Brian & netters, What you have described is by definition a wheel landing. A 3 point landing is just that: 3 points of contact just above the stall speed of the aircraft where all 3 gear contact the runway, and stay in contact. Any landing where the mains only, make contact and then a rollout occurs is a wheel landing. The technique you have described is a tail low approach alittle behind the power curve or officially the area of reverse command, where drag is increased by a higher angle of attack in order to lower the approach speed. This is a technique used by alot of bush pilots to get into remote areas. The problem with this technique is 2 fold: 1) it requires higher approach power settings, meaning the approach is relying on power so loss of engine means landing short of the field, 2) it limits visibility and decreases control surface effectiveness, something you and I have discussed in the past. For LOW time pilots this technique should not be used. These techniques are considered advanced techniques that require experience and expertise in the aircraft to be able to fly them properly, mainly for the correct control response when things go wrong. Getting too far behind the power curve is dangerous in any aircraft, but especially so in aircraft like the KR, Mooney, & Bonanza that are designed for speed. Flaps and speed brakes help them to land slower. But Dana has stated so about the Bonanza, I have experienced it in the Mooney, and have read about several occurrences in the KR where a pilot gets it really slow and it eats up all kind of altitude getting flying again from a stall. Remember that dramatic changes in angle of attack drastically changes the amount of lift. So if one is nose high into ground effect, and then lowers the nose alot to get onto the mains, the descent rate will increase substantially and if one is not close to the ground a major bounce will occur. I would encourage LOW time pilots to start out flying into ground effect nearly at level flight attitude, and let the speed bleed off, and the aircraft settle gently to the runway. At the point of contact, add slight forward pressure to "roll on" the mains, and then continue to hold the tail up until it settles gently to the runway by itself. The best way to become familiar with where your example of this aircraft is getting too slow is at 3000 feet. Slow it down, keep getting it slow, watch the speed, note the lack of control, and pay close attention to the speed when it quits flying and you must apply forward stick to fly again. This is your Vs1 and you must not get too close to this speed on final, or you will probably meet the ground alot faster then you would like to! I would recommend at least 10 mph faster than that speed. If you have flaps then make sure you know the difference in allowable approach speed with and without flaps.
Colin & Bev Rainey KR2(td) N96TA Sanford, FL crain...@cfl.rr.com or crbrn9...@hotmail.com http://kr-builder.org/Colin/index.html
