https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZc1TdJFAFs

I laughed. He's just so calm the whole time.

LOL!

Hope he didn't get hurt.

I guess that's what he calls "hanger flying"

Can't blame that on the tail wheel

If you watch his hands, you will see that he is a huge believer in the power of ailerons at any airspeed. We can't see his feet, but through observation of the horizontal nose movement we can see very little rudder application or nosewheel steering. This is an extreme example of either little or no emphasis of rudder usage at slower airspeed. He tried to use a left coordinated turn, or more likely aileron only turn, to line up with the centerline before touchdown. He tried to steer the nose with the yoke on the ground both to realign with the runway and to turn further right to miss the hanger.

This huge control problem could be fixed quickly by good instruction because it is so gross. What we instructors have more trouble with is pilots who fly only in calm air and never discover feeble crosswind on final, as in the Mooney ground loop video. This slight and mild crosswind causes the pilot to continually use coordination of aileron with little rudder to realign with the runway. The most helpful technique I have found to eliminate or at least mitigate this poor technique is to hold my stiff thumb near the stick or yoke to jam the stick or yoke when the pilot tries to move it on final. Once he has caught himself trying coordination of aileron with rudder, I tell him to put his hands in his lap and use rudder only to align with the centerline. I use the stick or yoke as necessary to set the wing for the slight crosswind and then put my hands in my lap.

I understand that from five miles out it may be difficult to line up perfectly on the centerline extended, but at least on short final there should be no aileron movement except in gusty air where the crosswind component is continually changing. In calm air there is no crosswind component and absolutely no reason to use the ailerons at all.

Yes, the rudder used alone will cause a bit of skid. The skidded forward wing will climb just a bit but not as much as aileron application will cause. If necessary use the opposite rudder. So by using the rudder both ways, walking the rudder, we bracket the centerline extended all the way down to the centerline and all the way down the runway until we are in taxi where every instructor accepts rudder only usage. One of the most common errors in aviation is that rudder only usage often comes only during taxi. What we have here is a "what's what" that is way out of wack.

Exception must be given here to float pilots who are using all their sails, ailerons and rudder, to sail the airplane on the water.

I live not to far from where this occurred, lots of "local" chatter on the event but the really crazy part is that HE posted the video

He was flying on a student pilot permit, somewhere in all this is an instructor who's doing "damage control"

I liked the elevator control to protect the nose gear, but I would suspect some tailwheel time except for the total lack of rudder usage. He added power, perhaps for more rudder authority but no rudder. Was it for aileron authority? He didn't even try to brake. Had he been in old trainers with mechanical brakes not designed for rapid stopping? And he could have come unglued, but he didn't seem worried until full right aileron only would not turn him right to miss the hanger. Then, definitely unglued. I like this kid. He just needs some time with his hands in his lap.

Getting a little senile. It was the Maule video of ground loop on the grass strip.

I see lots of post of people being told that you should NEVER need to use brakes on when landing. As usual the word never should have been replaced with when needed.
DENNY

I'm one of the old instructors, Denny, who fuss about the excessive use of brakes these days. I didn't see this one coming!

contactflying wrote:I'm one of the old instructors, Denny, who fuss about the excessive use of brakes these days. I didn't see this one coming!

When it comes to brakes use what ever it takes.

I agree with Denny's "when needed." Not needing brakes shows good energy management on short final.

akavidflyer wrote:

contactflying wrote:I'm one of the old instructors, Denny, who fuss about the excessive use of brakes these days. I didn't see this one coming!

When it comes to brakes use what ever it takes.

^^^^^^ YES YES YES ^^^^^^

DENNY wrote:I see lots of post of people being told that you should NEVER need to use brakes on when landing. As usual the word never should have been replaced with when needed.
DENNY

Watch it again and check out the throttle

Brakes are good when needed. So is thrust. Maybe you meant the brakes or lack of differential braking caused his directional upset.

Poor guy's central processing unit froze up. You can see him swipe for the throttle when he decides it would be good to slow down, but I think he just lost it after he decided to go around. Maybe he was optimistic he could get back in the air headed toward those hangars?

It's more interesting (and educational) to play it back at 1/4 speed. I thought at least I'd have the time to try to come up with what was going through his mind as it happened. Nah, that didn't work either.

I think that's called panic.

Anyone else catch how easily he seemed to be able to crank the control yoke all the way upside down?

Yeah, I was fairly certain that control yoke is supposed to stop sideways. The fact that he cranks it upside down shows alot of panic.

I wonder if he had a flat tire or something.

I saw Hyperbipe in another thread and together with Denny's sometimes brakes are appropriate post it threw me into post traumatic stress. Kiman Kingsley and I stopped by Belen, NM (BRG) on the way to visit my son at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. Kiman wanted to visit his balloon instructor. The balloon instructor, on Kiman's recommendation, wanted me to give him a tailwheel checkout in his Hyperbipe. So I looked at this light, side by side, two place, two wing, big 0-360 up front, and the smallest vertical stabilizer and rudder I had ever seen. In the process of trying to get him to rent the Citabria from the FBO, I found out he had already nixed that route. Reluctantly I broke my rule about flying with guys in their just built very pretty airplanes.

He did fine until I said he was ready and he insisted on one more touch and go. I had already explained that we were at the point that if he got into trouble with the very inadequate rudder, I would not be able to recover. He was doing the landing. He got it going a bit crooked, but in the desert where I thought it would be fine for him to just run on out into the dirt. He hit a little ditch and nosed it onto the prop and was very, very upset.

Two things to prevent PTSD, don't check pilots out in their newly built tailwheel airplanes and use brakes in an emergency. Actually, thinking back PTSD style, the course of this airplane should be directed with dynamic proactive braking. It doesn't have enough rudder to counter ground loop and doesn't have enough wing area to get slow enough to not be damaged in even a recovered ground loop.