Have been doing a bit of thinking about how I could
possibly have done a ground loop at my advanced age, and
having inadvertently shared my loop with you while
sleepily assuming I was replying to Tim personally, I
thought I might share my conclusions with you. It seems to
me that like meeting a large bird nose/beak on or
ditching, ground looping is something you don't get
taught, but something where a bit of prior nought would
definitely be an asset! So here's my thoughts:
Having turned 90 degrees left off the 09 runway,
I was taxying at a brisk pace up the 36 runway with a
brisk (said on landing to be 10kts, but on measuring
immediately after the loop 10, gusting 18kts) coming from
R rear quarter. After a momentary look at an instrument, I
found myself swinging right. Full left rudder didn't stop
the swing, and my reflex was to brake, as this generally
of course helps turning manoeuvres in a mono. The turn
continued and the plane went gently forwards and left with
the ground touching the left wingtip and the prop. The
stick was hard back all the time, because this is also
ingrained in mono pilots to increase the authority of the
tail wheel.
With the amazing wisdom of hindsight, I
strongly suspect that had I not braked the plane would not
have gone A over T onto its prop, although it might have
still touched the left wingtip. Slowing down and cutting
the throttle also of course reduced airflow over the tail
plane reducing the tail down forces, and removed the left
turning effect of prop wash acting on the port side of the
fin. So if I ever find myself threatened with a difficult
to control tendency to turn sharply into wind, I hope I
shall remember to accelerate rather than brake. An
excursion on to the grass would have been a minor matter
compared with a set of new blades + engine check. Glad to
hear anyone else's experience or thoughts. Regards, David
Joyce! G-XSDJ
PS Now when confronted with a large bird looking as though
it is coming through the screen I reckon the smart move is
to pull up, as birds are likely to dive in a panic
situation as their only means of rapidly gaining speed to
avoid a threat, but when it first happened I hesitated a
bit before turning right, wondering whether the bird knew
the rules of the air! Ditching thoughts in due course.
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