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Old 29th Jan 2006, 07:40
  #7 (permalink)  
chevvron
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Wildest Surrey
Age: 75
Posts: 10,859
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Way back in the '60's, there was a magazine called 'Flying Review'. An article by a wartime pilot in this mag told the tale of his party piece with a Harvard.
He would descend over the compass base (about 50ft in diameter roughly) almost fully stalled, and at the last moment, open the throttle. This enabled him to touch down and stop in the diameter of the compass base.
I've seen something similar in a Cessna 150 (F model). The pilot descended the aircraft in a nose up attitude with full flap and a fair bit of power, which he kept on until the wheels touched; there was no discernable flare, and he stopped in less than 100ft.
In this model 150, I was taught a short takeoff technique which doesn't work on later 150's or 152's due to a different aerofoil. It involved selecting flaps 10, then standing on the brakes and opening the throttle fully; when max rpm was achieved, let the brakes off, rotate at 45 mph and climb away at 50! it's frightening the first time you did it, but it worked. I later experienced a similar takeoff in a Loganair Islander at the old Lerwick airstrip, which had a solid stone barn at the south end. The only difference from the 150 was the use of full flap, with an extra bit of flap only allowed for takeoff and selected by tripping a special circuit breaker. This was all licenced and approved by the way! We were airborne in about 100ft.
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