A trick for the instructor to prevent wing wagging (aileron use.) Jam your thumb against one side of the stick. When the student tries to bank in that direction and hits your resistance, say, "walk the rudders. no aileron." We want accurate yaw, not adverse yaw. We don't want to turn, nor will we if we walk the rudders constantly on short final to roll out. Aileron is for drift only on short final and on the ground. Like rudder, fine when fast and gross when slow.
Power on power off is good. It means you are slow enough to sink, which brings the throttle into dynamic control of glide angle and rate of descent. Now you are making a power/pitch approach that, using a Wolfgang trick, will put you down slowly and softly on the numbers. "The stall-down landing requires that you blend the approach glide, the flare-out, and the slowing up of the airplane all into one maneuver so that, when you arrive at ground level, you arrive in three-point attitude, all slowed up and ready to squat." "Stick and Rudder" page 302. And on page 304, "The clue to watch is the intended landing spot and the scenery beyond it and to the sides of it. Once the normal glide has been broken, the process of stalling the airplane down can be gauged entirely by watching the spot and the perspective in which it appears and its apparent motion." Think of decelerating your auto into a round about (intersection here in the colonies). Far back you appear to be closing with the round out at a brisk walk (apparent not real by airspeed or ground speed meter). That apparent rate of closure appears to increase dramatically as you get closer to the round about. So we decelerate, not by gauge but by apparent rate, to keep what appears to be that brisk walk or canter for you horsemen. This trick, this stall-down short final approach at what appears to be a brisk walk, eliminates the much harder round out and hold off technique. The problem with the round out and hold off is that when we are too fast because we have not decelerated coming into ground effect, we have to close the throttle and float using elevator to control both airspeed and altitude and rate of descent. The elevator wasn't designed to handle all that and the pilot becomes a passenger until the airplane decides to quit flying requiring flair to touch down slowly and softly. Once the power/pitch is perfected so that there is no need to close the throttle, there will be no round out. Just flair to arrive (with power if done properly) three-point all slowed up and ready to squat. And the wheel landing is just a three point landing right up to the squat when we level the fuselage with elevator. Don't let Vso scare you out of deceleration in ground effect. Vso is an out of ground effect number that has nothing to do with landing.
Got it, yep that makes sense. I had a great day today in the Cub, and have managed to nail my take offs, so I could concentrate on my landings which were a lot better as a concequence.
The trick to be moving our feet at touchdown and roll out, walking the rudders dynamically and proactively, is to be moving them exactly the same way on short final, touchdown, and roll out, takeoff, taxi, everywhere. We are better when we move. I started TW students off insisting that they move the rudders left, right, left etc. dynamically to the stop in order to keep the taxi line between their legs. This lets them know that gross movement, to the stop, works so long as it is dynamic. As we are accelerating on takeoff we must move the rudders grossly while slow and incrementally change to finer dynamic proactive movement as we speed up. Just the opposite on short final, touchdown, and roll out. We walk the rudders rapidly and finely but get more gross with the walking as we slow down. Again the key point is that we don't have to question the amount since either gross or fine works so long as it is dynamic. Thus we don't have to question how much right rudder to apply for left turning tendencies when we bring the tail up for increased acceleration causing gyroscopic precession and when we bring the nose up to bring the mains off causing P factor. We are better when we move. So long as we are nailing the target between our legs by walking the rudder pedals, we have bracketed longitudinal alignment and prevented ground loop. In the air the same bracketing of the target, the centerline, not only keeps that target (no turn), it keeps the wing level at the same time. When we are using slip to counter drift, walking the rudder does not affect the stability of the wing bank. It helps stabilize it and also gust spread. We are better when we move. And keep from using aileron. Aileron causes adverse yaw. Unless we lead rudder, and the Cub teaches this well, there is no coordination in the initial move of the turn. Unless we lead rudder, the nose always goes the wrong way first. Walking the rudder keeps the nose from going anywhere. Tight bracketing is far better than constant reaction to turn by turn or what we TW instructors call wing wagging (using aileron.)
Great advice, thank you. I need to do more "walking the rudder" it's a taken me a while to get the feel of what is enough and what is too much. Today I had my speeds under control so the rudder work was much smoother and we had less of a cross wind too!
35 years flying tailwheel ,only thing I noticed was you did not get that stick hard back after touchdown .It may have helped with some of the bumps .Keep it up you will master the cub they are a wonderful little aeroplane.
Wow Gordon, 35 years in tailwheel. I can only imagine what you’ve done and seen. Great tip on the stick it’s something I need to remember and thank you for your praise I’m loving the Cub and can’t wait to fly more tailwheel aircraft.
I thought you were awesome Chris, good job and great video as always.
Thanks Terry I am loving the Cub and really got on top of it today.
