PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - When do you lose the ability to fly your aircraft?
Old 1st Apr 2022, 00:11
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pchapman
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Toronto, Canada
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It is tough to argue the subtleties of these situations; one gets buffeted on all sides.
One person says the plane might have too much lift after touchdown and still be light on its wheels. So I say, lower the nose to reduce the angle of attack. Which isn't supposed to be the same as slamming the nose down to wheel barrow, or slamming it down so hard to risk structural damage. Or I get told that despite lowering the nose to reduce lift, I'll still have so much lift that the plane will STILL be light on its main wheels. I do like aerobraking too, and discussing aerobraking vs. wheel brakes at different speeds is a good topic. But of course at some point you do have to lower the nose -- otherwise on some aircraft if you aerobrake too long you run out of elevator effectiveness all of a sudden... and the nose slams down harshly. And while I explicitly say I'm only talking about tri gear, I'm also challenged about why taildraggers should be any different. Yes, I do suggest a different technique....don't try to lower the nose on a taildragger all the way to the ground after landing, that gets expensive on props! (Hmm, for those who debate taildragger wheel landings vs. 3-point landings, how can the actual touchdowns possibly differ if everyone should be landing at minimum possible speed?) While there are some good points to debate in all this, sometimes it seems that no statement can be made that can't be over-interpreted. If I say to pull up from cruise flight, someone will say that'll pull the ruddy wings off!

Then we also have issues of terminology: I never used the term "push" but then someone else used it and then someone else complains about that! Clearly lowering the nose after landing may just require a relaxation of back pressure and is not likely to require any push on the stick, which could indeed be detrimental to the nose gear. An instructor in particular would want to be careful with terminology.

Anyway, I'm always willing to learn and re-evaluate the interplay of different factors in handling an aircraft, but I'm not seeing enough to convince me that keeping on going to the very stall is particularly useful on landing.
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