Sat Apr 09, 2022 11:42 am
#1907192
Mz Hedy wrote:Touch down as slowly as you can and keep the nose up in the ground roll - I've never had a nose-wheel aircraft fall back onto its tail after landing
Cue anecdotes.
Well I'll start...
This was an occasion where I discovered that if you're going to give instructions, you need to be really, really specific, and make no damn fool assumptions about how those instructions are going to be interpreted....
I'd gone flying with my OH, and her brother, who had given up flying in recent years but years ago had been an experienced glider and tug pilot, done lots of glider aerobatics, and lots of Cub flying apart from the glider tugging.
He was in the front, Mrs TC was in the back (if @GrahamB's on frequency I expect he knows what's coming already....).
I let him fly it quite a lot, and he was really, really good. So I let him land - ready at a moment's notice to take over if needed. He flew a perfect approach, held off, touched down (with stall warner!!) gently...
And then, I stupidly said "Ok, bring the stick right back to keep the nose off".
With Mrs TC in the back, the aft CG meant that the slightly over-enthusiastic pull he applied was enough to dig the tie-down ring on the tail into the grass with quite a bump. In Grummans, this is quite hard to do if two up, but quite easy 3 or more up if you're a bit ham-fisted, and he had no reason to know.
Fortunately there was no damage - the grass was quite soft - but he was mortified, despite it being obviously and entirely my fault for not giving clearer instruction.