Approach to Land Photos

[304065]

Nothing like a big nasty forward slip after a $100 hamburger.

[djmcmath]

Sweet shot. I remember doing something similar with my room-mate shortly after he got qualified. That's about the scariest thing in the world, watching the runway come racing up at you ... sideways.

Is that you flying, or are you behind the camera? What's the plane? And what do you mean by "$100 hamburger?"

Dan

[304065]

Dan- that's me in the front seat of my Citabria. A $100 hamburger is an old pilot term for taking the airplane for a cross-country trip to an airport with a good restaurant just for the hell of it- once you add up the fuel and other costs your hamburger ended up costing $100 (or more!)

The Citabria, unlike most airplanes, is not equipped with wing flaps. Flaps are basically extensions to the trailing edge of the wing that increase the amount of lift and drag generated by the wing, which basically allows you to point the aircraft at the ground without increasing the airspeed. This is very helpful when you need to slow the airplane to land.

In the case of airplanes without flaps, you do what's called a "side slip" - you deliberately yaw the airplane with the rudders so the nose is pointing a few degrees away from the flight path, and use opposite aileron to keep the airplane from banking in that direction. Doing this exposes the side of the airplane to the relative wind, which creates enormous drag, and also makes it possible to see the runway out the side window, which isn't always easy with a taildragger airplane operating at a high angle of attack.

You kick the slip out and fly "straight" just before touchdown.

Notice also that the altimeter is at 500 feet: field elevation is around 420. The airspeed dial just to the right of that shows about 75 MPH, which is about 10 MPH too fast (which is why I'm slipping the airplane). You can see my left hand on the throttle ready to add power and go around if anything goes wrong on final. The big red knob is the fuel mixture control. The little circle in the window is an air vent that blasts cold air on your face, this is very helpful when doing aerobatics as you tend to get pretty warm.

(Lest I incur the wrath of the other pilots here I'm actually lining up for the GRASS runway, not the hard-surface . . .)

[djmcmath]

$100 hamburger -- that's cute.

That's about the slip explanation I got from my room-mate, as we were doing it. It's a little unnerving -- you're looking out the front of the plane at a place that you definitely don't want to land -- but that's ok, because you're flying sideways. (shudder) You pilot types are weird.

Dan

[}{arlequin]

that's so cool. I gotta find a place to learn gliders (sailplanes), then there's the shooting lessons... the job seems to take too much of my time lol

[kach22i]

Originally posted by }{arlequin
that's so cool. I gotta find a place to learn gliders (sailplanes), then there's the shooting lessons... the job seems to take too much of my time lol

http://www.ssa.org/

Visit the site/link above and contact them to find something local.

You might want to schedule something soon to see the fall colors. I know I am.

PS: No burgers before the sailplane ride, those thermals blow up, but they also suck down when adjacent to the column of air rising. God gave us only so much air to play with ya know.

[}{arlequin]

thanks for the link, i'll be checking it out shortly

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by djmcmath
It's a little unnerving -- you're looking out the front of the plane at a place that you definitely don't want to land -- but that's ok, because you're flying sideways. (shudder) You pilot types are weird.

Surely you've broken the rear end loose in the 911 once or twice in the past?

[djmcmath]

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
Surely you've broken the rear end loose in the 911 once or twice in the past?

Twice, actually, and only once intentionally. I had a slip angle that exceeded the tires' limit of adhesion and spent a brief instant sideways before the tires re-caught. Scared the living horse-puckey out of me, drove slower after that. The other time, I found myself going entirely too quick around a tight set of steep downhill switchbacks one night. I lost it coming around one switchback and fishtailed for what couldn't have been more than about a second while trying to slow down to make the next switchback at something like safe speed. My brain was totally uninvolved in both cases, like a data-logger just quietly watching the action. The second one was really entertaining in the replay, as I remember feeling the back end go back and forth, and I remember watching my hands fling the steering wheel rapidly from one lock to the other, then back to the middle. I couldn't tell you at all what my feet did, or how I somehow managed to be in a lower gear coming out the far side of that switchback. It was kind of neat, in retrospect, though it happened entirely too rapidly for me to really be scared, in the heat of the moment.

