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Too many people fly their pattern too wide and come up short. If they realistically thought their engine could fail any time like I do, they'd fly a super-tight pattern. I fly my downwind about 1/2 as far out as do most if there are no other planes in the pattern. I reduce power to just 1300 &80mph before reaching the numbers and immediately turn. The radius of the turn puts me just past the numbers and I barely have time to level the wings before turning final. Most folks I have seen stand 0 chance of making it onto the runway in case of an engine failure. They might make it to the airport crossways, but they could not have room to turn to line up because an Ercoupe drops so fast! -----Original Message----- From: Greg Bullough <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: [email protected] <[email protected]> Date: Friday, October 27, 2000 3:36 PM Subject: Re: [COUPERS] Stalls >----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]---- > >At 11:58 AM 10/27/00 -0700, Larry wrote: >>----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any >>advice in this forum.]---- > >>Anyway, 've had a hard time not flying it like all the other birds I've >>flown, which is somewhat of an extended >>final. The problem with a Coupe, is that you have to hold lots of power >>if you have a long final. If >>you don't, you sink like a rock. > >I think maybe the problem is that you're just too slow. It doesn't sink >that bad if you keep it >above 80, or even at 85 MPH all the way down. It sure feels better to me >that way. > >Now, to do that, power off, while flying a somewhat-standard pattern (which >you're sometimes forced >into by other traffic), you're going to have hold extra altitude = >power on downwind and base. My >descent setting abeam the numbers is 1600-1700 RPM, depending upon load. >1200RPM on final is >enough to make the difference between sinking and what feels like a >'normal' kind of Cessna glide. > >>Nowadays, I start thinking about turning base about >>the time I pass the end of the runway while on down wind. It's taken me >>about 30 hours of flight time >>to get out of my old bad habits of thinking I could extend with elevator. > >Sometimes, if there is a 152/172 in front of me and a duffer is making a >pattern that goes East >to the Atlantic and North to Vermont, I'll just stay at pattern altitude >until I turn final. I have >to be longer on final than he is since he's going to dawdle down the >glide-slope, and then >piddle around on the runway (now I know how Duke pilots feel) in any case. > >Left to my own devices, I fly a pretty tight pattern, pretty much inside >the airport boundaries, but >that gets hard to dictate at times. > >If I chop the power abeam the numbers for a dead-stick, I can make a nice, >constant-radius turn >to the threshold and arrive there at 85-90MPH in good shape to bleed off >the extra energy and >land with a good safety margin. The turn literally ends AT the threshold, >so if you're one of those >guys who needs to go straight at a runway for 30 seconds to land on it, >forget it. (You can land >IN that turn and the Ercoupe gear takes care of you just fine.) > >Of course, at 85MPH, you've got a good distance to go in ground effect, and >I suspect that you're >better off holding 80-85 even though it looks like you'll be bit short, >because assuming there's >terrain to do it over, you're going to have several hundred feet of >ground-effect glide to play >with. Unless, like at N40, the runway sits up on a berm. > >I frequently find that Bonanza and Mooney drivers misjudge what an Ercoupe >is going to do in the >pattern. They tend to jump in front of us like they would an Aeronca or J3 >(rude!). Or, they'll extend >their down > >Greg > >__________________________________________________ >To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >___________________________________________________________ >T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 >Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics > __________________________________________________ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
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