Gary wrote:
> .......right after lift off, is where the excitement begins. I > cant seem to level the wings, keep the nose the right pitch, > NOTHING!. I seem I am behind the plane always, and > never control it, it is controlling me. Gary, Let me describe the normal takeoff feel for a crosswind takeoff. (I'll use a brisk, right crosswind in this example.) As you get near flying speed, you may feel some ready to fly tension in the plane. Keep it on the ground with neutral elevator (if your tail is at the right height) or with mild, just-enough forward pressure on the yoke (if you have a drooping tail (and fix it if this condition applies)). Keep it on the ground until you are 5-10 mph above minimum takeoff speed. In a strong crosswind, you do not want to settle back to the ground. Settling back to the ground in a crab at flying speed isn't catastronphic, but it's just unpleasant (especially with the end of the runway rushing toward you :-)). At the speed 5-10 mph above takeoff speed, give it a bit of a jerk off the ground. Not too much of a jerk because you don't want to stall, either. I deliberately practiced getting 5-10 feet high and leveling off to gain additional airspeed in ground effect. At the moment you jerk it off, the plane is going the runway direction but its path through the air is going, in this example, to the right of the runway. Therefore, the airplane will immediately weathervane to point itself directly into the airflow. To do this weathervane, the well behaved Coupe will make a bit of a bank and maybe some simple yaw. It's such a non-event that I never burned it into my brain all that much so I can't tell you how much of the turn is bank and how much is yaw. No sweat. At the end of this turn, if you need to level the wings, do so. If you need to hold it level in ground effect to get more airspeed up to your desired climb speed, do so. Make any gentle turns you need to track down the runway centerline. When you have the desired climb speed, start your climb out. _______________________________ Now, how does what you're seeing differ from this? Ed
