wildlifeguy

My Feedback: (5)

I built the kit version of this plane back in 2003 and still fly it today. Be careful it does tip stall easily. If i haven't flown it in a while, I end up scraping the wingtips the first few landings trying to slow it down too much right before touchdown. I found I didn't like the specified CG because the plane would drop too quickly when I reduced throttle and was hard to slow down. I liked it better once I moved it back. You may also try moving to a lower pitch prop. Mine has a 46 and I usually fly a 11x6. One time I tried a 10x7 and thought I would never get it back on the ground safely especially with a cross fence at the end of our landing area. I think that once you get used to it, it will get much easier. Again, when I haven't flown mine for a while, I find that I have to fly it to the ground with a long roll out rather than stalling it right at touchdown until I get the feel for it again.

<hr />

chymas

My Feedback: (1)

HoundDog gets it - learn how to slip your plane and land on the approach end of the runway. When flying there is nothing more useless than the air above you and the runway behind you.

JPMacG - learn how to land.

So many RC guys CAN'T LAND, they arive.

One old timer at my club has a GeeBee and was having the same problem always landing hot. After much prodding from him I flew it and slowed it down to land it. Brought it around on final got the nose high, controled the speed with elevator and altitude with throttle. Yes I flew it in slow flight and stalled it a few times up high before making an approach.

James c harrell

My Feedback: (18)

Thou this wont help a tail dragger, I remember about eight years ago, there was a brake contraption for the nose wheel. There was a thread that went to hub and linked to the elevator servo. After touchdown, down elevator would engage the brake. They worked quite well. I wonder what ever happened to that product? Does anyone have a picture of it?


I still have a couple of these. You have sent me to a search for them. They are just a hub that goes on the center of the wheel with a spring that tightens around it right?

Villa

Our flying field is grass, so there is no problem with running out of runway. However, some people do run out of runway. They come in way too hot. They say their plane is a "floater" which is supposed to mean that there is nothing they can do about it. I find that it is safest to touch down directly in front of me, going right to left, or left to right. Many fliers touch down where the plane ends up touching down. That is not called flying; your are actually just following the plane.

Airplanes400

My Feedback: (349)

I had this exact same plane several years ago. I loved it. I never had a problem slowing it down for landing. Rollout was somewhere between 50 and 75 feet on pavement, and that was in a no wind condition.

misterbill

My Feedback: (2)

You could of course try what all the pilots did in the early days of flying when aircraft didn't often have brakes.

Something you still see Cub (and many other) pilots doing all the time - sideslipping in.

It's a handy manoevre for this problem, loses as much height as you need on approach, and in fact bleeds a lot of ground-speed at the same time. And it looks really cool.

Better than all the 'mechanical' fixes as it's totally controllable & variable when conditions, like weather, approach height & airspeed vary, landing to landing.
My 2c.

Mike

raptureboy

Wow 3 pages of advise for such a simple issue? more drag on the wheels is a simple solution, start simple, keep it simple.

cfircav8r

My Feedback: (1)

Slipping is not for slowing a plane down. It is to allow a steeper descent without gaining airspeed so you can make an approach over an obstacle. As said before AOA to control airspeed and throttle to control descent. If the A/C will not descend down at idle with a slow airspeed than you have either to high an rpm or to high of a pitch on your prop. If the plane lifts off again when you pull full up elevator at touch down then you are coming in to fast. Practice slowing it down at altitude and set up your approaches for as slow a speed as you know can safely maintain. You should be aiming for just in front of the runway the as you get down to about 5 ft level off and throttle to idle, if your not already at idle, and hold it off until it just settles in at close to full up elevator. It wont be a full stall but after the wheels touch it will slow down quick enough that you can apply full up almost instantly without ballooning.

jquid

I would disagree..... he lands hot right? too much drag on the wheels and he flips the tail over.

jquid

Have you tried a larger diameter prop? A larger disc in front will help reduce some speed by causing more drag, just pitch accordingly to keep the same flying speed.

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Drag, not JB Welded tight.

