David Megginson writes: > Was that 32 kt from the HUD, or 32 mph from the ASI? > > The J3 cub has a stall speed around 25 kt (roughly 30 mph) and is > supposed to be able to take off in a 200 ft groundroll and land in a > 300 ft roll under ideal conditions. Here's what the 1946 owner's > manual says (see $FG_ROOT/Aircraft-yasim/README.j3cub): > > (1) For takeoff use full throttle, heading into wind. Airplane loaded > will become airborne at approximately 39 M.P.H. Best climb speed is > an indicated 55 M.P.H. > > I just ran a test, and with the stick all the way back, my wheels > lifted off the ground at around 32 mph (28 kt) indicated, but as would > be expected near the stall the plane was hard to control (in real > life, I'd also be worried about the forces on the tailwheel). With > more realistic back pressure, the tail lifted first, then the Cub took > off around 40 mph (35 kt). Best climb speed (Vx) is 55 mph (48 kt), > so you'll want to push the nose forward and fly in ground effect for a > few seconds before climbing out. > > At KSFO, remember, you're flying the Cub from a runway built for 747s > -- since it's 200 ft wide, you could take off sideways across it (I > just tried and was up with 20 feet to spare). Even at a small airport > like KPAO, the 2500 ft runway is far, far more than a Cub needs. This > is an airplane that was built to take off from little fields or > country roads -- I remember seeing an early ad with drawing of a Cub > sitting in a parking lot outside a country store, though that's > obviously a bit of an exaggeration.
I heard a story once about a guy who took off a cub from his back yard. He tethered one wing tip to a post at the center of the yard, fired up the engine, and flew [forced] circles until he was airborn and above the tree line. Then he released the tether and off he flew. I don't believe he was able to reverse the procedure for landing. I'm guessing he was restoring or overhauling the aircraft in his shed or something like that. I've also heard that if you fly tight enough circles, you can lower a rope with a bucket from your aircraft and actually exchange stuff with people on the ground ... kind of like an low budget (low payload) hover. :-) Curt. -- Curtis Olson IVLab / HumanFIRST Program FlightGear Project Twin Cities [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Minnesota http://www.menet.umn.edu/~curt http://www.flightgear.org _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
