Infidel
Well Known Member
I had an interesting (scary) landing a while back and I learned a valuable lesson. I didn't give the lesson much thought as to talking about it here, but today while talking to a RV pilot friend, he shared a similar experience that happened to him yesterday. Both his and my incident entailed a passenger. It is my hope by sharing it here, I can help others by sharing my experience.
My incident entailed flying my niece to breakfast one morning, which was her first flight in a -4.. My initial thoughts were to remove the rear stick (RV-4). But she's a bright lass, so I gave her a good preflight explanation of what the flight would consist of and during T/O & landing, to make sure her legs were clear of the stick so I would have full authoritative control in slower speeds.
The T/O was good as well as the short flight to KHGR and everything was good until I entered ground effect. The plane rolled left and as I tried leveling to the right, the stick would not move to the right. I countered with the rudder and my initial thought was what is going on? I had full control of the elevator and controlled the pitch. The landing was a 3-point. The left main, left wing tip, and tailwheel. Not exactly the 3-point I was shooting for. The asphalt scrapes on the wing tip were nominal, fortunately.
During breakfast and in my inquisitive questioning I learned she was enveloped in videoing the flight and the landing with her phone. The take off went well because my preflight instructions were fresh in her mind. But afterwards, she was completely immenced with videoing during landing and neglected to allow lateral space between her legs and the stick. It could've been worse and fortunately it wasn't. I've since incorporated procedures for passengers. Whether it involves removing the rear stick (their request, or mine if I'm freaked out) or being vocal and directive.
Be careful up there. Ya never know who is indirectly trying to kill you.
My incident entailed flying my niece to breakfast one morning, which was her first flight in a -4.. My initial thoughts were to remove the rear stick (RV-4). But she's a bright lass, so I gave her a good preflight explanation of what the flight would consist of and during T/O & landing, to make sure her legs were clear of the stick so I would have full authoritative control in slower speeds.
The T/O was good as well as the short flight to KHGR and everything was good until I entered ground effect. The plane rolled left and as I tried leveling to the right, the stick would not move to the right. I countered with the rudder and my initial thought was what is going on? I had full control of the elevator and controlled the pitch. The landing was a 3-point. The left main, left wing tip, and tailwheel. Not exactly the 3-point I was shooting for. The asphalt scrapes on the wing tip were nominal, fortunately.
During breakfast and in my inquisitive questioning I learned she was enveloped in videoing the flight and the landing with her phone. The take off went well because my preflight instructions were fresh in her mind. But afterwards, she was completely immenced with videoing during landing and neglected to allow lateral space between her legs and the stick. It could've been worse and fortunately it wasn't. I've since incorporated procedures for passengers. Whether it involves removing the rear stick (their request, or mine if I'm freaked out) or being vocal and directive.
Be careful up there. Ya never know who is indirectly trying to kill you.