I would also suggest, to those of you who want to "TRY" to wheel land a mono
wheel, you need to do one thing first. With the engine off, have a friend or
helper raise the tail to normal flight attitude, then take a look at how close
the
prop is to the ground or pavement. One bounce on landing, and you may be buying
new prop blades.
The center of gravity is behind the mono wheel, which will make the tail drop
down, as soon as the wheel touches the runway, if you counter with some forward
stick, re-read the above paragraph.
I'm a high time Pitts driver, who loves wheel landings, but NEVER in our mono
wheel.
Jim Brown
N398JB
Rowland Carson wrote:
>
>
> >I've always wondered why everyone says you can't wheel land a Europa...
> >why???
>
> Chris - some have tried, and many have failed!
>
> Consider the situation: you are rolling along on that one wheel just
> after touchdown and slowing down, to the speed where the rudder
> becomes ineffective. At this point, you are now in contact with the
> ground through one point only, and have lost directional control; you
> are no longer the pilot but have become a passenger on the way to a
> groundloop or worse.
>
> A similar possibility arises at takeoff. As the elevator is more
> powerful than the rudder, you can lift the tail and find yourself
> balancing on the head of a pin without directional control; however,
> as you should be accelerating smartly here, the rudder may start to
> bite before disaster overtakes you.
>
> I must say that I speak as an observer at this stage - I have never
> landed a Europa myself yet, but I have seen the sort of mess other
> folk have made because they neglected to keep the tailwheel in good
> contact with the ground. The old tailwheel habit of getting the tail
> up, or of doing wheeler landings, will not serve you well in a
> monowheel Europa.
>
> regards
>
> Rowland
> --
> | Rowland Carson PFA #16532 <http://home.clara.net/rowil/aviation/>
> | 750 hours building Europa #435 G-ROWI e-mail <rowil@clara.net>
>
|