First Pitts Landing

[Colonel]

My friend Spencer (instructor in the back) is a bit nervous with the student in the front ...

Pop Quiz: what did she do, that resulted in her first landing in a very challenging
aircraft working out very well indeed? To rephrase, what didn't she do?

[David MacRay]

Dumb shit.

[Nark]

I think Dave accurately got it.

[Colonel]

Ok, but:

1) did she land in a crab?
2) did she over-control (with the stick in pitch before touchdown, and the rudders in yaw afterward)?

Most tailwheel students insist upon doing both.

I have observed that less is more. Land perfectly aligned with the direction of travel
and gradually pull the stick all the way back, and over into the direction of any crosswind.

If the landing gear isn't bent (50/50) you won't have to do anything magical with the rudder
pedals to stay on the runway. In fact, you probably won't have to do anything at all.



Life Lesson: give yourself an easy problem to solve. Don't create a giant fucking mess and
then try to be Bob Hoover to save it.

Pop Quiz #2: why didn't she land in a crab?

[David MacRay]

Because the plane was travelling directly in line with the runway.

[Colonel]

I am honestly mystified as to why you don't have both an ATP and a PhD.

One of the great injustices of our time, I suppose.

Beginner tailwheel pilots love to land in a crab (and then try to drive frantically
off the runway) because they have a lot of sudden pitch change before touchdown
in a hurried flare (because they're behind the airplane) with a metal blade prop that
has significant pitch-yaw coupling.

They bring the nose up, and the nose goes right. The weeds on the right side
of the runway fear them. While this seems somewhat obscure, I have had it
demonstrated to me thousands of times, so it kinda sticks in my brain.

Also, I remember the Senior Air Canada Captain demonstrated this technique
with a 220hp (Franklin) Maule. Destroyed it.

Notice that Spencer approached very flat, and did not have a large pitch change.
In addition, his 203cm MT prop has almost zero pitch-yaw coupling.

Again, this discussion of prop construction and the effect of gyroscopic precession
seems terribly obscure and irrelevant:



or is it?

[Scudrunner]

Did he find his prop?

[Colonel]

You probably don't want to look too hard in the San Fernando Valley - God knows what you would find.

The San Fernando Valley is one of the most diverse areas in the world. It is the northern section of Los Angeles, north of the Hollywood Hills. Much of the Valley is within Los Angeles city proper, but some independent cities include San Fernando, Glendale, Burbank, and Calabasas.

For all you motherfuckers who havent been here, STOP DEFINING IT. The Valley is not all rich girls who spend daddy's money. In fact, there is a huge ghetto here, encompassing a lot of the northeastern portion of the area, including the neighborhoods of Arleta, Panorama City, Van Nuys, Pacoima, and parts of North Hollywood.

Hollywood is not in the valley, but "Hollywood" is. Most of the major studios are here, including Warner Brothers, CBS, Disney, NBC, ABC, Universal and much more. In fact the actual district of Hollywood only has Paramount and the award show theatres.

The Valley is also the Porn capital of the world. many porn studios are in the southern aera, in places like studio city and sherman oaks. It is common to see a billboard for a strip club right next to an elementary school as well.

There are more drugs in this area than there are in the CPT or LBC. Fact is, even the rich kids do drugs. It is common to have done pot, ecstasy, cocaine, and heroin by the time they graduate high school.

Scene kids also populate the valley. It is comon to see a 14-year-old girl with three different hair colors and a mass of extentions walking down Ventura Boulevard (a major shopping street) smoking a cigarhette. And no one seems to care.

The area code of the Valley is 818. On myspace, a valley kid is likely to put 818 somewhere on their profile.

An arrogant person from elsewhere: The San Fernando Valley is nothing but stuck up rich kids spending their daddy's money on drugs while suffering from bullemia.