From: cohler@vxcrna.cern.ch (Mike Cohler)
Subject: Re: Transition Glider to Power
Followup-To: rec.aviation
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 12:27:00 GMT

In article <cshotton-200892125451@oac2.hsc.uth.tmc.edu>, cshotton@oac.hsc.uth.tmc.edu (Chuck Shotton) writes...
>In article <20AUG199210280289@vxcrna.cern.ch>, cohler@vxcrna.cern.ch (Mike
>Cohler) wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> >As for how hard/easy it was, the flying part was no problem. The landings
>> >are substantially different. Most gliders are landed by flying them on, and
>> >that technique just leads to the "hop, skip, jump" style of power landings.
>> > 

lines deleted

>> I disagree with the statement above.  Here glider pilots are NEVER taught
>> to fly on a landing.  ALL instructors in gliding are required to teach fully
>> held off landings.   There are possibly still a few ancient instructors
>> 
> 
>How often do you land a glider with the wing stalled? I'll bet never. The
>point I was making is that power pilots are trained to land with the wheels
>touching the runway at the point the wing stalls.
> 
I try to land with the airbrakes about half out on gliders, I hold the glider 
just above the runway and let the speed decay until the aircraft stalls
to a gentle touchdown, with the HALF BRAKE condition.  Of course if you shut the
brakes the aircraft will fly again, but you are producing more lift by
closing the brakes again... hence you have a safety feature if you screw up
the judgement of the landing, and can use the airbrake closing action to 
soften an otherwise potentially heavy landing.  I fly the Pawnee down to a few 
inches from the ground and let the speed decay in exactly the same way.
Of course in a power plane you have no airbrakes to close so you must get
it right first time.  In gusty conditions that is not always easy !
   If you landing on a long smooth runway then it is easy to do this with
gliders, and still spot land.  On grass you can easily hit a lumpy bit
as you get down to the last inch or two.  I usually manage quite smooth
landings, and I dont condsider a flown on landing worhtwhile.  I define a
flown on landing as when you have some excess speed over the stall as the
wheels touch down, and in many gliders this results in ballooning quite easily.
I fly K13, K7, Swallow, K6, Skylark2, Skylark4 and T-21 all wood, and also
the Astir, ASK-21 and have flown the Janus, Discus, and Nimbus 3, and I 
have not had any landing difficulty in recent times, and I always use the
same method.  I also ladn tricycle u/c planes by holding off with the front
wheel off the ground, and it seems to work ok.  (I havent had to resort to
sopecial techniques like the short landing power technique of high nose up 
and lots of power till almost at touchdown)
Mike
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|                                                            |
|        Mike Cohler -  preferred email address:             |
|                       MDC1@VAXA.YORK.AC.UK                 |
|                   ie  MDC1%VAXA.YORK.AC.UK@UKACRL.BITNET   |
|                                                            |
|        UK PPL and Glider Pilot                             |
|                                                            |
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