Mark is right.
From personal experience, I was checking
out a newly assigned pilot in the De Havilland Otter. We were empty and I asked
for a full flap landing. Well, we did not get the tail down (difficult to do in
an empty Otter) and touched down slightly heavy on the mains. Well you can
guess what happened next, we were back in the air about 5 feet and we added a
slight amount of power to cushion the landing. That was all it took to stall
the entire left wing. We touched down on the left main and the wingtip. Did a
hard left turn and finally got the wing back up and pulled the power. The left
wing went down again and we did another left turn, got the wing back up and
took off 180 degrees from our approach heading. Once airborne, se started to
retract the flaps and every time we brought them up, I had to apply additional yoke
to keep the aircraft level. Decided that was not a good idea, so left the flaps
alone and made a very wide turn back to the airport. We were advised we had
structural damage to the left wing, so elected to do a very flat landing on the
mains and did not significantly reduce airspeed until we were solidly on the
ground. When we went back and looked at the marks on the runway, the tail wheel
left a mark that was outside the left main mount mark, indicating that we had
applied full rudder to try and pick up the wing, but were unsuccessful. We had
ripped off the outboard hinge on the left wing and the outer half of the aileron
was standing vertical above the wing. We were lucky!
Giff Marr
From: Mark Ravinski
[mailto:mjrav@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008
6:41 PM
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Subject: Birdstrikes and other
structural damage.
Let me share a little Air Force doctrine for you to ponder.
First, Whenever you experience structural damage
in flight, whether from a bird, midair, someone shooting at you or
anything else, the safest speed is the one you are at - assuming that you are
still controllable. Probably somewhat slower if you are not.
This is because the stall speed is expected to increase with any damage.
Second, Climb at a safe airspeed to a safe
altitude for a controllability check and possibly bailout.
I realize that we seldom fly with a chute and this part is
of limited use.
The controllability check is a gradual slowing down to
see if the plane is still controllable at a speed at which it can be landed
safely. Use flaps only if they appear undamaged.
Tricycle gear airplanes have a maximum landing speed where
the nosewheel touches down first initiating a porpoise and probable gear
collapse. My 360 would probably be porposing badly at speeds about 50 kts
above normal landing speed. This is a hard number to get exact data
on. You can gradually increase landing speeds until you touch down
exactly 3 point and then figure somewhat more as a practical limit.
I would do the controllability check as a means to determine
how messy the landing could be. Then go somewhere with plenty of
emergency equipment if needed and maybe even land gear up.
Lastly, After the controllability check, maneuver to
your landing while holding a speed at or above the minimum you flew on the
check.
There are other checklist items also as appropriate from
your manual.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, September
08, 2008 3:30 PM
Subject: [LML] Re: My three
Birdstrikes
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I have hit three birds so far in Lancairs.
One on Takeoff at Night. 120knts
Broke the spinner.
One at 8,000 feet over the Columbia River in Oregon. 170 knts
Cracked the Cowl
One on Extended Base 140 knts
Cracked the Cowl
.
Birds love me.
Scott
--- On Sun, 9/7/08, MikeEasley@aol.com <MikeEasley@aol.com>
wrote:
From: MikeEasley@aol.com
<MikeEasley@aol.com>
Subject: [LML] Re: high speed passes and go arounds
To: lml@lancaironline.net
Date: Sunday, September 7, 2008, 3:09 PM
One argument I've
heard concerning high speed passes is the potential of a bird strike.
At high speed the impact of a bird is much more dangerous than if it happens
at approach speeds. I'm not sure how valid the argument is, but it
makes sense to me.
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