Jim Brown wrote:
>
>I would also suggest, to those of you who want to "TRY" to wheel land a mono
>wheel, you need to do one thing first. With the engine off, have a friend or
>helper raise the tail to normal flight attitude, then take a look at how close
the
>prop is to the ground or pavement. One bounce on landing, and you may be buying
>new prop blades.
>
>The center of gravity is behind the mono wheel, which will make the tail drop
>down, as soon as the wheel touches the runway, if you counter with some forward
>stick, re-read the above paragraph.
>
>
>
Jim, what sort of clearance are we talking about?? 2"? 6"? I've got a
mile on the 140. I'd have to be looking straight at the dirt to get the
prop grounded.
Regarding the C of G, it's the same issue on any taildragger. It's
behind the mains, which causes the tail to drop when landing due to the
inertia. Trick is to zero out the rate of descent just as the mains
touch, then nail it with that bit of forward stick (as I'm sure you know
very well from the Pitts). Again, is it strictly a prop clearance issue
that prevents wheelies in the monowheel? Has this been beaten to death
in the past where I can look it up in the archives?
I'm just very curious about the mechanics of landing a monowheel. I've
flown in a few different ones (a Classic and an XS). Now that I'm
flying a tailwheel plan, I understand a lot more of what's going on.
Chris
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