Greg, it may not be your technique at all. When was the last time you checked your tail height ... oops ... I mean your Ercoupe's tail height? The correct height is in your service manual.
What you describe on that landing sounds exactly like what started happening with mine before I added the spacers on the main gear struts. Coupes that have had the double fork nose gear added at some time are most susceptible, but as the rubber donuts break in, they all may tend to droop. The cross wind just aggravates the situation, rather than causes it. The result of adding the spacers to mine was a perfect tail height within 1/16 of an inch of specs., and an immediately end to all floating, one wing lifting, etc. A sample 337 is on the web page. Just watch out the first time you step off the walkway! Artie ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Bullough" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 13, 2000 5:53 PM Subject: [COUPERS] Scared meself a bit > So there was a big ol' gusty crosswind blowing today at N85, and I went > out to play in it. > > First landing I did at normal 75 down final. Crosswind was about 8 knots across > the runway. She behaved well. > > Second one, I found the 15-knot windsock pointing rigidly, I guess there > was a solid > 15 at a 90-degree angle. That's what it looked like from downwind, anyways. > So I held > 80 MPH down final, thinking to reduce the effect of the X-wind. That led to > a floaty > landing. > > When I did touch down, I got into the classic conundrum... > > I touched down in a crab, as the plane tried to straighten out, the upwind > wing > wanted to keep flying. Trying to bring it down with aileron, of course, led > to heading > for the upwind edge of the runway. Not too terrifying on our fairly wide > runway, but > on a narrow one it definitely would have sucked. > > After a moment of bewilderment, I decided to nudge the brakes a bit. That > seemed > to solve the ambiguous air vs. land vehicle question, and settle things down. > > In retrospect, I think I may have been relying on taildragger 'bury the stick' > instincts rather than getting the nosewheel down to make use of the negative > angle of incidence that I know I have (my tail is properly up where it > belongs). > > Comments? What's the best tactic when that upwind wing seems to have > a mind of its own? > > As I was taxiing back, a 172 came on the Unicom, planning to use the same > runway I was. I suspected because I was. It's our big runway, and the cross > runway is pretty narrow and a bit shorter, rarely used. > > I let them know that they shouldn't follow my example, as I was 'out playing > with the cross-wind.' I think they would have been in a world of hurt had they > tried it. When I saw them come down final for the other runway, they looked > like they were stopped. > > Greg > > > __________________________________________________________________________ __ ____ > To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > _________________________________________________________ > Enlighten your in-box. http://www.topica.com/t/15 __________________________________________________________________________ ______ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________________________ Enlighten your in-box. http://www.topica.com/t/15
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