Scudrunners

The discussions around different types of approaches, flares and landings reminded me of how I used to phuck the dog sometimes out of sheer boredom during my water bombing days.


One of the more interesting ones was on no wind very stable air days I would carefully set the PBY up in a high alpha approach at fifty knots indicated and use power to control the descent from a thousand feet to touch down on the runway.


I forget the exact numbers now but I think that at  2300 RPM and 30 inches of M.P.  it was descending around four hundred feet a minute, the real trick was when to go to climb power to cushion the touch down without changing angle of attack.


It was real fun because when done right climb power and ground effect gave a real gentle touch down and a very short runway roll.

Sounds like an autorotation to me....  :)

Quit pickin' on helicopter pilots! 

PS  There's not truth in the rumour that helicopter pilots do it in circles and jerks...

Was I flying that thing below the power curve I wonder?


And considering I did it on numerous occasions proves that I am a lucky pilot and fate allowed me to continue living.  :)

Being a master at animal husbandry as so eloquently brought up by C Ellsworth, Esq, I thought it only fitting that with decades of experience and thousands of hours in the air, I should weigh in with how we did it in the good old days flying jets. 

PROPER SHORT FIELD PROCEDURE. 

Back in the early sixties, our Sabre squadron was deployed from Zweibrucken Germany to Gros Tenquin France while the runways were being lengthened at the former in preparation for the arrival of the CF-104.  Ground access to our dispersal area was around the end of one of the runways where a light system was in place to stop vehicular traffic to allow aircraft to arrive.

Our squadron flight safety officer (SFSO) had just arrived at the end of the runway heading for the squadron area when the light went red before he could cross to the other side.  The cause of the red light?  Me, coming back for a landing after spending an hour or so attacking down anything that moved in Western Germany.  Quite successfully, I might add.

Now, after a three mile run-in from initial and a 60-degree, 2-G turn to downwind, most Sabre pilots drop the gear and delay flap selection until the button is 30-45 degrees aft and then commence the descending turn, rolling out three quarters to a mile final using a powered approach.

Not so real tigers like me. No sir.  Real tigers pitch out by bringing the throttle to idle and pulling 3-g to kill the speed, selecting gear and flaps down at the 180 degree point and continuing the turn to roll out short final on profile and on speed.  That’s what REAL tigers do.  (Don’t get ahead of me here)

(BACK TO THE ACTION!)
The tiger calls ‘initial’ three miles back, hits the pitch, thumbs the speed brakes out as the throttle is smartly snapped to ‘idle’, and racks the aircraft into a speed-bleeding 3 G turn.  As the aircraft passes the 180 degree point, the gear is thrown out with the flaps following at a suitable interval.  Altitude is traded for airspeed as the aircraft continues to short final where the squadron flight safety officer sits waiting for the ‘OK’ to cross.  The tiger is less than a thousand feet back now and as the incredulous safety officer watches, touches down short of the road, rumbles along for a bit, and then leapfrogs the road for a perfect landing on the runway.  The SFSO notes the squadron marking and the aircraft number.

The tiger is busy signing in when the SFSO accosts him a question:  “WTF was that?”

The tiger replies:  “Anybody can do a short field landing, but it takes a real tiger to get part of the landing roll done PRIOR to the end of the runway!”


OUTCOME:  Tiger bought SFSO beer that night. 

PS  Not only would I not try this at home, I wouldn’t try it anywhere else either!  (;>0)

PPS  Did I mention that some German beer and a lack of sleep may have contributed to the success of the approach?

 
 

Great story ;D
Thank you