Confession: Falling Out of the Sky

So yesterday I had about ten minutes of daylight left after I got home from work and decided to take the Cub up for a little hop. After a quick trip over my buddy's house I came back to my 700' home strip and saw my cows, as they seem to enjoy doing, all standing in the middle of my runway. What I normally do in this situation is drop the first notch of flaps (I have three you know) and give the cows a low pass which scares them off the runway. Well, as I was making my low approach, the cows saw what I was up to and started to scatter. I figured, "Well heck, I'll just land this puppy" and immediately pulled full flaps and chopped the power.

Wow, it's amazing what happens when you're already low and slow and you add the combination of full flaps and no power. My glide ratio became that of a manhole cover. I immediately went to full power to arrest the descent (not a stall mind you, just a rapid mushing descent), but my 150 horses wasn't enough to pull me out of it. Fortunately my bushwheels and the loose dirt just in front of the runway absorbed the impact well, as well as my backside. However, my ego has yet to fully recover.

Conclusion: After 3000 hours total time with about 1000 of that in taildraggers, I can still have my a$$ handed to me by a little yellow airplane and a healthy dose of complacency.

Glad you are OK. Nothing bent I hope.

A good approach is a good landing. If the approach is not intended to land in the first place (low approach), go around. Do NOT try to land at the second you think of it! Go around set up (animals permitting) and try again. It sounds like flight school stuff but, it has some merit.

Sometimes at one of the local airports that has both flight training and skydive ops I keep the approach speed at about 85mph for spacing and just before crossing the fence I throw the plane into a hard forward slip power back to idle and as it slows down quickly I go right to full flaps and in about a 700 foot distance slow from 80-85 to 40ish touch down smoothly and in about 300' with very little brake action take the first turn off and clear the runway and avoid the mess of 5 mile final flying pilots and zoom in and land long and hot jump pilots. So with a little practice you can take a cub from cruise to stopped in about 1000'

This is done intentionally not as a way to save a bad approach but as a way to reduce traffic issues at a busy airport. Normaly someone departs right after I turn off so you can get more it craft off the ground by not hogging the airspace or runway

It's not recommended to turn a flyby into a landing I know of a few cubs that got wrecked doing that. Both Are great pilots that just made the wrong decision at that time. Luckily no body was hurt.

Jason

Definitions....

EXPERIENCE - The word we (all) use for past MISTAKES!

CloudDancer

"S" turns have helped me when I was high and fast too. But, I think slips work best even with flaps but, I keep the nose way down when "crossed up" with the ball pegged. Also, a wind milling constant speed prop is a great speed break.

Thanks for sharing your experience, I was following your tale just as if I were flying. As always this site keeps providing us with great lessons.

Greetings from Colombia

Eduardo Oliveros
HK470-G Cali, Colombia

Ya' SEE Jason....there's this thing called "the power curve", and it's associated deceptively normal-appearing quicksand patch known as being "behind the power curve".

I learned that one early, training solo one day for my private in a straight-tail 1959 Cesspool One-Filty back in 1970. Smashed that sucker into the concrete at Arlington Municipal REAL GOOD I did! It was purely an ARRIVAL! No "landing" to it.

The learning (should) never....NEVER end. Only the WAY we learn should become more "intelligent" as we gain more "experience"!

Cloud(DOH!)Dancer

Mr. CloudDancer:

Brah, I like the shirt. Did you get it at Liberty House (Macy's), in Honolulu? I shop there too!

Respectfully,
8GCBC

Hiya 8GCBC -

I allus appreciate a feller with destrimina...uh....disteminati.....uh....a feller who knows a classy Aloha shirt when he sees one!

However...ALL my Aloha shirts are purchased EXCLUSIVELY from Hilo Hattie's main store on Oahu.

Thank ye' for your kind comment sir!

CloudDancer

Mr. CloudDancer:

Thank you for shopping guidance, Hilo Hatties, got it.

You rock Bro. Keep your com line open... I like reading your latitudes and attitudes!

Vty,
8GCBC

Bounces happen...

John,
Thanks for sharing. I call one of them thar landings like that "normal"

Thanks for sharing John. I imagine your plane is probably fine but you can give it an extra special preflight next time if it makes you feel better.

What CloudDancer said. More time in the logbook simply means a bigger catalog of lessons learned. ALL of us have a tale we could tell!

John, Your story brings back a memory. Long ago my employer and I were summoned to a small private strip where a farmer kept his Super Cub. His cows were grazed on the airstrip. It seems that as he was coming in for a landing, one of the cows decided to run in the same direction as the Cub, after the Cub passed over said cow. The Cub landed on the cow. The stabilizer leading edge was bent back. The elevators were twisted. And the fuselage, under the stabilizer had some bent tubing. We wedged a piece of wood between the bent tubes and I flew it to our airport. The stabilizer fabric billowed out like a balloon. It flew fine until I lowered the flaps. Then, the tail started to shake. As far as I know the cow was unharmed. This airplane was the former Barnstable County fire patrol PA-18.

Skywagon, a similar thing happened to a guy I know in his 185. His runway crested over the top of a hill, so that his view was limited on his takeoff roll. Needless to say, his takeoff was unintentionally aborted due to a suicidal 1500 lb. momma cow. Ruined a good 185.

After my aircraft carrier-style landing, I inspected the plane and everything looked fine. It definitely was the shortest ground roll I've ever had.

I think I'll change my Supercub.org name to "Bouncer".

- John

John, Check out this link (mainly for the music) Maybe this could be your new theme song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7LI3fH6pLs&list=UU3RRfHeH93uxjw8ZgY8U_yA&index=9&feature=plcp

The immortal power curve....

John i noticed you are in geronimo, I keep my cub at zuehl , not far from you. Sorry about the bounce, its happened to me too.

Speaking of Zuehl, there was a biplane that went down on Saturday. Anyone know the details?

The guys at the New Braunfels Table of Knowledge know about the biplane at Zhuel, but I don't. Just show up at BAZ any Wednesday, Saturday or Sunday morning and you'll be much smarter after you leave.