Steering on final with rudder

[Oscar]

In Gliding, one usually tries to land short anyway - especially on smaller fields because landing long means having to drag the aircraft back ( which gets tiring for everybody on a typical long, hot gliding day, and also slows up flying for those ready for take-off while the field is cleared). If you're at places like Narrromine or Tocumwal, there's plenty of field length for the flight line to start a fair way upwind of the threshold; at Polo Flat, we were a fair bit more cramped. Also, the 36 approach had a bit of a hill on approach - not major, but enough to give you a bit of a rising headwind on approach which then fell away before the boundary fence so a bit more height and speed was prudent and a short landing was 'polite', so one tended to do the 'get it sorted, point the nose well down and slam on the brakes' ( I am being a wee bit cheeky, I know, but that was sort of the feeling one had).

 

If you have a gander at: http://www.snowyaviation.com/page10.htm, the first picture shows the main strip - 360 from the left-hand side, and the cross strip (300, from the lower rh corner of the piccy). We used to fly on 360 from about 150 metres after the threshold, which was maybe 200 metres before the cross-strip intersection. One landing I had, there was a major wind-shift to the west while I was on downwind for 360, and I caught a glimpse out of the corner of my eye of another guy landing on 300 at the same time. Suffice it to say that we crossed paths at the intersection, with me having to turn sharply at the corner of the intersection to pass behind him. Was no real drama, though a few people at the launch site were jumping up and down and pointing him out to me, but I was well planted on the ground by then and travelling quite slowly.

 

Airfields like Narromine are FINE for the low, long approach: have a look at: http://www.narromineglidingclub.com.au/NGC_Video.html#Stretching Personally, I wouldn't have used his approach path - especially flying over the irrigation channel.

 

I remember well, John Rowe and I waiting for a mate of mine to complete his 300k task very, very late in the day - in a Narromine hired glider.. In those days, 11 had a long grass extension way beyond the boundary fence, lined with trees both sides. and the bitumen continued beyond the boundary fence for quite a way. You can still see the boundary fence crossing the bitumen on Google Earth. We saw him flying down the 'avenue', and when he was lower than the boundary fence, John was getting very antsy. Finally, we saw the brakes come out, he touched down, the brakes pulled back in. We jumped in the Narromine retrieval ute and headed for the end of the strip. He was parked neatly about 10 metres on the wrong side of the fence...

 

John opened the bush gate and we pushed the thing through onto the field. My mate was very downcast at not having completed the task ( for his Gold Certificate). John asked him if he had his declaration on him, which he did, and John signed it off on the spot as the official observer. John's comment was along the lines of: ' I have an aircraft ready to fly tomorrow and 10 metres short is still 300k in my book' ( which was true: the declared flight distance was something like 310 k)..

 

The 'long, flat' approach is fine for me in country that is end-to-end airfields in the dead calm of last light, when both sink and lift has disappeared, in an aircraft with 30:1 glide ratio or better. In changing conditions in something with maybe half that or less glide ratio, I want height and speed on my side and I am happy to use techniques to burn that margin off at the last moments. I completely recognise that this is NOT normal for powered aircraft approaches and that I have to change my perspective, but I have found it hard to adjust to relying on two revolving paddle-pop sticks to get me to the ball-game on time vs. looking at it from above and chucking out the anchors so I don't overshoot.

 

I suppose I will have to accept the invention of the internal combustion engine - though since I fly Jabirus and intend to continue to fly them, possibly my hesitancy is not completely unwarranted.

 

 

[Contact Flying]

A power/pitch approach that you glider pilots might like (no airspeed indicator needed or wanted) is the apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach. It will put you down on the numbers every time. You use the throttle just like the spoilers to control the glide angle.

 

 

[dsam]

OK, here's my contribution to the discussion.

 

My first solo was in a glider. I was trained to set up all my glider approaches a bit too high, and side slip on final to loose unnecessary altitude, always confident I could make the field. Then I would ease out of the sideslip, use spoilers as required, and stabilise to the final flare & touchdown.

 

Now in my powered aircraft, I believe my old habits still serve me well. I'm a bit too high turning final, with power at idle and flaps set as required. I have no worry should the engine decide to stop, I'll make the field easily from this altitude. A sideslip on final (with or without crosswind) gets me to my aiming point. This technique has the added bonus of keeping me well above any unseen wires/obstacles on short final at unfamiliar aerodromes - the benefit of a somewhat steeper angle of descent. Over the fence I ease out of the sideslip and flare into my aiming point. This technique is something I'm comfortable with, particularly at unfamiliar fields. It may not suit everyone, but it works for this old (former) glider pilot.

 

Happy flying everyone :)

 

 

[Guest gannett]

Gannett in post number 388 in this thread you said it.I went back and reread it to make sure.

Can't read either, i give up.

 

 

[Garfly]

Dutch roll can be initiated by turbulence or control input. To be a problem it has to be divergent. You can train to control it manually and where applicable it is part of a conversion on type. Usually Yaw dampers are used. If you do the wrong manual input it may go on it's back, which encourages you to be careful. Nev

 

This new video by Mentour Pilot offers a pretty good explanation of Dutch Roll: