Flaps And Tail Strikes

[Jim Meade]

There is a comment in another thread about the degree of flaps used, landing technique and the potential for a tail strike in a CT (I don't recall if it was an LS or SW).

 

It would seem to me that it would be pretty easy for some smart guy (not me) to draw some illustrations that would show AOA on wings at various flap settings and set that relative to a runway to show how high off the ground the tail is when the mains touch down at stall speed at a given AOA. I would find that easy to visualize if deciding if there is any danger in causing a tail strike when touching down on the mains first at 0° flaps.

 

I'm thinking that when flying the Citabria and PA12, the nose was pretty high in a three point landing. I don't think the CTSW tail is much different than a Citabria tail - maybe it's even higher. So, I'm trying to visualize what the horizon would look like if I touched my CTSW down on the mains with the nose high enough to cause a tail strike. My initial impression is it would be awfully high, higher than I'd normally have it at landing.

 

If someone can describe to me how to do this, I'll try to do it myself I'm not trying to pass off work.

 

 

[Runtoeat]

We wanted to visualize what the landing picture looked like in my friend's CTLS when the airplane was at tail strike attitude. We simply took turns holding the tail on the ground while each sat in the driver's seat and tried to let the view soak in. It still is a tough call to judge whether or not one is at or near tail strike attitude. My thought is it is best to have the skid attached which CTLS now comes from the factory with. My friend dragged the tail on my CTSW when first landing it with zero flaps. I saw it coming due to the pitch attitude but couldn't respond fast enough to push the stick and prevent it. It didn't do any damage, just needed some paint touch up on the fin.

[Jim Meade]

Dick,

 

Excellent suggestion which I will do as soon as I get a break from farming. Thank you.