One of the most helpful things one can do to transition to the mono in my
opinion is just go out and rent a garden variety POC 172 spam can and
practice soft field landings and takeoffs. The
soft field landing technique is basically identical, just fly into ground
effect and keep pulling
back the yoke until the mains touch, then hold the nosewheel off until you
decide to let it down.
Try to get the timing down so the mains touch just when you achieve full
back yoke.
The runway should start to disappear for a moment or two before touching the
mains.
If the nose wheel touches prematurely, you flunked and possible bounce or
ground loop. Its OK
to grind a little flat spot on the tail tie down! Nobody will notice!
Soft field takeoffs are very similiar too. Use 15 deg flaps and start the
takeoff run with
full back yoke. When you break ground, quickly go forward on the yoke (very
little on the mono)
to avoid a stall and go into ground effect. As you gain speed, retract the
flaps and fly away. This
technique works exactly the same on the mono and works well for windy
crosswind
conditions. For a normal takeoff in light wind conditions, you would
normally gain about 35 kts groundspeed and then go forward on the stick just
slightly to raise the tail, at which point
the ailerons become effective and you get the sensation of balancing on a
beach ball for
a few moments until the plane rotates. This is the only real difference as
far as I can
tell after several hundred landings and takeoffs with the mono. Of course,
you would
still need some actual taildragger time but doing the above exercise could
shorten your
transition time dramatically! Your mileage may vary however!
Glenn
>From: Chris Beck <n9zes@verizon.net>
>Reply-To: europa-list@matronics.com
>To: europa-list@matronics.com
>Subject: Re: Re: Europa-List: Flying a heavy Europa XS?
>Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 13:46:07 -0600 (CST)
>
>
>Good Day All,
>
>So am I to believe that people looking to transit into a Europa are
>training
>in a Citabria? Will this be acceptable to the FAA, CAA, and an insurance
>company? Or is the Diamond more closer to the Europa? With no Europa to
>train in
>what are people doing to meet any requirement?
>
>Mike Duane A207
>Redding, California
>XS Conventional Gear
>
>----> Mike, by stating 'conventional gear' do you mean the conventional
>Europa monowheel? Or have you converted to a true 'conventional gear' with
>tailwheel?
>
>The way I see it, if you are building a Europa with the little wheel on the
>wrong end, i.e. tri-gear, you need nothing more than basic training, and a
>Katana is the closest airplane to a Europa (except the Liberty) in size,
>weight, performance and power.
>
>If flying a Europa with the little wheel in the back, you definitely need
>to get a proper tailwheel endorsement by an instructor. Citabrias are
>commonly used for tailwheel instruction as they are both tailwheel and
>aerobatic, so can be used for more than one purpose, and also they are good
>handling planes on the ground. A Piper J-3 Cub would not be as good of a
>trainer as they are just too darn easy to handle on the ground, but I did
>my first lesson in a Cub before transitioning to our 140.
>
>I can't imagine trying to perform test flights on a Europa not knowing how
>to fly the plane itself very well let along trying to figure out how to
>handle a tailwheel plane.
>
>Chris
>A159
>
>
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