Learning to land the beast...

[hans]

Hi All,

my third or fourth Sonerai-II landing was witnessed by an acquaintance who had his camera (or rather: mobile phone) handy.
Low quality due to the camera, camera standpoint and low sun, but a nice momento for me...

ibis.experimentals.de/_pics/Landing_EDXR.wmv

cheers
Hans

[schrome]

Nice landing, Hans. Do you know how fast you were going?

[hans]

Nov 25, 2011 7:25:52 GMT -5 schrome said:

Nice landing, Hans. Do you know how fast you were going?

Hi Ed,

first of all, a Happy Birthday to you!

With this landing I was concentrating on slipping down the threshold and after rounding out I sort of forgot to put my three-pointer attitude reference line (the upper edge of four instruments on the front panel) on the horizon, which is why I ended up a bit fast, in the mid seventies...

cheers
Hans

[schrome]

Happy Birthday

Thank you!

[gaston]

Hi Hans
congratulations, you're doing fine...
keep on the good work...


Try to fly your final approach with a little more altitude... keep on the safe side...
if the engine quits,you can convert altitude in airspeed if required...

and a higher approach offers much better visibility,as the nose is lower until very short final and round out...

Hans , note that I wasn't doing that good on my third or fourth landing

Thanks for the video

Gaston

[hans]

Merci bien Gaston!

you're right about low approaches like this one, they should be avoided for the very reasons you mention (you only have to read the Yahoo canard aviatior's list to appreciate why this is a currently a hot topic among canardians...).
On this particular approach there was no wind at all and I was slipping a bit fast, so I would have had enough excess energy to have made it to the threshold.
I'm not yet comfortable with slipping at slower speeds, because the weather hasn't been good enough to go up high enough to safely test speed indicator behaviour while doing slow-speed high-angle slips. As soon as I know that my ASI is ok in this respect, I'll be confident to slip slower and hence at a steeper approach angle.
One step at the time is how I go about it...

Thanks again
Hans

[daddo2]

I too have been working on shortening my approach and landing technique. I've "graduated" from the 6000'x 150' runway to the 2500'x 100' crosswind runway at SBP. I know it's still a lot of runway but the sight picture(short and wide) is totally different. I wanted to feel very comfortable and confident before trying a shorter runway. I've been gradually slowing my final approach speeds to where I feel comfortable slipping down final below 80mph. The steeper forward slip approach gives a great sight picture and keeps me well within gliding distance should the engine fail, and still well above stall speed. I practiced slipping over and over at altitude before attempting this on final. At about 50' I pull the power off, line up straight, and hold that three point attitude. Each time I've been able to come to a stop at about the halfway point, 1250'. My face hurts from smiling so much.

[peterzabriskie]

Nov 27, 2011 17:26:20 GMT -5 daddo2 said:

I too have been working on shortening my approach and landing technique. I've "graduated" from the 6000'x 150' runway to the 2500'x 100' crosswind runway at SBP. I know it's still a lot of runway but the sight picture(short and wide) is totally different. I wanted to feel very comfortable and confident before trying a shorter runway. I've been gradually slowing my final approach speeds to where I feel comfortable slipping down final below 80mph. The steeper forward slip approach gives a great sight picture and keeps me well within gliding distance should the engine fail, and still well above stall speed. I practiced slipping over and over at altitude before attempting this on final. At about 50' I pull the power off, line up straight, and hold that three point attitude. Each time I've been able to come to a stop at about the halfway point, 1250'. My face hurts from smiling so much.

Great motivation to get back to work thanks daddo2 ! ! ! ;D