Excellent Intentional Deadstick Landing Video Via Tailwheeler's Journal
Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 07:03PM
Between the bitter cold this week and starting a new (and large) ceramic tile install, I've been scrambling to keep up with my pig work. Early this morning I spent some time over at vimeo.com looking for a unique avgeek video to unearth, but I ran out of time to get it up because I wasn't finding just the right thing. However, shortly before I headed out the door I found this cool deadstick landing instructional video... which I'm finally getting around to sharing this evening.
I think there's a lot of value in being capable and comfortable flying an airplane like a Cessna 140 when the prop is stopped. When you pursue a cautious and educated process to learn how your airplane flies deadstick, you significantly increase the likelihood of a positive outcome should the engine ever up and quite of its own accord. I hope you find this video both entertaining and educational.
I'd never heard of Brian Lansburgh and TailwheelersJournal.com until this morning, but I can see I would sure get along well with this group of taildragger loving pilots. It's not just because I think taildraggers are simply better airplanes (and make better pilots) but because you often find taildragger pilots are serious about wanting to be the best pilot they can be. 'Taildragger' is a lifestyle, and it's one that I was fortunate to be exposed to very young when my dad taught me to fly in a 150hp Citabria when I was just 13 years old. Even better, the airport I learned to fly at in Elgin Illinois, which was permanently closed in 1983, had a main runway 2,600 feet long but only about 30 feet wide, and prone to crosswinds. I learned very quickly to use my feet carefully and very accurately!
I'll add that I was talking to Billy Werth from Grayout Aerosports a couple days ago about getting together here before long to get back up in his Pitts S2C so I can finally get a flight review in the logbook. That'll mark the first time I've been officially current in about 18 years. Back in September I did 45 minutes of takeoffs and landings in the Pitts, and while it sounds like bragging to say it, I had no trouble handling the airplane doing touch and goes... what's interesting about that is that I've only been hands-on with any kind of airplane less than 5 hours in the last 10 years, and only made 2 landings in those 10 years. Am I special? I don't think so, but I do think learning to fly that Citabria at a very young age and on such a narrow runway programmed me with some important foundational skills. Those are the kind of skills that Brian Lansburgh and Tailwheeler's Journal are all about : )
Video screenshot: circling and descending over the airport with the prop stopped!
Reader Comments (1)
Hi Martt, Mike here. Looks like fun, I haven't been to Prineville, but learned to fly up and down the I-5 corridor between Eugene and Olympia.
I got in the habit of pulling the power to idle on downwind abeam of the touchdown point and coasting in (in a Champ). Not the same as dead stick, but you think about energy mgmt.
g'nite from Elgin.