tackett@wivax.UUCP (Raymond Tackett) (02/28/84)
: Sorry, ccvaxa!rmiller. They DO back up, and not just rotary wing. Two examples: A small English domestic airline was reported to be landing backwards on an island off the coast of Scotland where the wind velocity often exceeded the stall speed of the aircraft. I was at a small landing zone in Viet Nam (near Pleiku) in 1966. It was suitable for C-7 Caribous. One afternoon, a C-130 Hercules landed there. The runway was both short and narrow for the plane. On rollout, the nosewheel ran out on a dike separating two rice paddies. The main gear was about 4 feet from the end and the dike was too narrow and soft to hold the whole plane. The crew chief opened the tailgate part way. The pilot reversed propellers and taxied backwards guided by the crew chief over the intercom. They had to stop every 1/2 plane length and use forward pitch to reduce the tailpipe temperatures, but they eventually reached the beginning of the runway, unloaded and left. Having lost both cargo and fuel, they got out with almost a plane length to spare. -- /////\\\\\ \ \ / / From the brightly colored, ever opening 'chute \ / of NOID Ray Tackett
rmiller@ccvaxa.UUCP (03/07/84)
#R:wivax:-1923500:ccvaxa:5100017:000:781 ccvaxa!rmiller Mar 5 17:27:00 1984 he-he, what can i say? sometimes they do back up. actually, i have done some backing myself flying wave in a glider out in colorado (black forest for you soaring buffs out there). someone (don't know who because someone elses mailer (look's like it was around the ARPA gateway at MIT, but who knows?) totally mangled the header) asked for the source of that quote. well, it came from an article in the Minneapolis Tribune several years ago (maybe as much as 10 years ago) about a crop duster pilot. the quote was attributed there to one of the pilot's instructors. in his case, the quotation was VERY true! but thanks for all the interesting mail i have been getting, i might summarize it if more good backing stories come in (would you believe a B-17??) uiucdcs!ccvaxa!rmiller
rjk@mgweed.UUCP (Randy King) (03/08/84)
Does it count to land with a headwind exceeding stall speed? I was taking my dual long Xc with four others from Athens, OH to Myrtle Beach and back. When we got back, the headwind was *right down* 24 out of the west. The instructor decided to take over for the guy piloting and touched down with nary a forward movement. As he throttled back, we started moving backwards. Talk about weirdness. Randy King AT&T/CP-MG ihnp4!mgweed!rjk