Thanks Contact; I now get the subtleness of your wordcraft.

Am based at KCMA with a 6,000 ft. runway; used to be 10,000 but the rest was lopped off to keep airliners from landing here. The full 10,000 ft. is usually clear though although sometimes it has parked planes, pursuit vehicle training, fire fighter aircraft staging, etc.

At our last EAA meeting we had a nearby KOXN Tower controller who had done time in Kandahar and other exotic places like Dallas. A straight talker; I asked about as many questions as did the rest of our group and learned a lot.

I asked him how low can you go when cleared for the a Low Approach. He said as low as you can or want without touching down. Sort of invites hover taxi. But it is safer to request the Option and then if you do mush down, it's a Touch and Go. LOL

Blue skies,

Tommy

I have flown a lot of training time at both KCMA and KOXR. Oxnard is a little better place to work out the kinks on a new ride because they have less traffic and the controllers are more relaxed.

I would not ask for a low approach for the kind of flying we are doing because a low approach, while it might authorize the hover taxi, is usually used to indicate a non-landing-speed approach out of a practice instrument approach. So they are expecting and probably mentally building their traffic model around an airplane flying 90 kts when they ask for a low approach. Whereas when you ask for the option, they are building in more time for you. And if they don't have the time, they will tell you so by giving you a touch and go only clearance or a low approach clearance, in which case they are asking you not to loiter while somebody burns down final behind you.

Tommy,

I haven't been there, but what about L88 or Vosburgh in the dry riverbed?

Contact

pilotryan wrote:

Headoutdaplane wrote:...

By alternating wheel exercise, do you mean to do a couple of left wing down (left quartering headwind) wheel landings then go do a couple of right wing down wheel landings (right quartering headwind) and then so on?

Basically it is a no-wind day exercise, Take off configuration, add power till you get the tail up, and go down the runway like that, getting used to 'taxiing' with the tail up. Take off go around and stop. Same thing but this time add left aileron and enough power to get your right main up six inches or so off the ground (your tail is already up), using your rudder and ailerons to go straight down the runway with only the left main on the ground. Don't worry about screwing it up...you will, when things start getting squirrely just add power and take off. Get to the point you can do it on the left main, and then start with the right main. Then do it switching from one to another. Almost like dutch rolls on the ground. This is a great exercise for getting your muscle memory to the where when you are doing a side slip in a gusty crosswind you are doing it without thinking.

What Headoutdaplane is talking about here is a cross control side slip without the crosswind. The airplane will be trying to turn but you prevent that with opposite rudder. It is a rub tummy while patting head thing just like the side slip into a crosswind. There is no crosswind to balance against the bank, but that doesn't matter as long as we move the rudder dynamically and proactively to stay ahead of the airplane.

Headoutdaplane's drill is good practice for light crosswind conditions. If we maintain longitudinal alignment with rudder only, we don't need to know which way the wind is blowing. We will automatically bank as necessary to control drift. Bank is an aileron deal. Nose on target is a rudder deal. This drill will certainly teach us that on final or on the runway, the two don't mix.

The Dutch rolls on the ground is a different matter. Dutch Rolls are a coordination maneuver while side or forward slip is a rub tummy while patting head uncoordinated maneuver. Performing Dutch Rolls without losing nose on target requires some airspeed to get the ailerons to both create adverse yaw and to bank quickly with the necessary lead rudder bringing the down wing up. Technically possible from the ground but rapid transition back to uncoordination just as soon as the other wheel touched down would be necessary. Brian, the tailwheel journal guy is an airshow pilot.

The really safe way to maneuver the airplane around, near the ground, is the rudder turn while holding the wing level with aileron. Making normal coordinated turns near the ground is very dangerous. Brian does it as a coordination exercise, but at considerable speed.

Any maneuver, done well, is going to teach something. I have found it useful to teach slow airspeed and rudder only to level the wing on short final and in hover taxi. I have found landing technique requiring lots of airspeed to be inconsistent with landing objectives. Land slow, takeoff fast, and use rudder turns only to maneuver around obstructions when very near the ground. Rudder turns, in low ground effect, are possible at speed or in hover taxi.

I teach the one wheel deals as a landing. Come in as a wheel landing, but touch left wheel only. As Jim says, this requires a cross control application, but not much. Touch one wheel, hold the plane up on that one wheel down the runway, then depart. Come back around and do th same on the other wheel. Then land on one wheel, add a bit of power, pick the plane up, and touch on the other wheel. Or, land one wheel, pick up and touch both wheels, pick up and touch the other wheel.

When you get good at this, touch one wheel, then drive the airplane ten feet right of centerline in that wheel, then back to center, then left of center. When you get offset from center, stop the swerve, run straight for a few moments, then move back to center. This isn’t a drunken swerve, it’s pure use of each control separately and in concert.

Lots of fun. Can do the same on floats by the way.....

MTV

Got it MTV. The Dutch Rolls thing had me a little disoriented.

Contact wrote:
Tommy,
I haven't been there, but what about L88 or Vosburgh in the dry riverbed?
Contact
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I have flown over these fields many times on my trips up north. But now I have put them on my to fly list. I see that the Vosburgh airport is for sale.

Thanks and blue skies,

Tom

On those shorter runways, make a slow power/pitch approach with full flaps and then add a little power just before touchdown to hover taxi to the last turnoff. Just one touchdown here but a couple thousand feet of slower than Vso dynamic proactive elevator and rudder movement practice.

slowmover,

Here is video I shot yesterday, off skis and back on wheels. Beaches are the first place without snow so an excellent place for me start getting my mojo back. So happy to be back on wheels.
https://vimeo.com/262658985