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Old 20th Mar 2004, 00:36
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BeechNut
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Canada
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I fly (and own) a Beech C23 Sundowner (180 hp). The flapless POH approach speed is 80 knots, and the full-flap speed is 68. I usually land at our home field with 2 notches (25 deg) at 75. Less float at 70 but I find that roll control (even though this ship is quick in roll; mine's also aerobatic) becomes compromised, and then dealing with the built-in crosswind at our field is more of a challenge.

The Sundowner is weight-sensitive. At MGTOW, at the suggested best rate climb speed of 79 knots, or the flapless approach speed of 80 knots, if it's gusty, the stall honker will be going on and off, but not at lighter weights. I think in this case a little insurance is a good idea: it tends to drop a wing in a stall, and moreover, this is a wing that, when it decides to quit flying, it really quits (conversely, when it reaches rotation speed-65 knots-it magically sucks the aircraft into the air regardless of weight and with minimal back pressure on the yoke, but again if it's windy the honker will go off in climb if you're less than 85 kts).

Landing is a piece of cake though, if you remember to bleed off that excess insurance coming over the fence into your flare, otherwise float is impressive. These birds also have a rep. for porpoising.

But on the other hand, I used to fly a PA28-140 and the Sundowner, if you go by the book, is more consistent. Basically flare to a slight nose-up attitude, hold it off until the honker is really honking, then pull back until the mains chirp on. Pull too soon, and you balloon back up, the wing just wants to keep flying; the demarcation from flying to not flying is sharp. And balooning is where the porpoise accidents start: tempting to shove the nose down. That's exactly what happened to a friend in her Sierra (same airframe and wing), and the result was a prop strike, broken nosegear, and a pranged front end, to the tune of $35000 CDN.

Insurance should never be more than 5 knots IMHO, otherwise things can get ugly over the pavement. At least in my bird.

Mike
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