REFLECTOR:N32XL

[reflector at tvbf.org]

Hello and welcome Dave!

>>and now have encountered the bad landing characteristic problems.<<
<snip>
>>I can't remember ever flying a plane that was so hard to put down on the ground, <<

Hmmmm, since you have a lot of Canard experience my story may not be very relevant but here goes anyway. 

My first four hours in my XL were miserable! It flew very nicely and I enjoyed my time aloft but I dreaded every landing! All my joy while flying  was tempered by the growing knot in my belly that sooner or later I was going to have to land this wicked beast! On every landing I would get down into ground effect and the ailerons would just stop working! I could slam the stick stop to stop sideways and have almost no impact on the plane at all. I would mush and float down the runway with hardly any control. It was scary and therefore miserable! Oh how I hated landing!

The weird part was that at altitude I could take it right down to pitch buck (58 Kias) and the ailerons were still quite effective, then in the landing at a speed above pitch buck the ailerons would go totally dead. Somehow ground effect works to rearrange the airflow and decrease aileron authority. I'm only smart enough to make that observation and not smart enough to understand why! 

At the end of my fourth hour Sam DeSilva who is a factory approved CFI and who had also made the first flights on my bird was back on the airport and watched a couple of my scary horrible floating landings. When I shut down Sam told me my problem-  it was obvious to an outside observer used to Velocities...

I was putting in WAY too much flair! Sam told me my nose wheel was a solid 12 to 18 inches above the ground when the mains touched. He also added that ideally the nose wheel should be 2-4 inches off the ground when the mains touch.

I was stunned! I KNEW all that and I could have swore I was on the verge of a nose wheel strike and here I was flaring it like a Cessna. That downward sloping nose was really messing up my sight picture. So since Sam said 2- 4 inches I went and got a little piece of 2X4 wood put the plane on level ground and placed the 2x4 tall side up under the nose wheel and then just sat in the plane for 15 minutes getting a good feel of what the world looked like out the windows when in the proper landing attitude. 

Then I went out and shot touch and goes striving for that same sight picture at touch down. It worked! It was like night and day! Suddenly I could land, it was no longer scary and out of control and the world was joyous and good again! From that day forward my rule was always "If the ailerons are not working lower the nose!" I never had another problem with control in the landing. 

Thanks again Sam!

Now since you are used to canards and downward sloping noses this probably is not your problem but then again...

Oh, to be clear, the ailerons are still *less* effective in ground effect but once I got the nose down into the proper Velocity landing attitude I never felt out of control again like I did when I was mushing along with the nose way too high. 

DM Rob