Ground Loop Survey

[Chuck E.]

Not yet...

[flyboyjoe]

Hey Joe, Glad you haven't done the deed yet. I have come close but not quite in my bellaca triple tail. Saving for a SC. Where in CO do you get to fly your SC? I'm in New Mexico just south of Durango, CO. Anyway have fun!...Pete

Hi Pete! I'm out of Colorado Springs - the USAFA. My company provides the tow planes for the soaring contract here.

To everyone else - thanks for the tips and advice!

[sam2]

I let a very experienced( so he told me) pilot fly my champ with me in the back seat.

He took off and flew fine , but on landing( grass runway) he tried to steer with the brakes( what the heck), and it galloped down the runway sideways and finally went around.

I had just learned to fly and was young and foolish.

[skukum12]

One loop in a Wilga while riding shotgun. The wings are so far from the ground that touching the tip hardly seemed possible.

[Pokette]

Weeeelllll I just did another one. A couple weeks back with a student. He flies an Ercoupe - no rudder. His plane is down for maintenance and wanted to fly something fun. This was his second or third flight with me. No flying for the past 6 months..... Soooo we flew around, had fun, came back for some landings. He struggled to use the rudder with me helping quite a bit. I wanted him to feel how the airplane needs to be kept straight even after all three wheels are on the ground and we are slowing down.... I let him feel a little too much we did the 270 thing at slow speed, no damage, and I worked like crazy to keep the wings level!

[metalman]

Mmmmm not yet, had a couple of moments when I got lazy and didn't have into wind aileron, had a wing lift and got messy but didn't get to close to going backwards,,,,just when I think this is easy ,whats the big deal I get a bit of a WAKE UP D##KHEAD !!!

[King Brown]

There's nothing you can do in a ground loop. You're just along for the ride.

[flynlow]

Not yet, about 1000 hrs of Supercub time and 400 RV8 hours but never say never!

[Richard Deblack]

I haven't looped out yet.
When I was in the Navy I missed being able to go up with my Father anytime we wanted so I hung out at the airport and spotted a guy prepping his Citabria for a flight. I talked my way into the backseat for a ride with him. Once we were up he told me he was there to do his 3 landings to stay current. On our first landing he was pretty squirrely, but I didn't say anything and just held on as I hadn't flown in a while and it wasn't my airplane. On the second landing the rear wheel had to be out of the tracks of the mains and we were going around. I grabbed the controls gave some throttle and opposite rudder and by the grace of god got us back in the air. I felt bad for taking the controls and apologized, and he just looked back at me and said "Thank You" I haven't gone hitch hiking in an airplane since.
Learning to fly in a C-180 helped me tremendously in the cub. The 180 was a lot of machine and not the ideal airplane to learn in, as I almost looped it out several times on both take-off and landing.
If there is no saving it and you know you're going around putting the controls into the may help.

Your best bet to avoiding a ground loop is to always always always land into the wind!!

An important lesson I learned is that if you're ever flying a new to you tail wheel airplane, check the wings and make sure they are level. If the plane has been looped out in the past or has had landing gear alterations it could affect the way the airplane sits. If the attachment points aren't just perfect it could make one wing tip lower than the other. I almost found out the hard way that this can adversely affect ground handling and may be a culprit to a ground loop.

I may have to update this post after my Pitts aerobatic training in a few weeks.

[dougc905]

When I was doing my tailwheel training I let it get away from me just after touching down. Didn't groundloop but did end up running off the runway to the right. I was steering clear of the runway lights and the instructor was doing his own thing trying to correct. In the end, no lights were harmed nor was the plane broken. We called it a day after that.

[85Mike]

I learned tailwheel in my C185. Needless to say it was exciting several times. Luckily my instructor was a real pro. He let me solo after about 9 hrs of nothing but wheel landings. About 20 hrs. into my solo time I screwed up and made a downwind landing. Probably took a half inch of rubber off the tires keeping it straight with the brakes. 21 years later I've still never lost it. When I first flew my -12 had a hell of a time learning to transition to the heel brakes but have been lucky so far. The old sayng " those that have and those that are going to" is always on my mind.

Mike

[Bill Ingerson]

This weekend I was having fun looking at a large SuperCub radio controlled airplane. While going down wind to set up a landing one of the mini Bushwheels fell off the plane so now it has one wheel to land on. He brought it around and landed on one wheel and ground looped it with the tail on the ground, The prop was up high and the plane did a slow 180 degree turn on the ground and stopped then the missing wheel landing gear just set straight down. No damage to the wings or prop. We all got a good laugh over that. Sometimes while flying I look down and wounder, what if one of my Bush wheels fell off ? would this ground loop help save the plane ?


Bill

[metalman]

I learned tailwheel in my C185. Needless to say it was exciting several times. Luckily my instructor was a real pro. He let me solo after about 9 hrs of nothing but wheel landings. About 20 hrs. into my solo time I screwed up and made a downwind landing. Probably took a half inch of rubber off the tires keeping it straight with the brakes. 21 years later I've still never lost it. When I first flew my -12 had a hell of a time learning to transition to the heel brakes but have been lucky so far. The old sayng " those that have and those that are going to" is always on my mind.

Mike

I was flying a mates 185 for a while ,,,never did a wheeler in her ,always 3 pointers, once I was (apparently) competent he let me loose and I did some wheelers at that point , certainly a better view than the three pointer, lucky for me I learnt my way around the big girl before I was told how scary they can be , had a ball and fell in lust with them!!

