> Oh yes, it floats like a good ‘un, Ken! I have many times compared in
difficulty to landing an F16 because it still wants to fly as you try to
land it.
I've heard others say the same about the F16. I've seen them float halfway
down a LONG runway before the guy decided to go around.
> But I learned (and I teach) to land it like a tail-dragger, shut the
throttle and raise the nose to the landing attitude and hold it there as it
slows down and descends to the landing point. But if you had a short strip
(which we don’t) you would aim short and get the landing attitude setup by
the time you reached the threshold.
Ah, and use the throttle to adjust the glide slope? When my dad and I got
trained by the missionary pilot who used to teach the ultimate in no-field
techniques--controlled crash landings, he taught a similar method. Get the
speed adjusted to your landing speed plus a tiny margin (in the 172, that
was something like stall plus five knots), trim it neutral and use the
control yoke only for roll control. Adjust glide slope with the throttle.
In the 172, the speed wouldn't change much, if any, while you jockeyed the
throttle, as long as you didn't put any pressure on the yoke.
http://airportnavfinder.com/airport/C26/
This was our airport we flew out of. Yes, Runway 3 was one you used only
once (either you never got another chance or you survived and vowed to
never step foot in an airplane again). That canyon of trees is about 110
foot tall now. That "paved" (yeah right) surface is only 15-25 foot wide,
but the entire clearing is about 150 foot wide at the very widest. We never
did our runup at the end of the runway because nobody in the pattern could
see you. The first 800 foot of runway was invisible from the air until you
clear the last tree with your wheels (sometimes shedding leaves as you hit
the top branches). We had a couple of guys in old taildraggers that never
used the radio and wouldn't bother flying the pattern, just popping over
the edge and side-slipping down to the runway. Of course, one of them with
an amazingly beautiful Taylorcraft (tandom seating, Cub-style) did that and
our airplane was taking off at that moment. The guy missed ours by a few
feet and he groundlooped it right into the trees busting it up really bad
and him going to the hospital. Unfortunately the guy flying our airplane
(four-share owners) didn't even see him, took off for a flight out of state
and never knew what happened. It was a couple of hours before anybody found
the guy bleeding out in his airplane.
> I have taught short landings – from a glide approach for a competition,
and that was enormous fun. But our normal runway has an inset threshold so
there is plenty of tarmac underneath you before you get close to the ground.
At this particular airport, we used to have a lot of landing competitions
back in the late '70s, early '80s. Runway 35 was great for that and had a
decent clearing on approach. The threshold was probably about 75 foot in
from the end of the asphalt. We got to the point where we could plant the
mains within a couple of feet of the six inch line most of the time. The
guy with the T-Craft would show off by landing at the end of the pavement
and being stopped at the line.
Coming in on 17 was a little different story. The threshold was offset
because of the trees and powerlines. When we were't using the Cessna as a
tree-trimmer, we could usually hit the threshold without too much problem,
but threshold position was based on when there weren't power lines there
and the trees 25 foot shorter.
After the tree-trimming incident, and remedial bush-pilot training, my dad
was able to land the airplane and have it stopped before the threshold.
That required a 1:1 glide slope for the last 150 foot of altitude. We did
one of those down at Muskegon and totally freaked out the control tower.
Statistically speaking, I think our airport had way too many crashes. Just
in its last 10 years of operation, I know of five. That was probably the
normal rate for it.
Still not sure how the insurance company ever allowed us to operate out of
there.
The little trick with the 150 and 172 with spring gear was to land
extremely tail low, like a tail dragger, because as you slammed it in and
then jumped on the brakes, the gear wouldn't bounce you back up in the air,
but instead provided additional decelleration for the airplane itself.
Nasty on everything, and those poor tires and brakes would take a beating,
but it worked. That poor airplane was done worn out by the time it crashed
for the last time.
AG
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