How do you land a tail wheel aircraft?

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Carefully.

It's as Hagar says really.  Practice is vital, I have been flying flight Sims for a good few years but today at 10.15 ish I landed my Corsair, default 2002, hit the brakes and died an ignoble, fiery death.....

There are some screenshots of it on the "round the US race" thread on the fs2002 forum.  If you land with the main gear first you tend to bounce which unless you are very careful can develop into "ballooning" where the bounce develops until you stall at about 50 feet above the runway, and then hit it nose first.

Good luck.

Will

BX;

Speed is the trick!!
Land just above stall and get the flaps back up!!
This gets rid of the lift so you can ease back on
the stick and slow it down without brakes!!
Line up to the runway is important, unlike
a tri' it's hard to get it straight once you are
on the ground!!
Do it over and over and over!!!!

Brad

If you have a Lancaster, it won't roll over it's props as soon as a piper Cub does when braking hard

with the DC-3, and with the other ones with flaps, i usually raise the flaps just before touchdown, you loose enough lift to settle whitout bumps

Too right!  

Hey Oz - Re that signature photo - are they pulling that Spit out or pushing it in!...........

P.S. Is that the tail-hook I see just under the fuselage 'roundel'.
If it is, I didn't realise that's where they were on a Spit! 

Straight to the bottom? - (Unless you were Ben Affleck in 'Pearl Harbour'!!.......... ).

Is that shot taken during he War??

If it is, I wouldn't have thought they would bother trying to salvage a ditched plane (it looks pretty banged up).
After all, from late 1940 onward (well before the MkIV) there certainly was no shortage of Spits.

I wonder why they are pulling it out. I felt sure they were 'scuttling" it because of the damage.   

Looks like the pilot might be the one walking towards the left, immediately to the left of the 'officer' in the dark unifom, with his back to us (walking towards the plane0.
the one I mean, seems to still have a life vest on.  

(His left leg is directly above the 'e' in bugger)

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It would be interesting to know the story behind that photo. It's difficult to tell but from the position of the arrester cable the shot was taken looking over the stern. I've seen a lot of similar shots & always assumed that's where it ended up on the deck after a botched landing. It didn't go in the drink at all. If so, the pilot was a very lucky man.

PS. Brensec. If you're correct about the guy in the photo being the pilot I would think they were trying to save him rather than the aircraft. Assuming the carrier is on active duty they could use the aircraft for spares if it could not be salvaged. Aircraft & spares are hard to come by when you're far away from home.

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I think I can even make out a leather 'skullcap' too (or whatever they called them)................

I reckon it's either a very relieved pilot or a very disconcerted "Bats" the DLCO. 



Thought you might like this little poem I found. 

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I just noticed the Title of this topic!

"How do you land a tail wheel?"

I suppose it's much easier if it's attached to a plane.......

(Maybe 'Tail dragger' would be more apt).   

I can't believe how similar Brensec and me are in thought.....his reply almost exactly matches the one which has been in my head since the beginning........


My answer now to the question, is one I learned from a very good friend......when you get down to 1-2 feet above the runway, with the power set to something less than that which is required for level flight.....try not to let it land (keep the plane at the height it is, by flaring) and it will settle softly......so when you want to land, try not to let it !  Alex told me and I never forgot, and when I do it nicely, I see him smiling at me, even though he departed a few yrs ago.......... 8)

I don't know whether Rifle is referring to the answer I gave regarding the actual landing of the plane, or the smart comment about landing 'just a wheel' on it's own.

I any case, I think what I was trying to get across in my post regarding the way I do it in Sim, is pretty much what Rifle and Hagar have just said. Although I described it as 'keeping it off the ground at just above stall speed and cutting power to let the plane settle to the ground while still keeping the nose in the slightly up position'.

At least that's what I reckon I said, anyway.................lol 

I almost always get a stall warning just before I touch down. 

However, don't do what I keep doing with 'tricycle wheel' planes.
I always let the nose hit too hard and break the front wheel, or the tail hits the ground and the plane 'jack knifes'and I flip arse over head (it sounds hard to do, but I can do it almost on request)......lol
I think it's because I used CFS2 (without any addons) for many months before I got FS2000, so all I had in the 'tricycle' range was the P38, which I almost never flew because I don't like the way it handles and it didn't land on carriers (until I found out how to fit a 'tail hook')

Bit long winded, wasn't it! 

Bren,  first part was being a smartass.........second part is on the level........... 8)

I missed this addition to the first part .... " "

thank you for your replies