In an airplane, iirc, the slip lasts for a while. Like you go sideways, then you go sideways some more, then the passenger panicks, and you go sideways for a while longer, the passenger says his final prayers, then you go sideways for a while longer while the passenger screams in horror, then you straighten out just before impact. Oh, and in a little-bitty plane, it's not straight sideways, like a constant slip -- it's kind of a dancing, bouncing, hopping motion, like some kind of cat-toy on the end of a rubber band. "I don't know where we're going, but it sure doesn't look like we're going to hit that runway."

John, you got any more pictures? That's some sweet stuff! Tell us some pilot stories!

Dan

[Bruce Brown]

www.100dollarhamburger.com

[}{arlequin]

Dan, play w/ that 911 tail in a wet parking lot, the slides (and the pendulum feeling) will be a little slower

I always thought it was cool that Citabria backwards is airbatic. Those are neat planes.

[304065]

What do you guys say we do an aileron roll?

Now, I'm going to start by saying that if you try this in a regular airplane, you'll probably kill yourself, and destroy a perfectly good normal- or utility- category airplane.

Before commencing any aerobatic maneuver, ask yourself, "Self, have I met or exceeded the following legal and common sense requirements:

1) Airplane in airworthy condition with no squawks, aerobatic category, rated to perform the intended manuvers AND loaded within the CG envelope for aerobatics. For our Aileron roll, the Citabria with two pilots and chutes and about half fuel will meet these requirements.

2) Each occupant wearing an approved parachute packed by an appropriately certificated parachute rigger within the last 120 days. Our chutes are nylon, so 120 days, if silk, 90 days.

3) Adequate weather conditions, including ceiling. Despite the temptation to fly aerobatics in the path of a hurricane, don't. Legally you are required to be at a minimum altitude of 1500 AGL (above ground level). Common sense says you need about 5000 feet: if you make a mistake you will want every foot of that.

4) WHERE to fly aerobatics: not within 4 miles of the centerline of a federal airway, not over any congested area of a city, town or settlement, and well away from any open air assembly of persons. Thinking of impressing the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders with a low-level Immelman turn in your Cessna 150? Forget it!

(Are you getting a sense of why it's so difficult to get your pilot's license? You don't just have to learn to fly the plane, you also get to memorize a few hundred regulations! All designed to keep the skies from looking like the public roads!)

Now, we're ready to fly. We climb in to the Citabria, one in the front seat and one in the back. Master ON. Rotating beacon ON. Mixture full RICH. Aux fuel pump on for 3 seconds to prime, then off. Mixture full LEAN. Open window, verify that no mechanics or innocent bystanders are in the propeller arc, then shout "CLEAR". Left magneto ON, hold brakes, stick back, engage starter. As soon as engine catches, mixture full RICH, right magneto ON. Verify oil pressure within 10 seconds. Aux fuel pump ON. Radios ON. Release brakes, roll forward a couple feet, then apply brakes to check. Taxi to runup area. Swing tail around so that you don't blast guy in Cessna 150 patiently waiting behind you. Throttle 1800 RPM, left mag OFF, verify max drop 125 rpm, then ON. Repeat with right mag. Verifiy max difference 50 rpm. Alternate air HOT, verify 100 rpm drop, then COLD. Oil pressure in the green. Fuel pressure in the green. Aux fuel pump OFF, fuel pressure in the green, then ON. Landing light ON, verifiy ammeter deflects, then OFF. Throttle to idle, verify 600 rpm. Verify controls free and correct. Tune radio to CTAF, announce intentions in the blind: "Anytown traffic Orange Citabria departing runway 24 eastbound departure Anytown."

Still with me? Check base/final for any traffic, then taxi into position on the active runway. Align airplane with centerline, then hold brakes. Throttle to the stop. Verify static RPM 2550, oil pressure green, fuel pressure green. Release brakes. Correct for torque effects with rudders (easier said than done!). At 40 mph, say, to no-one in particular, "airspeed alive," forward stick to raise tail. At 60 MPH check oil and fuel pressure in the green, rotate with back stick to nose-up attitude and you're flying.