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

What could be more simple than to balance it properly? Adding drag to the wheels is like hanging a picture over a hole in the wall.

rgburrill

Put the tubing only on the tail wheel - if you don't have it equal on the front you will have "fun" taxiing and taking off. Someone suggested to me once to toe in the front wheels but that might be difficult to do on yours.

Skaluf

BT, you are experiencing what most pilots go through from time to time. You are simply landing a bit hotter than you need to. The Extra WILL slow down for a gentle landing. Take the Extra up and slow it down several mistakes high. Learn where it stalls and what it does when it stalls. Do that until you are comfortable slowing it down. Next, make your approaches a bit further out if you can, and aim for the approach end of the runway. While you are learning standing near the approach end of the runway also helps. Our natural tendency is to want to land in front of ourselves. In most cases this has used up 1/2 or more of the available runway. After you are on the ground and the airplane slows, feed in elevator to keep the tail firmly planted on the ground. Once you've done that a few times you'll wonder why you landed so hot in the first place.

If you are flying on a tight field, slipping in to landing is a great way to bleed speed and make a nice short field landing. Here is a link to a landing with a larger GP Extra 300L on RealFlight to show you what this looks like. Remember, keep having fun and practice is the way to get better.

http://youtu.be/cr9sQrOJ34Y

BTW, don't mess with flapperons, tightening your wheels and stuff like that. You won't get the result you need by doing these things and you'll probably end up with a bent airplane.

Steve

HoundDog

My Feedback: (49)

Why don't U land on the approach end of the runway? U don't see full scale aircraft landing halfway down the runway. If U land past U because U think it's safer than your skills arn't what they should be and U end up tieing up the runway having to taxi back. Improve your skills and use the runway the way it should be used.

on_your_six

My Feedback: (11)

I don't know your experience level... have you let someone else that is very experienced fly the plane? What are their comments? With experience, you might find it is not really landing too fast. With more experience, I think you will be able to land slower with a higher angle of attack. This was posted in the beginners forum.

I have never used anything on my wheels to slow them down. I would wait on flaperons and the elevator mixing until you have flown a while longer. You can loose a lot of momentum by zig zagging.

rctech2k7

My Feedback: (1)

Landing distance can be determined by the landing speed, weight, resistance and wheel friction of your plane.

To answer your query on how to slowing down after landing… considering high speed we first eliminate lift to prevent further airborne while on full flaps and transfer weight load from the wings to the landing gear. This process will increase wheel traction and increase drag. We use spoiler if equipped otherwise raise both ailerons or while on full flaps (crow). After no more speed and the plane is still rolling, use steering gear to add ground resistance. If the nature of the plane is heavy and plenty of idle power wheel brakes is required and we use it instead of steering gear.

To slow down on landing the most common is to increase flaps if equipped and angle of attack (AOA). Use throttle if needed to compensate for drag. Also checking CG might be helpful if you find your plane nose heavy.

Villa

Hi HoundDog
I'm actually very experienced, but at near 76 I may be going the other way. Here is an article I wrote recently that gives the point I'm making; Give it some thought and then give me your comments.
I have been flying R/C since about 1972, and have many hundreds of crashes under my belt. I always do a crash review to determine the cause of the crash. At some point I noticed that I was crashing my planes when I was landing at an angle to the runway because of the wind direction. After much thought and study I concluded that the reason was that I did not know where the plane was relative to the runway because I was landing from a direction I was not very familiar with. I mainly did not know the altitude of the plane relative to the runway, but I also lost ALL MY REFERENCES TO INDICATE MY AIR SPEED. Remember, since we fly without instrumentation, plus we are not inside the plane, we receive no input about how close we are to stalling. We can "see" a stall coming on a model we are familiar with, by its attitude, performance, and response, but only if the plane is at angle to us that we are familiar with. Change that angle severely and we are lost. I have stalled many times and crashed. If you are landing at an angle toward you, or directly toward you, you have lost your ability to judge air speed. Most RC pilots do not know that their depth perception is only about 17 feet. My planes always land much further away than 17 feet so depth perception is no help at all. I gave up cross runway landings, to compensate for the wind, for the two reasons mentioned. I only land from the left or from the right and I plan to touch down directly in front of me. I realized that only when the plane is directly in front of me do I know its altitude relative to the ground, and, more important, I know if it is flying at a safe air speed. If the wind is very strong and mostly across the runway I will crab just a little with the rudder/ailerons. I do not bother trying to compensate for drifting across the runway unless I will miss the runway, in which case I abort the landing and try it again. I welcome any comments on these ideas.

