REFLECTOR: Gross Weight
Chuck Harbert
c.harbert at comcast.net
Sat Jun 24 13:14:51 CDT 2006
I took lessons from Scott Baker in Lincoln, CA when he was a young man, and
he taught me that when the main gear touches down you should imediately pull
back on the stick to reduce the "plopping" of the nose gear. He showed me it
works, but in my 50+ landings in my own plane, I haven't done nearly as well
as he showed me.
I think it somewhat depends on landing speed and how you built the
airplane. On takeoff, I really have to pull back to get the plane to rotate,
and then imediately push forward to not over rotate. I know to level my
plane on the ground, I need to put a 2x4 under the nose wheel which makes me
think that the plane is "descending" on rollout, as well. This adds to the
downward pressure on the nose upon landing. I think this is fairly normal
from talking to other V drivers.
Another thing that I've noticed is that you don't want to get too slow
(under 65 kts for me) or the plane will respond slugishly and will tend to
plop. Scott B told me to "fly it onto the runway" which allows you to better
control the nose plop.
Chuck H
Std RG w/speed brake
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