kens999

My Feedback: (2)

Hello,

I was landing my HobbyZone Super Cub in moderate wind. Coming in for a landing, facing into the wind, airspeed was slow, 6 feet off the ground..... all of a sudden a gust of wind flipped my plane completely upside down and slammed it into the pavement. The result was pretty ugly. Can you please tell me what occured ....and more importantly how to prevent it from happening again during future landings?

Thank you,
Ken

giddyuperic

You need to come in with a little more power. You can float them in just fine when there is no gust of wind and even in a steady wind they do fine, but you get a gust then give it a little bit more power Give it a try and see how it goes. Or just go around and try the landing again.

whitecrest

With a moderate wind, the air is generally more turbulent below the treeline. I like to keep the airspeed up while descending through this zone and avoid flaring until just before touch down. Also, at my field, there are certain wind directions and areas on the field where turbulence is greater and where you must be ready for sudden gusts.

As you did, it is important to keep flying into the wind as much as possible when things are gusty to avoid a sudden and disastrous loss of lift. I think ailerons are especially helpful under gusty conditions to keep the wings level. That would probably be a useful modification of your SC if not already done.

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

As others have said, when the wind speeds pick up or when it gets gusty, you must land at higher speeds to stay ahead of the gusts and to maintain enough air flow over the surfaces to give you control. If you get too slow, you become a leaf in the wind.

kens999

My Feedback: (2)

Thank you to all for the helpful advice. Will keep my airspeed up when landing in windy/gusty conditions.

aeajr

My Feedback: (2)

The worst thing that happens with a higher landing speed is you skid a little farther. No biggie.

kens999

My Feedback: (2)

With the high wing cub, coming in fast, I sometimes end up tipping the nose into the dirt. I have since adjusted the elevator travel to try and flare abit more before touchdown, hopefully that might help compensate for my lack of landing skills.
Thanks,
Ken

davek

The biggest and most costly mistakes I made when I was learning to fly was trying to land too slow. I would either stall the plane and slam it down on the ground or would tip stall it, catch a wing on the ground and cartwheel down the runway.