I've read somewhere in the Ercoupe stuff that the reason the Ercoupe
is so good in
crosswind landings is that you land on the mains and it straightens
itself before nose
wheel contacts the ground. You have to be careful if you don't have
the double fork
nose gear that you don't let it touch down before the plane
straightens out or you put
too much stress on the nose gear. That is how I have been doing
crosswind landings.
Is this advice not true?
dan c
On Mar 13, 2009, at 4:30 PM, Hartmut Beil wrote:
I can ditto this experience.
After removing the snubber cable on my plane, landings were
different and IMHO better in my Coupe.
Although it feels like a 3 wheel touch down, it is not quiet so.
In the attached picture you'll see me landing and the nose wheel is
a millisecond later touching the ground than the main wheels.
However, the Ercoupe is a special aircraft that in the 2 control
configuration is better controlled with a fully extended nose wheel
while landing.
Other aircraft are having their means of correcting for side wind
loads, we rely on the nose wheel contact.
Convincing to me is the soft contact of the fully extended nose
wheel and occasional passengers are admiring my soft landings.
Nothing to it - if they would know. :-)
Hartmut
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:19:26 -0500
Subject: RE: [ercoupe-tech] NOSE WHEEL SNUBBER
My epiphany on the nose wheel snubber
I took mine off (along with the rudder pedals) in our recently
completed overhaul.
Over the last few weekends, I did some cross-wind practice. I
found that, in the initial moments of touch-down, the plane handled
better, now, than it previously had handled with rudder pedals.
Watching a video of my landings, I could see why. I came in nose
high, as I always do.
With the snubber in place, my nose wheel would not touch until
after the mains. So, although I would be on the ground, I would
not yet have nose wheel steering until I got the nose down.
But, watching my landings now, I can see that, although I land
nice, slow, and nose-high, I still do three-point landings, so I
have authoritative steering from the moment of touch-down.
It is great!
Dave Winters
Windows Live™ Contacts: Organize your contact list. Check it out.
<landing.jpg>
