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Old 16th October 2008 | 09:57
  #12 (permalink)  
A37575
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Joined: Apr 2005
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From: Australia
I thought ground spoilers which extend on touch down obviated the need to play with the control column during the landing roll. Certainly in Vampire single seat fighters the technique after touch down was to keep steady back pressure on the stick in order to place more weight and therefore tyre surface area on the runway so the braking action was more efficient.

The opposite was true on the take off roll where back pressure to raise the nosewheel just clear of the ground, if over-done, could lead to significant increase in drag. Accidents to two Comet airliners and to several Vampires were partly due to the then taught techique of early raising of the nosewheel. This technique was published in the respective manufacturers manuals. Perhaps this was a precaution against the nosewheel being affected by slush? Yet this myth still applies where students learning to fly nose-wheel elementary trainers (Cessnas and Warriors for example) are almost universally taught to "take the weight of the nosewheel" as soon as the elevators become effective which is less than 15 knots in a Cessna 172. This misinformation has been handed down through several decades by a succession of flying instructors who clearly have not read the manufacturer's recommendations.
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