3-Pointing the 8...

[Bartman]

Has anyone hear of someone having a prop strike in a 8 while doing a wheel landing?

[wera710]

Yes. They have.

[luddite42]

Originally Posted by Low Pass

Not sure who said you couldn't 3 pt an -8. It just takes a lot more work to accomplish the same thing as the wheel landing. Good skill to have landing in tight spaces obviously.

Lot more work?? Nothing is hard with practice - like anything else. OK, it's more work...you have to go to the trouble of pulling the stick back a few more inches...and doing that troublesome pilot stuff like precision energy management.

I maintain that really good 3-point landings in almost ANY tailwheel is more challenging than a really good wheel landing. It's about the energy management and landing attitude for which wheelies require less precision. I think it's why you see more pilots do wheelies (in any airplane) than 3-pointers. Wheelies are easier to avoid those emabarrassing dribbles down the runway in front of the peanut gallery.

And Scott "Lawbreaker" - some of the best no-nonsense smarts I've seen on the subject here.

[wera710]

LOL. Yeah, that extra few inches of stick movement is killer! Thats funny right there!

My own obersvations in the tail dragger world have been the opposite. Most tail dragger guys (outside of RV world) I know have less issue with a full stall or three pointer and use them 99% of the time. They seem to reserve the wheel landing for higher cross winds, or just for giggles.

I think the wheel landing thing is more an RV community thing. A larger % of pilots come to RVs right from C-150s or Pipers, rather than from 1940s-50s era puddle jumpers. In the world of classic aircraft, it would be totally embarrassing if all you could do is wheel land your (pick one) cub, luscombe, aeronca, citabria etc. Most classic guys prefer the full stall above all else. I was surprised to meet RV guys who seldom or never three point landed their aircraft. The only conclusion I could come to was that when coming from a modern fighter or a tricycle gear Cessna, it just seemed easier to them to put it on the mains, so they stuck with it.

For totally new TD guys, before you think the Wheel landing is the answer to all your problems, I've seen guys bunce off the mains and hop down the runway. Put it down too hard, too fast, or with too much forward stick, and it can go just as bad as a full stall landing. BOTH methods take finess and skill. IF you can master one, you can master the other. Both have their place.

Either way, the key is to practice and just learning to roll with the good and the bad. Every landing is a learning experience. Even the GOOD ones. But I've learned far more from the bad ones! LOL. anyway, you can make bad landings in any configuration. So what? If some fart on the side lines judges, ask him why HE IS NOT FLYING today? That usually shuts em up.

[Low Pass]

Well, then there it is! 14 years of landings and I was just lazy.

[wera710]

HA! Dude, you don't know lazy till you look at your rusted, 60 year old quad-fold hanger door and think screw it, its just too much trouble to force open today!!!

[Toobuilder]

Anybody here do a completely power off approach and landing to 3 point (in a RV)?

[Michael Seager]

Everyone that comes to Vernonia and takes flight training from me does a three point power off landing from 3000 ft. Mike

[Ironflight]

So now instead of "Taildragger pilots are better than Tryicycle pilots", we have to have an argument on "Guys that fly three-pointers are better than those who only wheel land"?

Talk about eating your own....

A good all around pilot can do either, and uses whichever is most appropriate at the time. I seriously doubt that you'll find any high-time -8 driver who would disagree with that - and none of them I know would ever say that you CAN'T three-point them - we all do...when appropriate.

[luddite42]

Originally Posted by Ironflight

So now instead of "Taildragger pilots are better than Tryicycle pilots", we have to have an argument on "Guys that fly three-pointers are better than those who only wheel land"?

Talk about eating your own....

I don't think anyone implied that intentionally or otherwise. Agree that good pilots can do both. I think the comments were about pilots who are one-trick ponies who are only comfortable and competent with one type of landing and not another. You could say the same thing about pilots who only ever 3-point and have no competence or skill with wheel landings. This is generally speaking. I know there are certain aircraft types that are truly not well suited for either 3-pointing or wheel landing. The RV-8 or any other RV is not one of them. You'll never see a Sukhoi do a wheel landing, and I've never seen a DC-3 do a 3-pointer.