The Leading Edge
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JANUARY 2001 NEWSLETTER VOLUME 32, NUMBER 1
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Orientation: 18:30 before General Meeting
General Meeting: Monday, January 8, 19:30 at San Jose Jet Center
Program: Neil Brooks "Day VFR in Australia"
Board Meeting: Monday January 30, 18:00 at Doug's Apple Lane Inn
December Christmas Dinner:
16 people showed up; more than were expected!
A good time was had by all. Mark Hernandez won the Grand Prize.
January Birthdays:
15-Jan: Nadir Salehomoum
18-Jan: Andrew Chessin
19-Jan: Bill Egan
24-Jan: John Martin
NOTAM:
First Solo! Venkata Karpuram, student of Mark Hernandez
Per Nystrom passed written exam for Private Pilot.
Welcome to Tom McNamara, new student for Private under Mark H.
Account of events leading up to a ground loop.
September 1999 at Reno/Tahoe International Airport, (RNO) Reno, NV
Aircraft: Maule MX-7-180A
Approximate experience at the time of the incident:
Total Time: 225hrs Tail wheel: 85hrs Time in Maule: 29hrs
Forecast Weather: Clouds: SCT100CB, Winds 200 at 15kts Visibility greater than 6SM
ATIS: Clouds: BKN110, Winds: 310 at 11G15, Visibility 10SM, Density Alt. 7500'
Flight Plan filed and opened with Oakland Radio at 22:51Z. After which I requested flight
following from Bay Departure. En route visibility was not greater than 10 miles until we
climbed above 7500' after passing over Auburn airport (AUN). There was significant haze in
the central valley, but once I climbed above this towards the mountains the flight visibility
extended to at least 20 miles. In general the flight was turbulence free. I encountered some
very light chop in the pass between Truckee and Tahoe, but other than that, the flight was
very smooth.
After passing over Tahoe/Truckee (TRK) airport, I continued to follow Highway 80 northeast
towards the Reno/Tahoe Class C airspace and the Verdi checkpoint. Shortly before entering
Class C airspace I monitored the ATIS for RNO and then contacted Reno Approach. I was
cleared to the Verdi checkpoint and told to turn towards the airfield once I reached that
position.
I could see the cloud build up in the distance, but the sky immediately above the airport was
clear, as was my current position and the airspace I would use for the approach.
As I approached the airfield I was given traffic avoidance vectors and eventually vectored onto
final approach for runway 16R. At this point I was cleared to land and given a wind of 250
degrees at 11kts.
A commercial airliner was cleared for departure ahead of me while I was on a 3 mile final and
I noted it's rotation point on the runway as a reference for the end of my useful runway for
avoiding wake turbulence. I decided that I needed to land well before the second taxiway
(Lima), which is located approximately half way down the 11,000' runway.
I was still above the pattern altitude for the airport, since I had been maintaining a steady
altitude for terrain clearance during the traffic avoidance vectoring, so I initiated a forward
slip to lose some altitude for final approach.
The slip wasn't needed for more than a few seconds, so I recovered to normal flight and
reduced the airspeed below the white arc and began adding flaps.
Over the end of the runway, I had full flaps and was adding power to slow my rate of descent
to land after the displaced threshold, and maintain my landing airspeed of between 65-70 mph.
I was able to track the centerline of the runway using right aileron and left rudder to counter-
act the cross wind from the right. Once past the displaced threshold I eased back the throttle,
the aircraft settled down into a 3-point attitude and had a smooth simultaneous touchdown of
all wheels. I didn't notice any sideways movement after touchdown, or tailwheel shimmy.
The aircraft continued to track the centerline of the runway for a few seconds as I fed in full
right aileron and continued to add left rudder as seemed necessary. Just as we approached the
first taxiway (Juliet), the tail began to depart to the left and I pressed full left rudder and
added some left brake. Unfortunately this was not enough and the tail continued to move away
from the straight-line track down the runway.
I kept the yoke full back with full right aileron as the aircraft kept rotating. The aircraft came
to a full stop in an upright position after rotating approximately 120 degrees to the right.
During the rotation the aircraft tilted to the left. Initially I didn't
think there was any damage
to the aircraft. The gear was intact, though there had been some squeeling from the tires.
However, I did notice that the yoke wasn't moving as freely as it normally did, even though
from my position inside the cockpit there was no apparent damage.
After a brief moment to compose myself I declined assistance offered by the Control Tower
and requested progressive taxi instructions to the tie down area. While taxiing, I was able to
contact Reno Radio and close my flight plan.
Once I had parked and tied down the aircraft, I performed a complete visual inspection and
found that the left wingtip had scraped along the runway and,
since I had full right aileron
correction during the landing, the left aileron had also been damaged. I found no other
apparent damage. I left the aircraft secured and immediately called West Valley Flying Club
to find out what needed to be done.
I suppose the biggest thing I took away from this experience is an appreciation for the old
taildragger mantra that you don't finish flying one of these planes until it's securely tied down
and you're in the bar having a beer. As they say, there are those who have, and those who will.
I'm just thankful that mine was minor.
Amongst the many suggestions for preventing this incident, or recovering from it, were:
-- A wheel landing in high cross winds is usually better than a three point landing.
-- Carrying some power through the landing and into the roll out could have improved rudder
effectiveness as the aircraft slowed down.
-- Landing at an angle across the 150ft runway could have reduced the crosswind component.
-- Choosing and alternate airport with better conditions. Truckee wasn't that far away and we
could have rented a car and drove the remaining distance.
All good suggestions and, as usual, given with 20/20 hindsight. I agree that one or more of
these could have had a beneficial effect on the landing. However, the approach was stable and
the conditions were well within the demonstrated capabilities of the aircraft. The groundloop
occurred after a successful, smooth, landing. Perhaps I got distracted just at the wrong
moment. The tail departed a straight track and the plane groundlooped so fast that it would
have been difficult to react, even if I'd already had discussions about the possible corrections.
So, I've chalked this one up to experience and hope that I've learned enough to prevent
another similar occurrence. - Terry Ridgway, November 2000