Flying the Nose Wheel...

[acannata]

 Difficulties experienced by Sean could be related to IAS at touchdown and/or trim setting?

Aldo

[Hardy Heinlin]

Yes, among other things.


|-|ardy

[sgreen91]

I will try to make a video of my landing with the situation file.  Any criticisms would be very welcome.   It will not be a perfect landing (no official training)  but maybe folks may see something I'm not doing correctly.

Being only a simmer I would enjoy the free flight instruction  . 

[Hardy Heinlin]

If you make a video, please show a large PFD and the EICAS flight control display :-)

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

I once intentionally planted the Lufthansa level D without de-crabbing at all, and the result was a sound that mostly was "loud rumble and metal-on-metal" followed by instant freeze of the sim and "lateral force exceeded". I don't remember wet/dry, sorry.

Now whether this response was due to Lufthansa's policy or due to CAE's known data limits, I don't know either.


Hoppie

[Kieber]

Hi Carl,
Sorry, jumping in so late. Anyway, hoping your nose gear is still OK........and the following is not to philosophically....

Here just my empirical knowledge:
Some pilots mean, after a perfect approach and touchdown of the main gear in a perfect attitude, they have finished their job. In the following time of relaxation, they neglect the touchdown attitude relative to the real horizon (of course, in low visibility on the HSI) and stop dead to control the aircraft's attitude.  Mostly, this ends in a more or less hard impact of the nose wheel especially on a positive touchdown. They really only handle the reverser with the right hand and ignore that there are still a lot of inputs like speed-brakes, amount of reverser, auto-brakes or manual brakes, more or less positive touchdown, actual trim and of course the most evildoer wind especially gusty crosswind which influences aerodynamically the behavior of an airplane regarding it's attitude. Suddenly, when they realize a more or less quick attitude change, they remember their left hand and oversteer hectically with the controls and the resulting pumping up and down and rolling left and right leads in a delayed nose down and sometimes to a bouncing nose-gear.

The correct way to handle the attitude after main gear touchdown is:
At touchdown, if the speedbrakes have not automatically extended, immediately move the speedbrake lever to the up position, and, for maximum effectiveness, simultaneously apply braking and revers thrust. Speedbrake deployment and reverse thrust tend to give slight pitch up which is easily countered by initial autobrake or manual brake application and control column input.

Fly the nose wheel down to the runway smoothly and without delay. Do not attempt to hold the nose wheel off the runway. If the nose wheel is not promptly lowered to the runway, braking and steering capability is significantly degraded and no drag benefits are gained. Lowering the nose wheel without delay (decreasing angle of attack) helps the speedbrakes which spoil the lift over the wing, to place the airplane weight on the main landing gear, increasing greatly braking and cornering capability.

My recommendation:
At touchdown pick up visually the far end of the runway (in low visibility HIS) and keep this attitude for a short time with smooth control inputs. Next apply reverse thrust and simultaneously start to lower the nose with careful attention to the real horizon (HSI) and smooth control inputs.  From own experience it is more difficult to handle the PC-Simulators with all the different and various qualities of yokes and sticks and their dissatisfying possibilities for settings than the controls of a real airplane!

Enough said......and with all the helpful special hints from the guys of the foregoing posts, I'm sure, after some exercises you will be able to "Fly down" the nose wheel.

HTH, best regards to Tampa and happy landings
Walter

[cavaricooper]

Walter-

Thank-you for that detailed procedural.  I must confess relaxing at touchdown. In my old Champ I had to fly her until tied down, and just because this is bigger..... I must still remember that I have to fly her all through the flare and until turn off.

I especially enjoyed your reminder to get busy with the left hand while the right is occupied with reversers.

We, who look skyward with acute longing when watching 4 contrails in the sky, are grateful for the insights that you, Jon and Peter provide.

Practice has been scheduled :-)

Best- C

PS- das war wunderbar, bitte teilen , wenn die Lust und trifft!

[Avi]

Fly the nose wheel down to the runway smoothly and without delay. Do not attempt to hold the nose wheel off the runway.

Tell that to this guy 

[Kieber]

Hi Carl,
thanks for the return.

Unfortunately the second part of your PS info in German I can't understand because it conveys no sense to me???

If you are a piano player I think you have no problem with different tasks at the same time with both of your hands....

And if you make, of course an unintentionally hard landing, just inform your passenger, like we did it (LOL) with the following German saying:
"Wer das Fliegen hat erfunden, hat ans Landen nicht gedacht und deswegen liebe Leute, hat es eben so gekracht"

That means in English roughly:
Who invented to fly, did not think about to land and because of that dear passenger we banged onto the runway.
Maybe someone in our forum can create a perfect rhyme in English like in German......

Best
Walter

[Kieber]

Hi Avi,

Nice movie, not accordig to the rule but very comfortable and maybe with idle reverse and brakes 2. Only possible if you have enough runway in front of you....

Thank's
Walter

[cavaricooper]

Walter-

I was trying to say- "this is wonderful stuff, and please keep sharing whenever the fancy strikes you".... sorry for the atrocious German

Best- C

Hi Carl,

thanks for the return.
Unfortunately the second part of your PS info in German I can't understand because it conveys no sense to me???

Best
Walter

[torrence]

"Wer das Fliegen hat erfunden, hat ans Landen nicht gedacht und deswegen liebe Leute, hat es eben so gekracht"

That means in English roughly:
Who invented to fly, did not think about to land and because of that dear passenger we banged onto the runway.
Maybe someone in our forum can create a perfect rhyme in English like in German......

Not perfect, but here's a quick try at an English version:

"The blokes who thought up flying
gave no thought to coming down.
And that's why, dear passengers
Our landing made that sound!"

Cheers,
Torrence

EDIT: A better rhyme, but cruder version of last line - "Our pants are turning brown!"

[evaamo]

Tell that to this guy 

Avi, that has got to be an ex-IAF viper driver flying for El-Al!!!

https://youtu.be/HSC3s-q-V6I?t=135

cheers
-E

[Hardy Heinlin]

Very nice Torrence :-)


Re Carl's "wenn die Lust und trifft!" -- That should probably read "uns" (us), not "und" (and). Literally translated: "When the lust hits us" versus "When the lust hits and". (Note: In German the word "lust" may also be used in a non-erotic context :-)).


|-|ardy


Another variant, if I may:

The blokes who thought up flying
did not tell us how to land
And that is why, dear passengers
This touchdown made that bang

[cavaricooper]

HH-

The most educational aspect of being permitted access to this fora, is the gentle illumination of how much I really do not know.  I am privileged to walk these hallowed halls, with like minded aficionados of our beloved girl.

C

[Kieber]

Compliment Torrence and Hardy.... Excellent.....
If I may: maybe to improove the flow of speech, swap the word passengers into folks.

To Carl and Hardy,
I got it now....Thank's.