David-aviator
Well Known Member
Yesterday I nearly bit off more than I could chew with regard to landing the 8 in rather rough wind conditions.
Take off at about 8 am was a none event, clear weather and almost calm wind. Two hours later things had changed. A front had passed the night before and ushered in some nice dry air from the north, I noticed the GRT Sport EFIS indicated 30 knots at 2000'.
I made a tour of the local area as per usual taking in the sites including a couple landings at the 3000' grass strip where I made the first landing on June 16 - really nice near 3 pointers.
Back home just a few miles distant all heck broke loose on the first approach. The 8-26 runway has trees on the west end and along the north side of it. The NW wind was favoring a 26 approach so that was the plan. The EFIS indicated over 30 knots of NW wind at 800 AGL. A couple friends with a radio said it appeared nearly calm at the surface inside the tree line shelter.
I've landed out of this approach at least 10 times but this time the bottom dropped out at about 50', like really big time. The sink rate was amazing, I had no illusions of landing and went WOT to catch the sink just before aircraft would have made ground contact. The nose was quite high, higher than the normal 3 point attitude.
Well that was interesting and decided to try it again.
After 4 more attempts with similar results I was beginning to think this may not work out. There was either a serious wind shear coming into the tree shelter or a vertical down draft. It was in about the same area each time.
I was about to arrange for the guys to come pick me up at the near by grass strip I had just visited but decided to try it one more time with 20? flaps instead of 40?.
I'm just guessing as to the why of it, but with 20 flaps I was able to control the airplane through the sink and make a half-ways decent wheel landing, albeit a little long, and get it stopped before the west end. I've learned to brake the beast with the tail up and as it comes down.
I think what was going on with 40 flaps was when pitch was increased to stop the sink it did not stop it at all, except with a burst of power, lots of it.
Turns out most of the guys here have experienced that sink with a NW wind and avoid flying on such days.
Flew today and it was a completely different story, same weather pattern but the wind at altitude was just 8 or 10 knots.
I will try some 20? flap landings and no flappers also in the near future just to see how they work out. I've been using 40 with the 8 because I've read it is a good thing to do. We shall see about that.
The stall difference from 20 to 40 is miniscule, 40 is mostly drag - not lift.
Take off at about 8 am was a none event, clear weather and almost calm wind. Two hours later things had changed. A front had passed the night before and ushered in some nice dry air from the north, I noticed the GRT Sport EFIS indicated 30 knots at 2000'.
I made a tour of the local area as per usual taking in the sites including a couple landings at the 3000' grass strip where I made the first landing on June 16 - really nice near 3 pointers.
Back home just a few miles distant all heck broke loose on the first approach. The 8-26 runway has trees on the west end and along the north side of it. The NW wind was favoring a 26 approach so that was the plan. The EFIS indicated over 30 knots of NW wind at 800 AGL. A couple friends with a radio said it appeared nearly calm at the surface inside the tree line shelter.
I've landed out of this approach at least 10 times but this time the bottom dropped out at about 50', like really big time. The sink rate was amazing, I had no illusions of landing and went WOT to catch the sink just before aircraft would have made ground contact. The nose was quite high, higher than the normal 3 point attitude.
Well that was interesting and decided to try it again.
After 4 more attempts with similar results I was beginning to think this may not work out. There was either a serious wind shear coming into the tree shelter or a vertical down draft. It was in about the same area each time.
I was about to arrange for the guys to come pick me up at the near by grass strip I had just visited but decided to try it one more time with 20? flaps instead of 40?.
I'm just guessing as to the why of it, but with 20 flaps I was able to control the airplane through the sink and make a half-ways decent wheel landing, albeit a little long, and get it stopped before the west end. I've learned to brake the beast with the tail up and as it comes down.
I think what was going on with 40 flaps was when pitch was increased to stop the sink it did not stop it at all, except with a burst of power, lots of it.
Turns out most of the guys here have experienced that sink with a NW wind and avoid flying on such days.
Flew today and it was a completely different story, same weather pattern but the wind at altitude was just 8 or 10 knots.
I will try some 20? flap landings and no flappers also in the near future just to see how they work out. I've been using 40 with the 8 because I've read it is a good thing to do. We shall see about that.
The stall difference from 20 to 40 is miniscule, 40 is mostly drag - not lift.