Nailing Short Landings

[GrassStripFlyBoy]

Have been enjoying the performance gains with cooler temps setting in.  Went out this morning for some local grass strip hopping around.  Conditions are mid 40's and wind out of north ~ 10k.  Staged a camera on the side of runway and stuck GoPro in the cabin, plan to make a video of the event but upon return home noticed several clips are corrupt with low battery in GoPro - bummer.  Still can make a decent production from what is good, just sad I didn't get the other airports.  The landing I shot at home was crosswind, and stuck it about 400' landing on the numbers.  Here's a little clip of my first landing of the day, and no - those are not control towers, those are deer binds for us who eat "organic" meat...

Shot up to county airport with runway into wind, nailed 300' landings with headwind.  That got me thinking my pal with a large yard "runway", not charted but about 1200' strip, would be comfortable.  Went to his place and was the shortest of the day facing directly into wind.

Obviously solo here, 18-20 gallons on board, 40 degrees of flaps, and flying ~ 50k approach to tree tops, then low 40's to touch down.

Will try to get the video out within a few days, need to start making more of these to share the joy.

[FlyingMonkey]

Looking good!  I guess with that shallow approach at 40° flaps you were carrying a little power?  I did see a little tach bump just before touchdown.

I rarely land at 40° except to keep proficient.  I find the difference in speed to 30° is only a knot or two, and the low speed handling is worse.  But for trying to get in really short, or stuffing it into a short field with an engine out, every bit helps!

[GrassStripFlyBoy]

Yes - a little blip of power at the very final approach.  I was essentially power off the whole final, it seems with dense air, lower loading, and my 1850ish RPM at idle this bird does not sink fast even at 40 degrees.  There may have been a small element of wind shear at play too, combine a little gusty, and those trees so close to runway mix things up.  I saw speed declining and felt things settling a tick much, it's nice to have a year under my belt and situation awareness building - that was sort of an automatic response, my butt and throttle hand must be learning to cross talk without a lot of brain working.

I don't really need to push landing this slow & short, but enjoy having the skill set, makes the 15 and 30 degree at 50k an easy game.

The grass had dew on it, when I grabbed the brakes it was an instant lock up, so let down and did some pumping / slide job to the end.

30 degrees is my default.  40 degree take off was an elevator ride, you'll have to wait for the final video to see that.

[gogogo888]

Nice!

Which mount do you use to get the ipad up there?

I have been mounting mine on the side window, wanting to change the position.

[GrassStripFlyBoy]

That location works well for a mini Ipad, and if you have decent vision as it does make focal distance a short range.  I'd not hang a larger screen than a mini up there.  It does not bother me with view as I'm shorter and see under it, taller guys probably would object.  To answer the question on mount, all standard RAM hardware, using a yoke mount clamped to cross tube.  Repurposed the yoke mount from an old Lowrance airmap device.  Full size Ipad, I'd be going to the side of the panel, essentially same location for you but get it off the door glass.

[FlyingMonkey]

gogo, I have a ram ball attached to the side of the mushroom on mine, with an arm putting the iPad right next to my other instruments.  it's been that way for five years and I love it.  The ball part is a permanent install though.

 

[gogogo888]

23 minutes ago, FlyingMonkey said:

gogo, I have a ram ball attached to the side of the mushroom on mine, with an arm putting the iPad right next to my other instruments.  it's been that way for five years and I love it.  The ball part is a permanent install though.

 

That’s a great idea, I will give that a try.

[AGLyme]

Darrell, what is your standard technique for grass takeoff ?  Flaps/ Vx/ when retract flaps blah?  Thx Andrew

[GrassStripFlyBoy]

Typically use 30 degrees for everything grass and/or shorter paved rwy's, like Andy states there is minimal difference with 40 degrees, but when really working to milk every little bit 40 degrees does help.  I start to apply back pressure almost immediately on roll, if solo and light I'll initiate a pitch for t/o and let it fly when it wants, then transition to forward pressure to control airspeed building at healthy / safe rate, these birds climb so well there are just a few seconds of the danger zone if engine issue develops, just be ready to pitch forward pronto in that regard.  Bleed flaps rather quick to 15 (guessing 45-50N, things happen quick here), then perhaps around 75 hit zero, then -6 around 500 AGL as climbing out, these are not rigid numbers with a set routine, just respect the white arc on 30 degrees and fly the plane from there.  (And I don't bust the 15 & 0 Vfe speeds either)  I peek at airspeed steam gauge and have eye's out window more than in panel, your ears and eyes tell you a lot when you know the bird.  You can get some crazy climb rates if holding it in the white arc with lots of flaps, but once you've got 50' who cares, give me speed.

