No to wheel landings for me usually, day or night
Hi All, I believe that wheel landing at night may be a better choice then 3 pointing.
There have been many three pointer v wheel landing discussions on VAF forums. My feeling day or night, especially in a RV-4, there are no true three point landings, usually the mains touch first than the tail. If you try for a three pointer you usually touch the tail wheel first than the mains drop or are slapped down from a foot or more. The holy grail of three points just does not apply to RV's in my opinion. If all three wheels touch at the same time you got lucky, but its still far from full stall.
To be honest in my personal preference and opinion, I don't believe in "wheel landings" as the preferred standard operating procedure, day or night. It means extra speed and power to land which means more runway. If its windy yes carry more speed, but to carry more speed to see over the nose more is not really needed, simply because RV's have good forward vis with a typical tail low "two point" landing attitude. When its windy w/ a cross wind, I do "wheel it on". Since its a cross wind and I'm landing in a side-slip, I touch down on one (up-wind) wheel. That is a wheel landing and the only time I use wheel landings. However "wheel it on" with both mains touching down at the same time, is not really an advantage to me over the slower tail low method for typical winds (lower velocities and x-wind component.)
Definitions to me:
Wheel landing: Landing in a level attitude on mains, accomplished by carrying speed and some power on touch down and a fwd stick to stick the mains on the runways, often used in windy conditions for better control. Also planes like P-51 with ZERO fwd vis with tail wheel on ground, so often their pilots choose to "fly it on" to give better visibility.
Three Pointer: This is synonyms with a FULL STALL landing and all three wheels touch the runway at the same time. You can think back to your C-150/152 says when you had the stall horn blaring as you touch down in a nose high attitude with the rear tie down ring almost dragging on the asphalt.
"Two Pointer": What I do in RV's, tail low but still landing on mains first at the magic speed that is above stall but not such a high (energy) airspeed, that a bounce or increase in angle of attack would make you fly/climb significantly. Its between a wheel landing and a three pointer, closer to the three pointer.
Some planes (like RV's) in a true full stall landing attitude touch the tail wheel well before the mains, which may still be a foot or more off the runway.
Speed does add control. Full stall landings are over rated, however fast landing are terrible as well. Speed control is key, day or night. Touch down at target speed is key. What speed is that? I don't know; I don't look. Its a combo of setting an attitude and vision (mostly peripheral) to judge height above runway and sink rate. It's done subconsciously almost with out thinking. The "two pointer" attitude visibility over the nose of a RV is very good any way.
In my opinion over the nose vision is not critical during touch down. Also at night ("black hole" landing) you assume you have almost NO vision any way.
I do make a little change for "BLACK HOLE" landings, adding some speed, but it's still well below the speed / power for a true "wheel landing". In any plane I land a little faster on dark nights, but wheel landings means landing even faster, thus using more runway. That may be fine if you have the runway to use.
My technique changes a little from day to night as follows: At night I'll setup the magic 2-pt tail low attitude, with a tad more power than day time.
I'll squeeze the power off more slowly, letting the wheels "feel" for the dirt and pull the power to idle when they touch down, not really flaring with stick. Landing/touch down is a little faster than day, but I'm still not trying for a wheel landing. I'm also not looking for more visibility over the nose, because in theory there's little to be had with a "black hole" landing. I'm just setting up the landing attitude, not flaring and just letting the plane settle with power. This is similar to what float-plane guys do on glassy water, feeling for the surface with a little power.
During the day its basically the same as night, with one change.
During the day, I'll commit to idle much sooner out of standard procedure when I'm close to touch down. This gets the wheels on the ground and stopped sooner. Unlike the night where I hold the stick fairly still, pulling the power back to settle, during the day time I go to idle and use the stick to "hold it off" or flair, timing the touch down.
Trying for a "wheel landing" at night could be trouble? Assume its a "black hole" situation and you set up for a wheel landing with more power, speed and level landing attitude, but you don't notice your sink rate, due to lack of depth perception. You hit fairly hard and you are going flying again, real fast and high with that extra energy. Feeling for the runway in a "two pointer" attitude at slower speed will make the bounce less aggressive. If you do bounce hard, a go-around may be in order. On the other hand, if you go to idle and flare too high, stalling and dropping it in when the wing stops flying, will be a nasty surprise as well.
Wheel landings does give more fwd vis, true, but RV's have good fwd vis in three points. There is almost no Vis limitation in a tail low "two point" attitude. I use peripheral vision more than long vision down the runway at touch down any way. Just my opinion, and to each his own. The only downer of a true wheel landing, LEVER ATTITUDE AT TOUCH DOWN, is you are carrying extra speed and thus using more runway, rubber and brakes, but do what makes you comfortable.
