How to land taildraggers

[Hagar]

Three-point landings - or - the proper way to land taildraggers. This subject cropped up in the Screenshots forum so I thought I would post a few examples of how it's done. As the name implies the idea is to touch all 3 wheels on the ground at the same time. I was always fascinated by watching aircraft land & at one time it was part of my job. Nice work if you can get it. The pilots didn't like it much when I reported a heavy landing. It's difficult to get just right & some do a perfect 3-pointer about 10 feet above the runway. The resulting bounce obviously doesn't do the undercarriage much good.

You can tell a lot about pilots by watching how they land the aircraft. A decent landing is a joy to behold. Not all aircraft can do a proper three-pointer & some pilots prefer wheelies.

This chap overcooked it & did a beautiful one-pointer.

Different but effective. He came to an immediate standstill.


Here's how I like to see it. Right on the marks.



Denny Dobson showing off with a typical sideslip approach. He's sideslipping so he can see the runway clearly through the windows below the wings. He will kick it straight & land right on the spot.


Beautifully done sir.


Anything he can do .....  8)



There you are. Hope you enjoyed that.

[chomp_rock]

Good, you're setting all of the young'ns who have never flown a taildragger straight

Three pointers are the way to go!

[beaky]

Excellent... I like shots like those. Still need work on my "conventional"-gear landing skills, but I'm noticing that the one thing in common with landing a trike is that the goal in both cases is to land just at the cusp of a stall, having planned things so you float and sink just enough while flaring to drop right where you want it, minimizing your roll distance and need for braking.
 Flying Cessnas in RL, I'm always happier when I manage to put the mains on with a fairly high A of A and just hold back pressure until it stops flying completely and the nose drops- it's easy to find myself  picking the nosewheel up again, after "flying it on",  in order to bleed off speed. I suppose the point of a 3-pointer in a taildragger is to achieve the same goal (short rollout)? And "wheel" landings with taildraggers are best for crosswind or strong headwind conditions (for better directional control), right?

[chomp_rock]

I suppose the point of a 3-pointer in a taildragger is to achieve the same goal (short rollout)? And "wheel" landings with taildraggers are best for crosswind or strong headwind conditions (for better directional control), right?

Aye

[ozzy72]

Those last two are lovely. I have to say tail-draggers are the only REAL aeroplanes, and my three pointers sometimes bounce a little

[HawkerTempest5]

So that's how it's done

[Hagar]

I suppose the point of a 3-pointer in a taildragger is to achieve the same goal (short rollout)? And "wheel" landings with taildraggers are best for crosswind or strong headwind conditions (for better directional control), right?

The light aircraft I'm used to are usually landed directly into wind so crosswinds don't come into it. Unfortunately many smaller airfields have hard runways these days which makes them unsuitable for light taildraggers with tailskids.

I remember a private owner at Shoreham back in the 60s always landed his Miles Gemini tail up & taxyed all the way to the hangar before letting the tailwheel touch the ground. This was long before the hard runway was even thought of & the field was a tad rough in places. If there was any prolonged rain, half of it was usually under water (which is the reason they eventually built the hard runway). I often wondered how he got away with it without turning the whole caboodle over on its back. Happy days.

PS. I always thought the little guy in my sig gives an excellent example of how to land a trike. I couldn't find a similar one with a taildragger or I would have used that.

[RollerBall]

Ideally, unless you're having to cope with a heavyish cross wind, any landing in a light aircraft, even one with a conventional trike undercarriage, should be nose up and at or approaching the stall on landing. You shouldn't be landing so fast that you're hurtling down the runway on your main gear or, worse still, on all 3 wheels and braking like mad. Firstly, it's the best way to wear out (expensive) brakes, and it's also a great way to end up on your nose with prop and shock damage to your engine, especially if you're doing it on grass.

I doubt many students get the chance to fly a taildragger nowadays but it's the best way to appreciate what's involved. When I learnt we didn't have a hard runway at all - just grass - and one of the exercises we had to do in our 150 was to learn to lift the nose wheel without taking off - and not just up and down again either. It's essential to have that kind of feel if you want to be able to do short field take offs safely and also be able to take off safely on very soft ground eg as Doug says when the other half of your grass field is under water.

[jordonj]

Regarding the larger taildraggers...such as the DC-3, Howard 500, and the like...don't those need to be "wheelie landed"?

I have the MAAM DC3 and that is how they say to land it...is that the way it is with the larger other taildraggers?

Just wondering...

[Hagar]

Most of the larger taildraggers (multi-engined airliners & bombers etc,) would not use the 3-pointer. I've never seen a DC-3 land on three points & this might not be possible. This is also true of some smaller types & pilots have their own preferences depending on their training. Very few early aircraft were fitted with brakes & a 3-point landing was the most efficient way of operating out of small rough fields. I think this is how the practice originated.

[C]

I've heard of larger types being landed in the 3 point attitude in days gone by, but more recently with (large) historic types they've kept to wheelers as it allows more directional control on landing - in the days of large grass aerodromes this was not a factor of course...

[jordonj]

Neat..thanks for this interesting information!

[bm]

Super shots! - i'm off to practice........

Hagars photo:

I must be good - looks exactly like one of my landings.

Thanks Hagar

[jordonj]

Say...what plane is that second one...looks really cool!

[Hagar]

If you mean the Russian one it's a Yak 50. One of the superb Yakovlevs display team. http://www.yakovlevs.com/display.asp

PS. I took some photos of one of the team doing a wheels up landing at Shoreham on my first day out with my original digital camera. I posted shots here at the time.