Frank,
all,
excellent experience! I think that this skill (and practicing it to get
perfect) will make you a much safer pilot!
You probably know that in a Piper J3 / L4 (or PA 18 / L18C), in the absence
of flaps, slipping is a standard procedure to reduce altitude quickly on base
or final. With the Cub (as the Ercoupe) being very hard to stall, this is a
very safe procedure in landing configuration (i.e. correct speed). If you want
to see a perfect example of how to do it, click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW8GRJI6Kz4&NR=1
You have to consider though that the guy who is doing this in the video is an
absolute master pilot. If there was a living person to be called "pilot king",
I would choose him. His name is Mikael Carlson, he is from Sweden and he is an
absolute freak about everything that has to do with historic/ nostalgic
aviation. He has his own little museum with vintage aircraft (including the
Piper L4 you can see in the youtube clip) and when I say museum I mean it: All
his aircraft are in an absolutely authentic, state of the art museum condition,
i.e. as original as can be. But other than in a museum, all of his aircraft are
flying! Some of them are unique (e.g. his Blériot and his Tummelisa, which are
the only flying originals).
His affection for details is remarkable. E.g. in his L4 Cub, he even has a
black and white picture of his wife on the instruments panel, as did the
American pilots who flew such aircraft in Normandy in 1944. With this Cub,
Mikael does actual aerobatics (loops, rolls, turns) on airshows in Europe (he
usually brings the Cub and the Blériot). It's incredible what an antique
aircraft with a 65hp motor can do when the pilots skills are like Mikael's!
Check out Mikael's website:
http://www.aerodrome.nu/
Cheers,
Juergen
fnelson913 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> schrieb:
I am the one who has been complaining about the installation of
rudder pedals in my Ercoupe. I made the decision to install them
quite reluctantly in order to avoid a restriction on my Sport Pilot
ticket. In the past few days I have been preparing to finish my
checkride started nearly five months ago. I have logged over three
hours solo on nothing but touch and go's rebuilding my confidence and
trying to achieve some level of consistency.
Yesterday after an hour in the pattern, the tower decided to switch
the pattern and go the other way. So they extended be upwind toward
King Harbor and the beach. When they turned me around to re-enter the
pattern, I remembered that this end of the runway had special
challenges for me. Where the south end of the runway was a
residential area, the north end had large parking lots and a pond
under the base and final legs. Late in the morning there are
significant thermals rising from them. As you can imagine, there is a
tendancy to be high on final even if you are showing 500 fpm descent.
After my first attempt resulted in a go-around and my second attempt
resulted in a landing in the middle of the long runway, it dawned on
me what was happening. On the third attempt I was still high. I said
to myself, "Self... you put these stupid rudder pedals in so that you
could do a slip-to-land... why don't you give it a try?" I don't
usually answer my self in these type of conversations but in this
case I did respond, "That's right, self... how does that work? Left
aileron and full right rudder??" A timid and tenuous attempt seemed
to work. On the next trip around the pattern I was more bold. Left
aileron, right rudder, going down. I rode it right down to the
numbers. I did a quick glance at the VSI and I swear I was
approaching 1,000 fpm down. Yee Haw!!! Elevator going DOWN!!!
Now I am far from a convert to rudder pedals, but I can now see some
utility in being able to stick a landing even if you or the
environment screws up your approach altitude.
Just some thoughts on rudder pedals and the slip-to-land maneuver.
Frank Nelson
N51DV - 415C
TOA
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