Zzz wrote:

hotrod180 wrote:One of the things i like about the pacer is how easy it is to put in a bunch of trim quickly. Maybe try trimming for your target airspeed, then on very short final reach up and twirl in a bunch of nose up trim. If you have to go around, just reach up and wind it back to a more appropriate setting.

Long story short: I'm now a little tentative with cranking too fast on the trim crank.

Or, if you really want to have some fun, try putting in trim quickly only to find that the jackscrew system will only apply nose down trim, no matter which way you turn the trim wheel. My mechanic and I wouldn't have believed it could happen with that system if I didn't have a go pro running to show that whether I trimmed clockwise or counter, only nose down trim would apply, and there was no reversing it - and some time in the SWPC archives found it's an issues that a few other pilots have had. Was very surprising the first time, the second time I was at gross on a hot day so the pressure was a pain to hold but not too bad - at least knew what it was, and after that breaking down the whole jack screw system and rerigging it seems to have fixed things!

I also got lots of suggestions for ballast on my PA22 as being the key, but I've found other than approx 20# that I never fly without (camping gear/overnight goodies in case I get stuck out), the lighter the plane is the more fun it is to fly, so I prefer it that way.

I trim for a stabilized approach (tried leaving trim at cruise setting like ContactFlying prefer's to do, but constantly trimming out pressure is ingrained in my from early training, I'm a lazy pilot don't like holding much pressure), but find the key to my landing effectively is to hold lot of forward pressure during the moments when power is applied while arresting the descent. Without serious forward pressure, we get a more extreme AoA close to the ground, and it gets squirly which is when I've had firmer landings. Using the power to arrest descent and barely any flare with the elevator has led to my most successful short landings, and I'll often still have power in as the mains touch. I have a shorter landing roll keeping power on all the way into the touchdown many days because it is smoother, rather than the plunk that happens if you cut power 1' up with the short wing. Ground effect doesn't help, it just drops.

Evan uses the steeper approach which requires slowness farther up, but not a lot farther out, to insure the descent angle in order to touch down on the numbers. That means considerable power to keep rate of descent in control. Thus, when he needs to arrest the apparent speed up of closure rate on short final, he will add power to touch down slowly and softly. This is the apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach at it's finest.

For Pacer guys who default wheel land, it is important to be slow at touchdown with power. If the forward component of gravity, what some call gravity thrust, is still high (1.3 Vso is high) the power to cushion will cause increase in airspeed, float, etc. For any airplane, we need to flair to three point attitude first.