PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why is landing the bloody plane so hard?!
Old 6th Mar 2015, 15:01
  #92 (permalink)  
9 lives
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 631
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Arrow - I found that no matter how smooth the touchdown, it's easy to let the nosewheel drop with an audible "clunk"
It's nice to keep that "clunk" to a minimum for the sake of longevity.

The low tail Arrows, like the rest of the Cherokee line, are stabiliator, rather than H stab & elevator configuration. This is good for the cruise configurations, where the plane spends most of its flying time. however, at slow speed, high pitch up control application, it's a little less ideal.

The stabilator provides down balancing lift, and control force by change in its angle of incidence only - there is no change the camber of the horizontal surface as a whole. Thus with very great stabilator AoA, a stall is more easy to achieve. Therefore, the lift can be lost more suddenly with full nose up control applied, as the plane slows.

The combination of H stab and elevator, on the other hand, tends to hand on longer, as the camber increases with elevator deflection, and resists stalling a little more.

The early Cessna Cardinals (all Cardinals are also stabilator only) were the subject of an AD to install a slot in the stabilator to delay stabilator stall. Later models all had the mod from the factory. This was about for the same reason, the nose dropping out at the last minute.
9 lives is offline