REFLECTOR: Brake authority

[Laurence Coen]

Al,

I agree that the plane handles nicer at 90 KIAS on approach and that's what I use but my aiming point is about 300 ft or more short of the threshold.  I finish up with a gradual round-out to cross the threshold at 80 KIAS and touch mains at 70 KIAS.  My canard stalls at 60 KIAS single pilot (add 5 for two up front).  Since the energy necessary to stop is a function of speed squared, an extra 10 KIAS is a big deal.  My plane is all slow build and set up with the factory supplied incident jigs.  Something I was doing early on was failing to hold the mains off and touching down too soon.  Because the nose isn't pitched up much, the mains are well behind the CG which dumps the nose and most of the aerodynamic drag.  It took a lot of landings before I was comfortable with less than 3000' in front of me.  I think your main problem is the canard stall speed and I have no idea of what to do about that.  A fixed pitch prop doesn't give as much drag as a constant speed but you might see if you can get the idle speed down.  It might help.

Larry Coen
N136LC
SE/RG Franklin-IVO
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Al Gietzen 
  To: 'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list' 
  Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2007 5:07 AM
  Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Brake authority


    I have a SE/RG Franklin with Matco brakes.  I do not have the toe brakes.  I try to make the 1400 ft turn off and if that doesn't work there is a 1600 ft exit.  If I am high and hot I have to coast to the 3000 ft exit.  If this happens I have to add power to exit the runway promptly.  The total length is 4100 feet and I have never had to use that much

    Larry;



    I'd like to know how you do that - and why our planes are apparently different.  I'm generally braking pretty hard to make the exit at 3200'.  At what speed are you flying final?  



    It seems that under about 90 on final feels like control response is getting rather poor; even with vg's in front of the ailerons.  Is it a matter of using more rudder for corrections on final?  Because I find the aileron response to be slo-o-w.  Two different test pilots that flew early flights also landed hot, just because it 'felt right'.  Which means even if I'm down over the numbers it floats in ground effect for some distance, and then it's mains on at about 80 KIAS. I couldn't begin to think about getting off the runway in 1600'.



    Maybe it's just my lack of technique, and fixed pitch prop, no speed brake. I have the Wingco canard, for which I had to reduce the incidence to reduce stall speed, and to be able to go fast without having full forward stick. Canard stall is now about 70 KIAS.



    Al







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