Warbird Information Exchange

Darn Randy, you been over there with those furriners for a few months and you already forgot how to speak Texan.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

1) Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

2) Any landing in which you can immediately re-use the airplane is a great one!

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Life's a Pitts

No spin training. I've done it any number of times on the simulator (in a P-38 no less) but the school says it's a no-no in one of their a/c. You wanna' do it in your a/c, by yourself...OK.

Mudge the protected

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Land of the free because of the brave

Which P-38 sim? I had to "leave" alot of spinning P-38s in "Warbirds" before I figured out what I was doing wrong.

Dan...
The UBISOFT IL-2 series (with add-ons).

Mudge the gamey
(Somehow, that doesn't sound right.)

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Land of the free because of the brave

My primary instructor, who flew everything from Jenny's to C-133's taught me a very simple technique that he claimed worked for nearly all of the more than 200 aircraft types he flew in his military and civilian career. Here's his technique for perfect landings;
1) On final, set up a good approach with good airspeed control on approach. Bad approach = bad landing.
2) Hold that approach all the way down until the wheels are 2 feet off the ground. (After you've tried that a few times make it one foot off the runway.)
2A) If you are over your approach speed this will be reflected in how much the aircraft will try to float, once in ground effect.
2B) If you are below approach speed a few knots, this will result in increased drag, higher sink rate, and she'll drop in on you before you're ready.
2C) Ground Effect- typically experienced at about one half the wingspan above the ground. IE, 30 foot wingspan, expect it around 15' down to the runway, and of course this varies by aircraft.
3) Fly the approach speed down to where the wheels are 1 plus feet above the runway, and then level off and attempt to see how long you can fly down the runway with the wings parallel to the runway, just gliding along a foot or so above the pavement. 4000' feet? Of course not, as the airplane will try to sink to the runway and you will have to either give it a bit more back pressure on the stick or it will land itself. Ultimately, the aircraft will dissipate it's forward momentum and will land itself in spite of your best efforts to keep it flying a foot or less above the centerline of the runway!
4) You won't have the cujone's to fly it down to 1 foot without flinching, but you will minimize losing too much airspeed too high.
5) Do you know where your tires are? To the inch? You know the gear expands in flight, so calculate a mental picture exactly where the gear are and how many inches the tires are from touching.
When you start thinking in term of inches instead of how many feet above the runway, you will soon be able to make greased landings in everything you fly.
Good Luck!

It's just practice Mudge, same as anything else, but the old saying that a good landing starts with a good approach is very true. And if you don't like your approach - you're too high or too fast or not lined up - generally just behind the eight ball and don't like what you're seeing - don't be afraid to open her up, go around, and try again.

Keep us posted.

Dan