"3 point landing"

[A12pilot]

You know, most strive for this, and some achieve a one pointer in strong crosswinds. But most tail wheelers will do the standard two pointer and let the tail settle down. Me? I have conquered the elusive, much heard about but never seen, rarely done, &quot;zero&quot; point landing! And not once, but several times! To sum it up for the unaviated peeps here, a three point landing is usually describing a landing in a tail wheel airplane where all three wheels touch the runway at the same time. Usually, the forward two (mains) touch and then the tailwheel comes down later as airspeed decreased. In a crosswind, usually one main will touch and the other will settle, followed by the tail. But the elusive, rare, and incomprehensible &quot;0&quot; pointer? That's where you float down the runway with the wheels no where near touching the ground, you think you're about a foot away from the runway where you're really about 7ft, and you think to yourself, &quot;Oh man, I'mma gonna grease this'un...&quot; while your instructor is screaming at the top of his lungs due to a broken intercom, &quot;Judas Priest! GO AROUND!!!!&quot; with arms a flailing, and you think he's saying, &quot;You did that with ease, another round?&quot; Why yes, yes I would..as I gently move the throttle forward and fly away. Meanwhile, he's become a pool of liquid in the back seat [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

So that was my day today. I get to do this next month as well as I continue getting my tailwheel endorsement in a Stearman that a fellow aviator friend of mine owns. That is, if he's not in the hospital. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/crazy.gif[/img] Pretty sweet!

Cheers [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]






The good thing about these old radials is there's no oil change involved. It continually leaks so you're continually putting in fresh oil! Never needs changing! Mikey, you work on these?

[earntaz]

Just like landing a O-1 Bird Dog from the back seat -- can't see crap in front of ya' so crab the heck out of it until the gear rumble. A stiff side wind will make this even more interesting. Then there is the wet PSP surfaces ... ah the memories. TAZ

[Postsedan]

That`s what I would call a 3 [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img] Day!

Well done! Thanks for sharing.

Dan

[m22mike]

Dave
Worked on lots of radials, nothing as old as a Stearman. Much perffered the jet's . The bigger the radial was the the bigger mess they were. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/naughty.gif[/img] And they broke allot.

Mike

[earntaz]

The only other place you can see that many jugs in one place is Victorias Secret ... LOL Made distributor wrenches out of old used up jugs wrenches -- cut off the end and welded on a 9/16 box end. TAZ

[A12pilot]

Mike....you're right. I think messy is an understatement! I wore a thin film of 60w after we were done for the day [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif[/img]

[SS427]

That is great Dave. Congrats. The Stearman is one plane that as of yet have not had to pleasure to fly in. Came close many times but there was always something a little rarer available. One of these days.....

[earntaz]

As mentioned before -- if it ain't leaking ... its empty.

[Woj]

Looks like a lot of fun Dave. Not much of the flying heavy metal transfers to this type of flying, other than dirty-side-down.

Enjoy.

Phil Woj. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

[earntaz]

Are these people crazy or what?

https://vimeo.com/100670266