Stewart Wingtip Install/ wing overhaul.

[PACERGUY]

On a additional note I strongly recommend dedicated spin training for all pilots especially new pilots. 5 hours of spin and aerobatic training was the best thing I ever did for improving my landings!! I made me much more comfortable when it came to getting to the edge and looking over. DENNY

[akflyer]

My first response to "I can't get my plane to land 3 point" is where is the trim. Unless it is at full nose up trim you are giving away downward force on the tail. Remember a Pacer has a movable stabilizer. The old wives tale of needing to put weight in the back of the plane to 3 point a pacer is pretty much BS if you have a correctly rigged plane. Gap seals and VG's will also help. Full nose up trim in a Pacer, PA 18, Cessna 180 all require no extra weight in the back for a 3 point or tail first landing just proper trim and yoke back pressure. Go up to altitude (5,000 AGL) and set the plane up for landing 1600 -1800 RPM, full flaps and start rolling in the trim until you reach your touchdown airspeed. In a Pacer you will find the tail will be lower than the mains (even with Bushwheels) when you get into the low 40's. Once you find the speed/atitude you want note the setting. On final set the plane up and as Armstrong said it will require forward yoke pressure on final this takes getting used to and will freak out a lot of pilots that have seen it done. When you are ready to flare simply let the yoke back and the plane will settle right at the airspeed you want, in the attitude you want!! Now we are talking a Pacer so you may need to add power to arrest the sink, but even a tail wheel low is easy with the proper trim. It takes some practice to keep from ham fisting the yoke, just trust the plane and use power for altitude. You will have to adjust if you add a big burst of power so try to be smooth and ahead of the plane. If you want to save you plane from abuse set the trim for a tail wheel low landing, (note tail low not tail first landing) This will require some more back pressure in the flare as you bring the tailwheel below the mains. Now right before you touch down release some back pressure the tail will come up a bit and you will have a perfect smoooooth tailwheel low landing. This is the MAF technique that works great in Cessna's. It will give you the same landing speed as a tail low without the abuse to the aircraft. Lots of stuff in this post to try, the key is to got to altitude so if you plane has a quirk you have time to recover. DENNY

One word of caution, even doing this with the 18 tail feathers. Last time I was out flying and it was a little gusty, I did exactly this as I normally do (lots of nose up trim) One good gust just on short short short final just coming over the trees and I had the yolk shoved in to the panel on the stops. First time in a very long time I have had to do a go around for reason. That tail was dropping faster than I could catch it with anything but full power. I would rather have to hold a little back pressure on the yoke versus not having enough down elevator to save it if a gust hits (or the wind stops).

It is NOT a wives tail that a nose heavy airplane flies poorly, that is a fact. Get the CG in more of the center to aft range and the plane WILL fly better, easier and faster as well as slower.

[JPerkins]

Yup, I haven’t been touching the trim. Mainly because it gives me my cruise speed and desired speed at both flap settings without having to fiddle with it. Next good weather day I’ll go out and try that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Armstrong]

All great stuff, and those “over trimmed” approaches to 3 point or tail low wheeler are techniques I reserve for calm or light winds. As soon as there are gusts involved it’s wheel landings with a touch of appropriate extra airspeed.

I’ve been cutting my tailwheel teeth at Hinton/Entrance, Alberta, nestled in the base of the rockies, in an area called hell’s gates. And aptly named as the winds are hellish, and are blasting from the west fuelled by the rocky mountain trench! With the foothills and mountains I’ve come in many times at 95 mph + and getting chucked around, and often land much shorter with a speedy wheel landing than I do with a peaceful 3 pointer on a nice day.

Still lots of learning and practicing to do. Up here in Canada spin training used to be part of getting one’s licence, and I second that comment from Pacerguy. Practicing full-power departure stalls up at altitude is a great eye-opener.

BTW I do gusty stuff for practice, but I’d never intentionally subject a non-pilot passenger to it!

[JPerkins]

So I went out and actually used the trim handle for something other than a place to hang my sunglasses. And lo and behold, wouldn’t you know with five cranks of nose up trim it’ll drag that tailwheel with those 29’s still a foot in the air.
Thanks Denny for helping me break a bad habit.
Any time I fly a spam can I fly it off the trim wheel, need to apply at least part of that to other things I operate.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PACERGUY]

I am happy it worked as I said. My mission is trying to correct all the bad information given to new pilots by CFI's and supposedly experienced pilots that never tried to learn how and why aircraft really fly. I am slowly making converts one pilot at a time. Like the others have said pay attention to CG and trim most any well rigged aircraft will be a pleasure to fly. Next we can talk about how to set trim to take the pilot out of the when to pop flaps decision. DENNY

[Subsonic]

Next we can talk about how to set trim to take the pilot out of the when to pop flaps decision. DENNY

Ok Denny. It's been more than a year...Where do you set trim to remove the speed decision of "when to pop flaps"? And, does it apply equally to a nose-wheel TP?