Landing technique?

[warlockgs]

Hi all,

I was just wondering, since I've watched a few vids on YouTube from the various folk here, is there no way to land my planes the same way I land my Cessna? I mean as in using throttle to control elevation, elevator to control pitch, setting down on the rear gear then cruising the front gear to the ground gently?

I ask because every time I try to do it in RF, I eat dirt or snap the gear. Also, watching more than a few people land their planes they seem to just pancake it in on all gear simultaneously (which bounces the aircraft slightly).

[rea59]

Is it possible? Yes. I have watched a few pilots that can do that consistently. Usually with the larger heavier planes. The small light ones tend to float too much to have that fine of control.

I pray to someday be that good.:)

[Grasshopper]

As Ray said, it can be difficult. About the only one I can "Fairly" consistantly do it with is my 52" P-38. It sure does look nice to set it down on the main gear and let it roll out a little before setting the nose down. I find the tail draggers a little harder to do it with.

[redgiki]

Three factors seem to be at work:

1. Center of gravity. If the bird is nose-heavy, it's always going to land like a brick. If you can move the CG of your aircraft back until it's almost on the verge of being squirrely, you'll find that doing a nice flare is a lot easier.
2. Wing loading. The fact is, our birds have enormously lighter wing loading than bigger planes. It makes them fly much differently. Some things just don't scale, and chief among them, for us, is wind resistance and inertia. A plane with just a few ounces of weight per square foot is going to "bounce" off the air in a flare due to drag (and then stall and drop like a stone). A plane with several pounds per square foot is going to continue to plow through the air using that inertia, which will slow it down perfectly if you do it just right.
3. Thrust. You can simulate the nose-high flare of a bigger airplane by kicking in some additional thrust during your landing. It's tough to do without ballooning, but it can be done. This is how I bring my Patriot in for a nice nose-up landing, by adding just a tiny bit of flare and adding just a touch of throttle right after. This avoids the nasty stall which sometimes wants to accompany an attempt at a nose-high landing :)

Good luck. It takes skill, tail-heavy CG, and a nice heavy wing loading to do a good above-stall-speed flare in a very small model.

[pd1]

Hi all,

I was just wondering, since I've watched a few vids on YouTube from the various folk here, is there no way to land my planes the same way I land my Cessna? I mean as in using throttle to control elevation, elevator to control pitch, setting down on the rear gear then cruising the front gear to the ground gently?

I ask because every time I try to do it in RF, I eat dirt or snap the gear. Also, watching more than a few people land their planes they seem to just pancake it in on all gear simultaneously (which bounces the aircraft slightly).

Since you fly full sized you understand the principles, a bad approach will usually make a bad landing.

Use the same methods, just don't rush the landing.

Here's a couple of shots to show it can be done, by a light model.