What's new
Van's Air Force

Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.

Video: A view of an RV-7A landing gear when touching down

NIce Video!

Seems like you could be a little more flared and/or hold the nose off longer, but nice controlled touchdowns, and great film quality. Thanks.
 
GoPro

Nice Video. Just curious, where did you get that mount for the gopro to mount to the tiedown threads?
 
RV-7A Landings

So what was your touch down speed? I'd guess it was somewhere around 75 - 80 knots.

Try holding the nose wheel off until the elevator runs out of authority.... slow your landing speed down to 65-75 knots and the nose wheel will be off longer... On take offs, or go arounds, raise the nose such that the top of the cowl is parallel with the runway (which results in plenty of tree line in the windshield).

Do you have the stock front wheel axel?

A unique video view of the landing gear on a Van's RV-7A during some practice landings.

http://www.thehdpilot.com/aviation-video.aspx?id=71
 
I used to land like that (and I thought I was doing a pretty good job ha ha ha) until I went and did some transition training with Mike Seagar in Oregon. And then I discovered that my previous landings (and take-offs) were cr@p and that I was jeopardising that fragile nose wheel.

In the take-off Mike teaches you to get the nose wheel off the ground as soon as you have authority to do so. Basically that's within a few seconds.

And then on landing he teaches you to keep the nose wheel off the ground until there is no further elevator authority left i.e. stick fully back.

I went up as a passenger in an RV9A some time back and before we took off I asked the pilot if he kept the nose wheel off the ground on take-off and landing. And he said: "Yep, of course". And then he proceeded to roll down the runway dead flat and yanked the nose wheel off the ground at the rotation. On landing the nose wheel plopped down to the ground within 1 second of the mains. And this was on a dead calm day. Without transition training he just didn't have any comprehension about the flaws in his technique.

Just about everyone I see with a nose wheel RV takes off and lands way too flat.

And, as others have pointed out on this thread, the OP is no exception. However the value of the video is that it shows what poor technique really is....and in that respect it is very valuable.
 
I liked to do touch-n-go's without the nose gear touching down. That's the best way to learn to fly the -A models, IMHO.

In my -7A I was able to hold the nose off until around 30kts very consistently. Practice every landing like it's a soft-field landing.
 
Landing Flat is a common issue for a lot of certified nose wheel pilots also. Its the bearing binding and the small nose wheel that makes this dangerous in a RV#A.Soft field technique is only part of the equation.Bearing modification as well as other bracing improves your odds but does not reach the standard of production planes or even other designs from Vans for that matter.
RHill
 
Last edited:
Nice Video. Just curious, where did you get that mount for the gopro to mount to the tiedown threads?

Hi Spence, I got the mounting hardware from a place called PlaneAround.com. The same mounting hardware that goes into the wingtip mounts works on the tiedown screw holes as well.

Here's a video that i made quite a while back, but it shows how I have all the camera mounting points setup. In particular, at about the 1:50 point in the video the planearound.com stuff is shown.

http://www.thehdpilot.com/aviation-video.aspx?id=17

As you can see in my videos, their mounting kit works great.
Gene

__________________
TheHDPilot.com
Capturing the Beauty of Flight
VAF Advertiser
 
So what was your touch down speed? I'd guess it was somewhere around 75 - 80 knots.

Try holding the nose wheel off until the elevator runs out of authority.... slow your landing speed down to 65-75 knots and the nose wheel will be off longer... On take offs, or go arounds, raise the nose such that the top of the cowl is parallel with the runway (which results in plenty of tree line in the windshield).

Do you have the stock front wheel axel?

A couple of you had the question about the stock wheel axel. The answer to that is that I don't actually know, because i bought the plane rather than having built it myself.

Your comments about speed have given me an idea. I'm going to make another video, capturing the speed data from my Stratus IIs, and superimpose the speed onto the video. That will tell the whole story of approach speed, round out speed, touchdown speed.

Also, thanks to everyone for all the advice. I'd done these landings quite a while back and finally got around to making a video of it. Hopefully, my skills have improved since then. I'm already feeling the pressure to do better next time! :-D

Gene
__________________
TheHDPilot.com
Capturing the Beauty of Flight
VAF Advertiser
 
A couple of you had the question about the stock wheel axel. The answer to that is that I don't actually know, because i bought the plane rather than having built it myself.

Your comments about speed have given me an idea. I'm going to make another video, capturing the speed data from my Stratus IIs, and superimpose the speed onto the video. That will tell the whole story of approach speed, round out speed, touchdown speed.

Also, thanks to everyone for all the advice. I'd done these landings quite a while back and finally got around to making a video of it. Hopefully, my skills have improved since then. I'm already feeling the pressure to do better next time! :-D

Gene
__________________
TheHDPilot.com
Capturing the Beauty of Flight
VAF Advertiser

Gene,

Please see this thread for some collected wisdom on nose gear axles, among other good information.

I like the camera as a learning tool! BTW, if those landings were on a 6A, your nose wheel would touch down before the mains (main gear are shorter than those on the 7A's and 9A's).

Find a long runway, and practice flying at 6" altitude for half the runway before going around. Occasionally touch a main gear for reference. Good stuff.
 
hold the nosewheel up PLEASE!
Even on take off when I get airspeed I put nosewheel in the air just a little bit above ground, it save me once the get stuck on a hole, and maybe flipped.
 
Back
Top