PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Wheel landings and groundloops
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Old 4th Oct 2015, 00:03
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9 lives
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Canada
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I've had one very slow groundloop, and one nearly so. I flew jumpers for years in a 185. On my first day of flying it, I nearly lost it landing into the setting sun, to later find that it had no tailwheel steering whatever - broken tailwheel. It went where I wanted it to, but that had been luck, not control.

I very slowly groundlooped the Teal once. I had landed in quite a crosswind, and touched the tail wheel down (from a nice wheel landing) while the rudder was fully applied to keep 'er straight. The problem was that doing so unlocked the tailwheel, which then would no longer steer. When the rudder was no longer effective, the tailwheel steering was useless, so she gently went around. No harm done, but lesson learned, center the rudder for a second to lock the steering in for when you slow down!

For my modest tailwheel experience, I have found that looking over a lowered nose during the roll out enables a much greater awareness of yaw, for longer down the roll out. Awareness of yaw has to be good!
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