I agree with Bob's excellent description of the Mono. I had two hours in
the demo and it was very helpful. I operate off grass and that helps a lot.
It would help any beginning Mono pilot to learn on grass. I have found it
important to not land too fast. That leads to bouncing that is not helpful
in any taildragger. My first landing on my first test flight was the best I
have done. I was careful about approach speeds , touchdown speed and
attitude. At one hundred hours and over one hundred landings , like ANY
airplane, if you get casual and sloppy landing it will be a problem. In the
final analysis, taildraggers are more challenge then trigear. That's why
more planes today are trigear. Some say the trigear is just as fast. I
doubt it. I got the mono because it has a sexy look that trigears do not
have. Even the lowly Cessna 150 looks better as a taildragger. Something
about the perky stance of the taildragger plane.
Ken Carpenter
A123 N9XS 914 Mono
----- Original Message -----
From: <DJA727@aol.com>
Subject: Re: Europa-List: Monowheel Ground Handling
>
> Bob,
>
> That was an excellent description of the monowheel handling that anyone
like
> myself getting up to speed would appreciate. I would ask one more thing,
if
> you don't mind. Can you describe the cross wind handling of the aircraft?
I
> have not flown in any more than 5 knots of wind so far and in my last 10
> hours of flight time, I plan to focus mostly on that regime of flight. I
> understand the straightening of the aircraft just prior to touchdown, but
I
> am wondering if your timing is a little off, what happens. If you input
the
> rudder too early, the airplane will start to drift sideways, unless you
bank
> into the wind. You will end up touching down in a sideways drift. I have
> ended up drifting sideways a couple times with no winds and it seemed to
not
> be a problem. If you input the rudder too late, you will be hitting in a
> crab, which I would think would be a big problem, giving the unstable
nature
> of a tail dragger.
>
> Can you touch down on the up wind out rigger in these airplanes first?
There
> is a slight amount of bank possible when the airplane is on the main, but
the
> main is not compressed.
>
> This is the last item I need to get through before feeling that I made the
> right decision in the gear configuration of my airplane. I feel somewhat
as
> I did 24 years ago as a student pilot -- watching the flags while driving
to
> the airport. Part of this is due to knowing a Europa owner who ground
looped
> his monowheel airplane twice. I can see what the possibilities are and
don't
> want the same thing to happen to me!
>
> Thanks again for the great description!
>
>
> Dave
> A227
> Mini U2
> 28 hours
>
>
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