A trick for the instructor to prevent wing wagging (aileron use.) Jam your thumb against one side of the stick. When the student tries to bank in that direction and hits your resistance, say, "walk the rudders. no aileron." We want accurate yaw, not adverse yaw. We don't want to turn, nor will we if we walk the rudders constantly on short final to roll out. Aileron is for drift only on short final and on the ground. Like rudder, fine when fast and gross when slow.
I'm with you, I'll share your tips with my instructor Dom, thank you
look at them lines !! did a good job there ;)
Thank you, it's nice when it keeps pointing the right direction!
Power on power off is good. It means you are slow enough to sink, which brings the throttle into dynamic control of glide angle and rate of descent. Now you are making a power/pitch approach that, using a Wolfgang trick, will put you down slowly and softly on the numbers. "The stall-down landing requires that you blend the approach glide, the flare-out, and the slowing up of the airplane all into one maneuver so that, when you arrive at ground level, you arrive in three-point attitude, all slowed up and ready to squat." "Stick and Rudder" page 302. And on page 304, "The clue to watch is the intended landing spot and the scenery beyond it and to the sides of it. Once the normal glide has been broken, the process of stalling the airplane down can be gauged entirely by watching the spot and the perspective in which it appears and its apparent motion." Think of decelerating your auto into a round about (intersection here in the colonies). Far back you appear to be closing with the round out at a brisk walk (apparent not real by airspeed or ground speed meter). That apparent rate of closure appears to increase dramatically as you get closer to the round about. So we decelerate, not by gauge but by apparent rate, to keep what appears to be that brisk walk or canter for you horsemen.
This trick, this stall-down short final approach at what appears to be a brisk walk, eliminates the much harder round out and hold off technique. The problem with the round out and hold off is that when we are too fast because we have not decelerated coming into ground effect, we have to close the throttle and float using elevator to control both airspeed and altitude and rate of descent. The elevator wasn't designed to handle all that and the pilot becomes a passenger until the airplane decides to quit flying requiring flair to touch down slowly and softly. Once the power/pitch is perfected so that there is no need to close the throttle, there will be no round out. Just flair to arrive (with power if done properly) three-point all slowed up and ready to squat. And the wheel landing is just a three point landing right up to the squat when we level the fuselage with elevator. Don't let Vso scare you out of deceleration in ground effect. Vso is an out of ground effect number that has nothing to do with landing.
Got it, yep that makes sense. I had a great day today in the Cub, and have managed to nail my take offs, so I could concentrate on my landings which were a lot better as a concequence.
The trick to be moving our feet at touchdown and roll out, walking the rudders dynamically and proactively, is to be moving them exactly the same way on short final, touchdown, and roll out, takeoff, taxi, everywhere. We are better when we move. I started TW students off insisting that they move the rudders left, right, left etc. dynamically to the stop in order to keep the taxi line between their legs. This lets them know that gross movement, to the stop, works so long as it is dynamic. As we are accelerating on takeoff we must move the rudders grossly while slow and incrementally change to finer dynamic proactive movement as we speed up. Just the opposite on short final, touchdown, and roll out. We walk the rudders rapidly and finely but get more gross with the walking as we slow down. Again the key point is that we don't have to question the amount since either gross or fine works so long as it is dynamic. Thus we don't have to question how much right rudder to apply for left turning tendencies when we bring the tail up for increased acceleration causing gyroscopic precession and when we bring the nose up to bring the mains off causing P factor. We are better when we move. So long as we are nailing the target between our legs by walking the rudder pedals, we have bracketed longitudinal alignment and prevented ground loop. In the air the same bracketing of the target, the centerline, not only keeps that target (no turn), it keeps the wing level at the same time. When we are using slip to counter drift, walking the rudder does not affect the stability of the wing bank. It helps stabilize it and also gust spread. We are better when we move. And keep from using aileron. Aileron causes adverse yaw. Unless we lead rudder, and the Cub teaches this well, there is no coordination in the initial move of the turn. Unless we lead rudder, the nose always goes the wrong way first. Walking the rudder keeps the nose from going anywhere. Tight bracketing is far better than constant reaction to turn by turn or what we TW instructors call wing wagging (using aileron.)
Great advice, thank you. I need to do more "walking the rudder" it's a taken me a while to get the feel of what is enough and what is too much. Today I had my speeds under control so the rudder work was much smoother and we had less of a cross wind too!
35 years flying tailwheel ,only thing I noticed was you did not get that stick hard back after touchdown .It may have helped with some of the bumps .Keep it up you will master the cub they are a wonderful little aeroplane.
Wow Gordon, 35 years in tailwheel. I can only imagine what you’ve done and seen. Great tip on the stick it’s something I need to remember and thank you for your praise I’m loving the Cub and can’t wait to fly more tailwheel aircraft.
This is not one continuous video...unless you changed clothes in flight!
You got me Jimmy. I had to hand the aircraft over to the next person before I could should the face to camera, so did it the next day.