Hi all, Yes, now it can be told.
Many years ago we had our convention at the Lockhaven, PA. Piper airport. I did a one page article on my observations. for Coupe Capers. I got to take Bob Sanders for a ride in my Coupe along with many others. Fred Weick gave a speech about the Freed family and Mrs Freed's accidental take off by herself and the their ordeal getting her back down in one piece. I also got it all on video.( Not the flight, but the speech.) Anyway, with 15 to 20 landings, people were commenting how nice the landings were. They all said that it looked like all three wheels touched the ground at the same time. I was puzzled because I land like everyone else. Flair, then the mains, and then the nose wheel. I wrote the article just a few days after returning home, and commented on that in the report. That was when I noticed that my snubber cable was unhooked (Good preflights Bill). What had happened was that with the snubber cable unhooked, the nose wheel extended lower that normal. (common sense.) That little extra length on the nose wheel strut tended to plant the wheel before it was supposed to. It appeared to those on the ground that all wheels hit the runway at the same time, and they did. My mistake entirely. A few times since then I saw something about one of our members advocating that all wheels should touch down simultaneously. I wondered if they were talking about me. I let it slide,but though I should have come clean at that point. Although I can no longer fly, I put 1500 hours in 20 years and maybe a thousand landings,. After that I was obsessed with safety and went on to be an FAA safety counselor, writing safety articles for them and many other magazines. Including Coupe Capers. I won't pretend to tell you how to compensate for no snubber. You all know. So now! you know the REST of the story. 73 de KD9I Hope all is well, and I miss the conventions, but monitor the net every day. Bill Coons
