Bungee change

[Stephen]

Gilbert, I think that you have a point, I have thousands of landings in my Pacer and I still manage to clunk it in, on a semi regular bases. I fly a variety of other planes that land more smoothly than mine does. Even my friends' T-Pacer, Which I fly from the right seat is easier to land smoothly. Once again my bungees are starting to sag after two years.

[Gilbert Pierce]

Stephen,
I wish I could say I didn't dunk it in at least 50% of the time but I can't. My gear just doesn't flex much when I wham it down. Most of the time I land tailwheel first then smack the mains and Steve's mother says "that was pretty firm wasn't it? You were fast and high". Landing tailwheel first it will never bounce back in the air though.

[Bultaco Jim]

That's two posts where Gilbert made me feel better. I'm not going to lose sleep over some sort of time frame to change bungees. Also, "clunking it in" won't bug me quite as much. ( I've taken up 300 ft just tooling along on the tailwheel, waiting for the dang plane to land.) Jim
P.S. (clunking ?)

[Stephen]

What brought this all to my attention was, recently I've been flying a C-177RG, which is very easy to land smoothly (as long as one remembers to lower the gear), well on one of my check out landing the instructor joked that he would have to have his back checked. I laughed as his obvious JOKE, but realized that what he called a hard landing did not even register in my book of landing. I guess all this proves is that after 40 years of this stuff I'm still trying to figure it out. Yes, I often land tail wheel first and wait for the thump.

[Steve Pierce]

I know my smoothest landings are usually my longest landing and my roughest are my shortest. Too much dropping it in I guess. When I carry more speed I can grease it on but it goes against my nature now. The slow flight aspect intrigues me. We just need 35" Bushwheels to absorb all those thumps or clunks. :shock:

[JohnW]

Wow, Steve! You must be hanging around the SuperCub crowd too much! All MY best landings are my slowest approaches and coincidentally my shortest rollouts! And all my "multiple log entries" are when I try to carry extra speed and "grease one in" (do not despair, EVERYONE, NOBODY gets a Squeeker when they WANT ONE!). I keep reminding myself that a "landing" is when the airplane is "no longer flying". A PERFECT landing is where the airplane STOPS FLYING at precisely the same instant it touches the ground (with NO LIFT remaining). The idea of dragging it in (which the SuperCub is SO good at, especially one with a 180 on the front!!!) and chopping power is no doubt right for getting hunting supplies into an unimproved 200ft long strip. But that is appropriate for reasons OTHER THAN nice, smooth touchdowns. Never mind stuffing the landing gear up through the seats! THAT kind of "short" has NO FUTURE.

Now you're starting to TALK like them! "now we need 35" Bushwheels to" ...HIDE OUR INABILITY TO LAND NICELY??? The seat of your pants needs some work, Steve. Slow is beautiful. Ever notice a ShortWing will "shudder" a little when flown about 1 mph above the stall? THERE is your shortest, smoothest landing! Go find it! Once you do, start the "mini-tweaking" that exists in ground effect. "Landing is the act of not flying anymore." Landing is NOT "reducing the angle of flight until the wheels strike the ground at the shallowest angle". That is "flying it on". Power on approaches at steep AOA, YANKING it off and dropping it in may be "short", but it sure ain't "landing" (unless your whole attitude about flying is that landing is a controlled crash anyway, and any one you can walk away from is "good"). Remind me to not by airplanes from people that fly that way!

[Stephen]

John, You've got it right, at least in my case. At home I land on my 600' field and at the airport I'm not happy if I don't turn off at the 500' exit. Just like the SC guys! But, I find the same thing Steve says, landing it fast is easier. My wife is usually impressed with landings on gusty days, first becaused we survived and second because touch down is often smooth. John, my plane has a few mods and it does not shudder or stall, unless I'm carrying at least 1500rpm, and then it breaks at 40mph indicated (which is close to actual) and it has an AOA of about 45 degrees. The problem I find with approaches near stall speed in my plane is the high sink rate and high AOA. Oh yes, I've got 26" Goodyear's to hide my ability to land smoothly. I keep a list posted of excuses, all I have to do is point to the number of the excuse I choose for a bad landing. In my plane the shallowest angle that I could approach and three point would have me flying it in the 60's which would be a bit fast. Without the tailwheel to hit, I find T-Pacers much easier to grease on. Hey, maybe I need Eddie Trimmer's soon to be new STC with extended Pacer gear. And, then I would not need BUNGEE'S. And, no you can't buy my plane, I got the landing gear perfectly bent for me.