So here's the morning take off.  This was not the normal process but lots of fun.  40 degrees, set parking brake, full power, when static RPM max ~ 5k dump the brakes, pitched for take off when it felt close and lifted off as steam gage started to wake up, probably 250 ft run.  There is culvert tube under runway with ditch to sides (tree / brush line at 16 second mark in video), that ditch is 450' from end of runway and I'm flying maybe 30' AGL by that ditch.  The second video on runway is staged at that 450' mark.

Other observations is my EFIS airspeed lags the steam gage, can't read super detail in these clips, but the red ASI number turns white / 39 and the steam gage is showing 46k., as rate of change is rapidly occurring here.  I'm at 50' tree top levels perhaps around the 700' mark. The wires / road is ~ 2500' from my take off location, was doing about 80k and 250 AGL at that point.

Now the words of caution, this is my home strip, I've been working towards this and learning how the CT feels / sounds / behaves / and am flying in my comfort zone.  Take different weather, loading, and whatever other wildcards that come into play - and proceed with care.

[FlyingMonkey]

BTW, for short field work you can hold the brake lever back with your wrist and advance the throttle to WOT, then just relax your wrist to release the brakes.

I always taxi with full aft stick on grass; be kind to your nose gear!

[CTDan]

I have about 20 landings in 242CT. I’m definitely getting better, but I’m still floating a bit before it settles onto the runway. I just can’t get comfortable with a sub 60 knot final approach speed which always makes me float past my target. 
 

I did some low approaches over the grass runway at 4K3, but chickened out on my first grass landing. I’m not sure I know what to look for when judging how rough the field will be & didn’t want to damage anything. 

Nice videos... thanks for posting them  

Dan

[Duane Jefts]

5 minutes ago, CTDan said:

I have about 20 landings in 242CT. I’m definitely getting better, but I’m still floating a bit before it settles onto the runway. I just can’t get comfortable with a sub 60 knot final approach speed which always makes me float past my target. 
 

I did some low approaches over the grass runway at 4K3, but chickened out on my first grass landing. I’m not sure I know what to look for when judging how rough the field will be & didn’t want to damage anything. 

Nice videos... thanks for posting them  

Dan

It might help to go to altitude and practice approach to stalls. Once you develop confidence in slow speeds you might be able to eliminate the “float” on landings.

[CTDan]

5 minutes ago, Duane Jefts said:

It might help to go to altitude and practice approach to stalls. Once you develop confidence in slow speeds you might be able to eliminate the “float” on landings.

I did a little stall work... it seems like it runs out of elevator & then just wallers a bit. It seems like it’s a non-event.

I’m noticing that the plane seems to want to lift off in the mid 30’s... I just need to get comfortable with those low speeds. 
 

Thank you for the suggestion. I will do some more stalls & make note of the IAS. 

[FlyingMonkey]

I have not even seen the airplane run out of elevator.  Typically as I approach the stall I can hold the nose close to level, and it will bob up and down as the wing cycles between exceeding and falling below the critical angle of attack.  If you exceed the critical AoA quickly enough (say by pitching up quickly at 55kt or so), you can induce a pronounced nose drop.  It's super predictable though...I was able to get a wing drop once by doing the quick pitch up at 40° flaps; it was easily countered with opposite rudder.

I don't think you can get the airplae off the ground in the mid-30s (unless your airpseed is off).  You can get the nose wheel off and pretty high, but I don't think you'll break ground until the low 40s.  And even then you are far behind the power curve, climb will suck, and the airplane may try to settle back to the runway.  I usually hold the stick neutral or slightly aft until about 45kt solo / 50kt dual, then start adding back pressure.

[CTDan]

9 hours ago, FlyingMonkey said:

I have not even seen the airplane run out of elevator.  Typically as I approach the stall I can hold the nose close to level, and it will bob up and down as the wing cycles between exceeding and falling below the critical angle of attack.  If you exceed the critical AoA quickly enough (say by pitching up quickly at 55kt or so), you can induce a pronounced nose drop.  It's super predictable though...I was able to get a wing drop once by doing the quick pitch up at 40° flaps; it was easily countered with opposite rudder.

I don't think you can get the airplae off the ground in the mid-30s (unless your airpseed is off).  You can get the nose wheel off and pretty high, but I don't think you'll break ground until the low 40s.  And even then you are far behind the power curve, climb will suck, and the airplane may try to settle back to the runway.  I usually hold the stick neutral or slightly aft until about 45kt solo / 50kt dual, then start adding back pressure.

My airspeed indicators are probably off. 
On takeoff the Dynon it shows - - & then jumps to 24-26 knots. I have seen airborn numbers as low as 37 with 25+ gallons of fuel. 

Im still getting used to the plane, so I’m sure Im not telling you the numbers exactly... I’m sure I’ll get more comfortable with it, I’m just not there yet. 

I did go out & fly low & slow yesterday. That’s why I bought the plane, & I have to say,...I had a lot of fun!

The winds were a bit outside my “fun-flying” comfort today, so it stayed in the hangar. Hopefully the winds will die down & I’ll get a little fun time tomorrow.