rctech2k7

My Feedback: (1)

I forgot this is a 3D aircraft, you should be able to slow down your plane... BTW if you can’t due to some reason like heavy plane or encounter tail wind, etc. if you have flaperons setup on the air it would help to slowing down and reversing it after touchdown would help it on the ground. I think you might not need this setup because of the nature of this plane, check your CG and landing angle and use elevator and rudder after touchdown.

BT00561

My Feedback: (26)

Thanks for everyones input. I flew it 3 more times today and was able to slow her down alot better. Even before today I used a long straight in final, but wasnt as confindent with slowing her down so much. I slowed it down alot more this evening so it would settle down on the approach end of the runway. I always stand in the middle secion of the runway and land right at the approach end. I have never had a problem with putting it down in front of where i am standing or after.

We are really lucky here to have 4 runways in all directions so I always land into the wind to help slow it down some. I have not had anyone else fly it, mainly cause theres very few people out there and most of them have less expiereance then I do, or if they have more expereance they really suck at landing. I have been flying for over a year and have flow a few different types of planes, from Alpha 40, PZ Corsair, PZ Habu, PZ Mustang, GP Extra 300, Yak-54, Sig Somethin Extra, and had great success with all of them. Ialso get to fly about 2-4days a week depending on the winds, So i guess i wouldnt say I am a beginner but im definatly not as expierianced asalot of people.This plane just seemed to not want to slow as much, but after working with it today I got it a bit slower and came in real nice. It just took 13 flights to get there.

Thanks to everyone for thier help and inputs.

HoundDog

My Feedback: (49)

Looks like you been doing this for a long time and you have all the Veriables in hand. Your artical is right on target. I get the same way, depending on what model I fly. If I'm flying my 87" 22Lb. ZDZ 8o Twin Cylinder Yak 54, I'm much more cautious and aware of the flight conditions. On the other hand I've flown my .46 U-Can-Do w/ 82 Saito in 25 mph quartering cross winds, with out any worries at all. . I'm even able to land it with alomst Zero roll out. I guess Experiance with the type of and naturally Cost, all contribute to ones ability to handle differant flight conditions with differant models. I'm only 9 years your junior, but yes our age. Unfourtunitaly this seems to have a lot to do with our flying abilities. Hate to say it but we all will face the time when our abilities will not meet our expecations. We have all witness this with our older flyers of vering abilitys and ages. I pray to God, when my time comes, that I have the ability to reconigize and accept it.
Again I like your article and good luck to you and all us ageing flyers.

BT00561

My Feedback: (26)

Thanks HoundDog.

As for this plane I really like it the way it looks and flies but I am alot more cautious of it that the others. I fly some of my others like a rag doll and I know what to expect out of them. But I play it alot more safe with the 300.

rctech2k7

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Villa, sorry to hear about that... You can estimate your landing airspeed by watching rate of descend at constant slightly positive angle. When aircraft sink at increasing rate power is required, when it floats and maintain altitude reduce power slightly and restore throttle back to the desired rate. If the plane increases altitude, it indicates that the airspeed is higher.

On landing stable approach is important and to achieve that throttle is required to control rate of descend while at constant elevator. AOA is used for desired speed, rudder is for directions while aileron is for correction during final approach.

1320Fastback

Want to slow down?
Try holding the tailwheel/nose wheel off the ground as long as possible after the mains touch down.

rctech2k7

My Feedback: (1)

Great and thanks for sharing! Happy flying everyone...