{"id":4777,"date":"2018-04-06T07:40:08","date_gmt":"2018-04-06T14:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=4777"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:53","slug":"201-what-if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/201-what-if\/","title":{"rendered":"#201 What if…?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What if the engine quits, what if the baggage door comes open, what if a tire goes flat, what if something starts smoking\u2026.<\/h3>\n

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Aviation is full of \u201cwhat ifs\u201d.\u00a0 And I think it should be.\u00a0 I guess my \u201cfavorite\u201d has to do with how much runway we leave behind us.\u00a0I\u2019m fascinated by this subject.\u00a0 I once watched a jet touch down long during an instrument approach and landing.\u00a0 He screeched off the departure end of the runway, coming to rest about twenty feet into the dirt, his wheels sunk up to the axles.\u00a0 Twenty feet!\u00a0 If he\u2019d touched down twenty feet earlier, he wouldn\u2019t have gone into the dirt (I\u2019m assuming that he had antilock brakes or braked efficiently so that he really didn\u2019t skid).\u00a0 Similarly, if we start a takeoff roll twenty feet further down the runway, rather than powering up at the very approach end, we might experience the same ending in the event of an engine failure on takeoff.<\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/h3>\n

\u00a0Photo by Bert Garrison<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The long landing I described above is an isolated incident and contains details that make it very understandable.\u00a0 But almost every day, I see people who should know better sacrifice runway that could prevent them ending up with their axles buried in the mud.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take the long-taught and generally accepted technique of the \u201cshort field takeoff\u201d.\u00a0 Most airmen will hold the brakes and bring up the power.\u00a0 Then they will release the brakes and start the takeoff roll.\u00a0 Like many things taught in aviation, this technique can be defended and actually makes sense.\u00a0 In fact, I believe this is the technique approved by both the AOPA and the FAA, two organizations who really know what they are doing when it comes to aviation (did you infer the sarcasm?). \u00a0It\u2019s also taught by the \u201cAcme\u201d school of aviation (that\u2019s just my term for virtually all modern flight schools). By running up the power with the brakes on, you\u2019re developing full power without using any runway.\u00a0 That makes sense.\u00a0 Of course, subjecting your propeller to the possibility of picking up gravel and rocks doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 And overcoming inertia doesn\u2019t either.\u00a0 Would you like to know a better way?\u00a0 It starts in the runup area.\u00a0 That\u2019s where you have done everything you need to do to prepare the plane for takeoff.\u00a0The only reason I include that part is because I\u2019ve seen so many pilots \u201cfuss around\u201d on the runway.\u00a0 In my opinion, they should not have entered the runway until they were ready to go.\u00a0 In failing to do that, they have handicapped the \u201cshort field\u201d part of the short field takeoff.<\/h3>\n

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An aircraft on takeoff is at its most vulnerable.\u00a0 If there is safety in altitude, there is no safety on takoff because there is no altitude!\u00a0If there is also safety in airspeed, there is little of of that as well as the takeoff begins!\u00a0 With that considered, as the aircraft enters the runway, the pilot should be doing a couple of things.\u00a0 He should be ensuring that he\u2019s not leaving ANY runway behind him.\u00a0 And he should be very slowly opening the throttle.\u00a0 By the time he is 90 degrees from runway heading, he should be opening the throttle even more.\u00a0 And by the time he is on runway heading, he shouldn\u2019t be able to open it any more, \u2018cause it\u2019s wide open.\u00a0 This takes a little practice and if he opened it a bit too soon and was going a bit too fast to make that turn, he may find himself on the far side of the runway.\u00a0 Since he was taught to be on the centerline, this may be rather disconcerting.\u00a0 It shouldn\u2019t be.\u00a0 In a tailwheel airplane, he is also applying full forward elevator.\u00a0This will bring his tail up and minimize the drag of the main wing by increasing the drag from the horizontal stabilizer.\u00a0 The drag this creates is far less than the drag created by the wing BEFORE the tail comes up.\u00a0 As he begins to thunder down the runway, he simply and gradually returns to the centerline.\u00a0He\u2019s actually created a bit more runway with that maneuver, so he doesn\u2019t mind being off to the side for a little while (we\u2019ll just put a gag on the complaining \u201cAcme\u201d instructor in the right seat!).\u00a0 In the interest of keeping this article short, I\u2019m not going to deal with other stuff like transponder power, heading indicator check, engine check and making sure that a squirrel hasn\u2019t wandered into his path.<\/h3>\n

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By simply using that technique, the savvy airman has made the shortest takeoff he possibly could.\u00a0 And his propeller will thank him.<\/h3>\n

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With my recent decision to gradually eliminate primary instruction from my flight instruction duties, I am mostly only flying with rated pilots.\u00a0 The vast majority do not conduct the better short field takeoff I just described.\u00a0 I think that is a shame.\u00a0 But I asked for it.\u00a0 Instead of blindly following the old \u201cWe\u2019ve always done it this way\u201d attitude that so many flight instructors have, I\u2019ve chosen to question some old techniques.\u00a0I think that by simply asking \u201cwhy\u201d, I\u2019ve come closer to better piloting techniques.\u00a0 But that\u2019s just my opinion.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure Acme would disagree.\u00a0 After all, they\u2019ve always done it a certain way\u2026<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“An aircraft on takeoff is at its most vulnerable.\u00a0 If there is safety in altitude, there is no safety on takoff because there is no altitude!\u00a0If there is also safety in airspeed, there is little of of that as well as the takeoff begins!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,67,147,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}