David,
I am transitioning to tail wheel and I was also having trouble judging my height above the ground and exactly where to flair. I had been looking at the end of the runway and trying to judge height from that prospective. My problem is exasperated because I have very limited vision in my left eye, so peripheral vision to the left is almost nonexistent. My instructor and I finally concluded I need to make a concerted effort to look at the ground out the left window alternately while checking pitch out the front. As you mentioned in your first post, this seems to be working much better for me now.
A few week after working on this I was reading through my July issue of AOPA ?Flight Training? magazine and found an article written by Rod Machado on the exact subject. The point was ?If older students are taught to rely on peripheral vision to flare the airplane, then they?ll have difficulty sensing their height above the ground ? especially if they wear corrective?. We loose peripheral vision as we grow older. This was exactly what you and I had concluded.
I hope this helps/encourages? and for everyone else this will be good for all of us to understand and consider (not that any of us are getting older).
If anyone would like to read the entire article just PM or email me and I?ll send you a copy.
Thank you Dean. That pretty well confirms what I have learned. I have stopped trying to judge flare height over the nose but rely on a glance out the left side going into the flare, it works most of the time.
Curiously, on take off I have much better results staying on center line looking out the right side.
The issue of wheel landing vrs 3 pointer with the 8 is a matter of pilot choice IMHO. Same can be said about any airplane/pilot combination.
My favorite uncle who passed away recently in Alaska, was a bush pilot extraordinary for many years with his 0320 Super Cub. He could not function without it being an avid hunter and fisherman, at one point a licensed hunting/fishing guide. The Cub was on floats about half the season depending what was going on.
He would charter a helicopter to gain access to some favorite fishing or hunting site and carve out a 400' strip with a chain saw, axe and shovel. Some landing sites had a dog leg. I flew with him over the years into some of those spots, it was always a pleasure although being an airline pilot disinterested in TW ops at the time, I did not appreciate how flew the Cub. I do remember going into those sites, it was a power on approach, plop we were on and stopped just like that. It had to be a 3 pointer. Coming out it was full power (with a take off prop turning about 2400 rpm) stick forward tail up, stick back and we were flying in about the time to say it. Then it was throttle back to prevent an over speed.
In a recent conversation with his wife about how Jim flew the Cub, she responded it was always with the tail in the air, landing or taking off, I guess those were wheel landings she said. That must have been back at Homer Airport, in the bush it was a 3 pointer I am sure.
In his last days as I was building the 8 I tried to get him to talk to me about flying the Cub but he was too far gone with some sort of dementia. He was still smart enough though to know his days were numbered. He simply quit eating and checked out. Being just 6 years older than me, he was a roll model all my life since my earliest recollection. He enlisted in the USAF at age 18, got into the old aviation cadet program and graduated #1 in his class. I did likewise but graduated no where near #1 but somewhere in the middle. In my book no one was as good in an airplane as Uncle Jim. He was one of kind for sure.
