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At 10:25 AM 10/16/2006, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Weick recognized the need for a nose wheel airplane for
safety.....not only to prevent the airplane form flopping on its
nose in hard braking, but in after landing rollout control and taxi,
but also in landing without ground looping.
The discussion of the physics of tri-gear vs. tailwheel is
interesting (and mostly valid), but here's something that usually
doesn't get talked about: in a trike, the dang nose gear gets in the
way when you're trying to do a wheel landing.
;)
I learned in tri-gear Cessnas, flew various tri-gear airplanes for a
number of years, then bought and flew a Maule for about 1000 hours,
then traded it in on an R182 (182RG). When I rejoined the world of
nosedraggers, I concluded that a tailwheel airplane can ultimately be
landed safely in crosswind conditions that would defeat an otherwise
identical tri-gear airplane. Why? Because in most tailwheel
airplanes, you can push the nose down far enough to generate
"negative lift", which increases the normal force between the tires
and the ground, which in turn gives you better directional control
via the brakes; less importantly, it also improves the effectiveness
of the rudder by keeping it up in unobstructed air longer.
That's the good news. The bad news is that once you've wrestled the
beast to the ground, you can't taxi because it keeps weathervaning
into the wind.
:)
On the other hand, that's safer than being on the ground in high
winds in a tri-gear plane where the nose wheel again gets in the way,
preventing weathervaning (which is a form of automatic stress
relief). But the best deal of all when it's that windy is to be in
the hangar drinking beer.
=========
Karl Sutterfield
N9532V, Mooney M10 Cadet s.n. 700022
kasutt @ blindhog . com (remove spaces to reply)
Box 294150
Kerrville, TX 78029
830-257-5458 home office
830-257-5468 facsimile
830-285-7323 cell
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