• Welcome aboard HomebuiltAirplanes.com, your destination for connecting with a thriving community of more than 10,000 active members, all passionate about home-built aviation. Dive into our comprehensive repository of knowledge, exchange technical insights, arrange get-togethers, and trade aircrafts/parts with like-minded enthusiasts. Unearth a wide-ranging collection of general and kit plane aviation subjects, enriched with engaging imagery, in-depth technical manuals, and rare archives.

    For a nominal fee of $99.99/year or $12.99/month, you can immerse yourself in this dynamic community and unparalleled treasure-trove of aviation knowledge.

    Embark on your journey now!

    Click Here to Become a Premium Member and Experience Homebuilt Airplanes to the Fullest!

Take off technique

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

PTAirco

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 20, 2003
Messages
4,006
Location
Corona CA
The current vogue in bush flying and popular STOL culture is to shove the stick forward at the beginning of the take off roll and the yank it back down with a more or less violent rotation. Often you see the tailwheel slapping the ground again. The argument is that lifting the tail reduced the AoA of the wing and therefore cause less drag. I would question this.

At the beginning of the take off roll, when they do this, drag is minimal anyway because speed is minimal. producing a couple of hundred pounds of lift to get the tail up dwith very little forward speed must in itself cause a lot of drag. Is the trade off worth it? Could somebody with a more mathematical mind crunch the numbers? Do I need Calculus of will Mr Newton suffice for this?

There are some people out there who have done comparisons and found no real benefit. If this method was so superior, would they not have used it for carrier take offs in WW2 (before they used catapults)? The Cessna 170 POH states for best short field take off the aircraft should be flown off in a three point attitude. You'd think Cessna had this figured out but every "bush" flying video out there does it the other way. I understand the concern about tailwheel damage but lifting it a couple of inches does the job, it doesn't need to be three feet up in the air.

Opinions? Facts?
 
Back
Top