose of satisfaction that everyone within earshot has come to look, the starting of the mythical beast being unable to resist to most airport rats no matter how many times they’ve seen the spectacle.

God I miss it. You feel like you are performing a scared ritual.

By: OldT6Pilot

OldT6Pilot — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:12:17 +0000

OK – in the things to look forward to category: Next time that SNJ sitting on your weekend employer’s ramp takes off observe how extended the oleo gear drop from their resting position on the ground. So, as you return to terra firma in same the gear reaches out for you as you attempt a wheel landing and caresses the runway and then absorbs any hamfisted efforts you have made to get her to bounce. No tendency to bounce like that Spring Steel gear on the Citabria.

So wheel landing an SNJ is easier to do well than in a Citabria in my opinion. Three point, due to the lack of forward visibility, not so much. Now the SNJ will scare the hell out of you if you don’t have it aligned straight at touchdown but if you have it aligned straight with no drift its no big deal.

But from the sounds of things the biggest hole in your aviation resume is about to get filled.

By: Jim Shawley

Jim Shawley — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:29:03 +0000

All well and good, but back to that Pataya Beach thing–you don’t get by without some elucidation as to what well and truly happened there…

One of these days, perhaps I too will to the tailwheel thing…

By: Rich

Rich — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:46:32 +0000

Reading this reminds me of my first time in a Citabria
(or any other small plane I did no later jump out of)
as well-I never had any flight instruction at all,
instructor (my best friend’s brother-in-law)says
“Taxi us out of here, the plane is yours”,
and off the cliff I went-did not ground loop it however.
reading your words, brought me back to that feeling
on takeoff like we were going to scrape the runway with the prop,
but it never happened. An hour of zipping through canyons
barely wide enough to fit the plane, loops, rolls, spins,
a desert field landing and a takeoff, were a gas!
I will never forget that day.
I hope you are having as much fun as I had-
it sure sounds like it!
That there is a sweet little machine!
pic for you:
http://www.avweb.com/newspics/potw/large/potw04_1544.jpg