Robert, I'll agree with Bill here.
You wrote: > When you watch the Lufthansa landing depicted on the news > and You Tube, the hairy part starts when the upwind wing > comes up just after the pilot tries to kick the crab out prior > to touchdown. > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O8CjKBsCEo The last I heard, airliners like the one shown don't "kick out" the crab before touchdown. They touchdown in the crab, fully Ercoupe style. This pilot was not in control of the plane. At about one wingspan high, he was drifting left so he lowered the right wing (too far) to correct. By the time he reached the centerline, he had a right-ward vector that would have taken him off the runway - so he raised the right wing (too far) to compensate and the wind pushed him WAY too far left. Then, he dropped the right wing WAY too far to compensate and something sprays back from either the right wingtip touch or right engine blast just above the ground. Finally, the pilot does the go around and, we presume, gets it right on the next try. > The Ercoupe displays that same characteristic even when landing in a > crab because you must steer downwind after touchdown to keep the > aircraft from weathervaning further into the wind on landing rollout. This would be true if you land too fast. As Fred Weick emphasized, touchdown should be at the minimum possible speed. In gusty conditions, I did add airspeed to my normal final approach speed. But, I found that even in blustery, gusty conditions, once I got down to a yard or two high, the ground effect dampened any roll. I could slow the plane in low ground effect with confidence, raising the nose until I touched down at a fairly low speed. With the plane's gear properly maintained and the window sill level on the ground, there's so little lift that wing lift isn't a problem. Combining that with Bob Sanders's procedure of stomping on the brake right after touchdown to dump more speed, there's no problem with wing lift. The wing is at low angle of attack and is also well below flying speed. Taxiing at low speeds doesn't make for wing lift either. Not only was Bob Sanders the distributor of the Ercoupes when ERCO quit doing so, but he was an aeronautical engineer on the design team and test pilot for the development of the Ercoupe. He knows that of which he speaks. Here are the words of Fred Weick and Bob Sanders: http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/coupe_landings.htm linked from my page: http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/coupe_flying.htm My strongest crosswind operations were in the close ballpark of 30 mph direct crosswind or a bit higher with no problem. Been there (repeatedly), done that (repeatedly), got the T-shirt (several). Ed Burkhead http://edburkhead.com/Ercoupe/index.htm East Peoria, Illinois ed -at- edbur???khead.??com (remove the ? marks and change -at- to @)