Still with me? Climb out at about 70 MPH and depart the traffic pattern toward the aerobatic area. Once you have it located, check all the engine instruments and verify you are level at 5000. You then do a "clearing turn" which is a minimum 180 degree change in direction, all the while scanning for other aircraft that might be on a collision course. Once the area is clear, let's warm up with a "roll reversal" which is basically a 60 degree, 720-degree turn to the right, followed by a roll at maximum rate to the left into a 60-degree 720 to the left. This way, you get a sense of how long it takes the airplane to roll 120 degrees, and the full aileron roll is going to be three times that long. Also, you pull about 2.0g in the 720, which gets your body acclimated to the g's and prepares you for the serious task at hand.

Now let's do it: zero the accelerometer (the g-meter) and climb back up to 5000 feet if you lost any in the 720's. Another clearing turn, looking high and low for traffic. Once clear, let's do the maneuver, progressing to each successive step ONLY if we have accomplished the preceding step EXACTLY. If any step is incorrectly done, we abort the roll. Ready?

Set power for 120 mph. Set trim slightly nose-down, so that you have to hold slight back stick to maintain 120 mph. Verify 5000 feet reference altitude. PULL smoothly up to about 15 degrees nose-up pitch, about 2.5g should do it. If you do it slower, you will lose more airspeed before the roll begins, making it sloppier. Once established on the pitch-up, smoothly apply FULL left aileron (by pushing the stick ALL THE WAY to your left knee) and HOLD it there. Also, to enter the roll cleanly some left rudder will be required: the Citabria has big ailerons that deflect equally up and down. When you put in left stick, the left deflects up and the right deflects down. Lift decreases on the left wing and increases on the right wing, and the airplane rolls about its center of pressure to the left. But when the right aileron deflects down, that wing generates more lift, which also generates more drag, which will tend to yaw the nose of the airplane to the RIGHT. This is called "adverse yaw" and is more pronounced in old designs like our Citabria. You MUST counter it with left rudder. Do you still have that stick all the way to the stop? In the time it took you to read that, we've rolled inverted.

Don't just sit there gawking at the horizon upside down, keep that stick in! A common error is to become so fascinated with the inverted landscape that you take the stick input out, and roll rate slows down. As you roll through inverted, RELAX that back pressure, remember the back pressure I told you to hold to keep the airplane level? Since you are inverted, this down elevator will tend to keep the nose pointed skyward, minimizing your altitude loss. Also, you may generate some negative g here, so don't be surprised if every speck of dirt and dust comes up from the carpeting at this point and gets in your eyes! Keep that stick input in, we're almost around! Do NOT apply back elevator until we have achieved wings-level. There. Now, we're wings-level with about 15 degrees nose-down pitch. Smoothly pull back on the stick, about 2.0g should do it, to return us to level flight.

Congratulations, you just went upside down and lived to talk about it!

In the next installment. . . how to LAND this thing. . .

[john70t]

Nice writeup, and include "get pliers from storage and extract passengers fingers from bicep". A roll in a Citabria seems like driving a schoolbus on two wheels at the 'ring. Amazing!

I remember a trip in a Cessna 172(?) where I became facinated with the wing support cables humming like a guitar string while the pilot performed a tight turn with the wing pointed at a spot on the ground.

[}{arlequin]

yeee haaaa! now that's fun!

[304065]

Michael, Tim, can you guys help me get this thing down from FL 050?

[Dantilla]

I used to occasionally slip the Bonanza I used to own. What a great plane to fly. With a combo of flaps and a slip, it would come down like a gliding tool box.

Aileron rools are a hoot! No, not in the Bonanza, the place I took lessons has an old Cessna 150 Aerobat for rent. Spins are fun, too.

And gliders are cool! I've taken some lessons, but haven't finished the rating.

Oh, yeah- I've also spent quite a bit of 911 time with the tail trying to pass me. The only times it has succeded have been on the autocross course.

I guess I really have nothing to say. Just agreeing with all of the above.

[Pete Pranger]

Man, you gotta work to get that thing started. I'm sorta spoiled I guess, "select, start" seems like work to me these days. My TOs are easier too, thrust levers to the detent, ATTCS armed, 80kts, V1, Vr, rotate positive rate gear up 500' AP ON call me in range. Just kidding...sort of.....

We don't slip too much anymore, swept wing airplanes do weird things in a slip and tends to scare passengers. HeHe.

Did you ever see the video of Bob Hoover pouring a glass of lemonade while rolling? Pretty impressive in my opinion. I miss getting upside down, I haven't done that in a long time, I'm jealous.

Pete

[304065]