[Kwatro]

I've been there. With about 400 hours of tail wheel time, I was flying my Stearman around the country on the ultimate summer vacation. Landed in all 48 states and the furthest airport to the north,south,east,and west. A GREAT trip!! But I digress.

Then came Broadus, MT. Beautiful day, three knot winds out of the south, and landing to the south. The distraction was an ANG helicopter had just landed on the south end of the runway (way far away). I landed south, then decided to sneak a peak out the side to see what he was doing, and away we went. Luckily only a scraped wingtip, so I could complete the trip. Am now about 1000 hours of tail wheel time later, but still can relive it second by second!

[fabricfan]

I love reading ground loop lessons. They terrify me.

[skywagon8a]

Landing on a short narrow runway which was covered with ice in a Republic Seabee. Since the brakes would not work on the ice, I used reverse on the prop. The instant the prop went into reverse it blocked all of the air flowing over the tail. With no air blowing over the tail, all directional control was gone, right now. The Bee did a 180 and backed into the bushes. No damage and a good laugh. It was a good lesson in aerodynamics and why it is necessary to have a large enough tail to balance the forward fuselage.

[N5126H]

Yep two things I cannot stand;

The smell of burning rubber and the sound of a screeming woman......

[Superchub]

Lost the down wind brakes in a DC-3 once and through the weeds we went! No damage, but new drawers were in order...

[bigrock]

Depends on what she is screaming about.

[68Papa]

Yep - been there, done that. 1996, 11:30 pm- King Salmon airport. I'll forgo all the gory details, but let me say it's a story of pride, arrogance, and lots of inexperience. The one thing that stands out more than anything is how fast it happened! I didn't see it coming - I didn't sense or feel it coming. One second I'm tracking down the runway after landing (way to fast), the next second I'm at a complete stop with the right gear leg folded underneath the Cub and lots of damage to the right wing; CHA-CHING! I have put a 1000 hours on my Cub in the last 5 years and quite often I will find myself complacently smokin down the strip after landing and I'll remember how fast it can happen! Think and fly that thing all the way to the tie down.

Roger

[adventruousairman]

Hmmmm...... Define ground loop ?

[Dan D.]

1973 in a homebuilt Smith Miniplane biplane. Touched down on a rough part of the runway with the left wheel. I went off the side of the runway, no damage, except my pride. Dan D.

[Zair]

My guess when seeing such a large percentage of Super Cub pilots who have never ground looped is because they are Super Cub pilots. In my case, it was the Cessna 180 and the 170 that were more prone to loop and I looped both. In all my hours of Cub flying, I never came close. Ah, the stick..

[Zair]

Flew my son, a client of his and the clients son in my C 180 to a grass strip on Martha's Vineyard. We touched down in a very wide strip and during rollout, when all was going well, I touched the brakes and the 180 went into a giant right turn, seemingly on it's own, ended with that nasty whip feeling of the ground loop. I assured the shaking passengers that it was a short field landing technique and they seemed to believe me. End of day arrived so we all boarded the 180 and headed back to my home airport. The client was taking videos and laughingly mentioned the first landing and hoped the next one would be less dramatic. Arrived home. No wind. Lovely evening. Set up for a long final on RWY 17. Touched down and on roll out applied brakes. The 180 shot sharply to the right, went over an embankment and down nose first into a ditch. As all of the passengers disembarked pushing bushes and brambles out of their way, the clients son, all of 10 years old, exclaimed "You are the worst f__king pilot I have ever flown with". Long story short. Always check your brakes the second your plane moves forward. My right brake was working great.

[Zair]

My guess when seeing such a large percentage of Super Cub pilots who have never ground looped is because they are Super Cub pilots. In my case, it was the Cessna 180 and the 170 that were more prone to loop and I looped both. In all my hours of Cub flying, I never came close. Ah, the stick..

[metalman]

looking at the poll, it's encouraging to see most haven't ground looped, if you put the "almost" with the never, it looks better , not that I'll be relaxing any time soon ,I really ,really don't want to join that other group!
And what does "almost" actually mean?,, I've had a wing lift on landing roll which got my attention pretty quick, is that an almost, or is it heading for the bush but not dragging a wing,haven't tried that ,,,yet!

[metalman]

Flew my son, a client of his and the clients son in my C 180 to a grass strip on Martha's Vineyard. We touched down in a very wide strip and during rollout, when all was going well, I touched the brakes and the 180 went into a giant right turn, seemingly on it's own, ended with that nasty whip feeling of the ground loop. I assured the shaking passengers that it was a short field landing technique and they seemed to believe me. End of day arrived so we all boarded the 180 and headed back to my home airport. The client was taking videos and laughingly mentioned the first landing and hoped the next one would be less dramatic. Arrived home. No wind. Lovely evening. Set up for a long final on RWY 17. Touched down and on roll out applied brakes. The 180 shot sharply to the right, went over an embankment and down nose first into a ditch. As all of the passengers disembarked pushing bushes and brambles out of their way, the clients son, all of 10 years old, exclaimed "You are the worst f__king pilot I have ever flown with". Long story short. Always check your brakes the second your plane moves forward. My right brake was working great.

it's tough getting judged by the landing,,,no one cares how well you hold a heading,,,or how nicely you manage the engine,,,,or even your radio ops,,,,but f**k up a landing and your toast!

[Tim]

Zair, a long time ago, I heard a rumor of a Vagabond that got away from a guy like you

[Zair]

Never owned a Vagabond. Maybe when I put my J3 on it's back landing in 3 foot high grass?

[Tim]

That could be the one, it was a long time ago