jerome1
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- Oct 22, 2012
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Just wondering if some of you could share some of their worst or surprising flight experiences with the Cubs, that could help as lessons learned for all of us ?
I will start by one of mine that is certainly a classic. Few weeks ago I was landing on concrete with 10 to 15kts of wind at around 45 deg from the axis, slightly gusty with some thermals going on. The plane was light, half tank and flown solo.The landing was fine and the Cub decelerated normally, without using brakes as usual. At low speed probably around 15 / 20mph a gust took the Cub airborne again. It was a big surprise as I had the feeling to be close to a walking speed...fortunatly the ailerons and elevators still responded a bit and I could control and land it properly few meters after, but sudenly another gust put it back in the air for a second run ! Control and landing were still ok but that was quite an experience to be popped-up in the air two times in few seconds at such ridiculous speed.
Lessons learned...with a Cub in solo and a bit of wind, gust / thermals, anything can happen even at near walking speed. Now I am using brakes a bit more in those conditions to reduce deceleration time and then continue taxi at very low speed...
As a personal background I had around 2500 hrs flight experience and 150hrs on Cubs, with about 300 Cub landings in all sorts of winds without any problem when this happened. The exact same thing actually occured to a friend with the Cub a week after in very similar conditions (low wind but some gust due to strong thermal activities). This person has over 20 000hrs and is a profesionnal flight instructor. He was very surprised ! Seems those things can realy hapen to anyone with light Cubs flown solo.
I will start by one of mine that is certainly a classic. Few weeks ago I was landing on concrete with 10 to 15kts of wind at around 45 deg from the axis, slightly gusty with some thermals going on. The plane was light, half tank and flown solo.The landing was fine and the Cub decelerated normally, without using brakes as usual. At low speed probably around 15 / 20mph a gust took the Cub airborne again. It was a big surprise as I had the feeling to be close to a walking speed...fortunatly the ailerons and elevators still responded a bit and I could control and land it properly few meters after, but sudenly another gust put it back in the air for a second run ! Control and landing were still ok but that was quite an experience to be popped-up in the air two times in few seconds at such ridiculous speed.
Lessons learned...with a Cub in solo and a bit of wind, gust / thermals, anything can happen even at near walking speed. Now I am using brakes a bit more in those conditions to reduce deceleration time and then continue taxi at very low speed...
As a personal background I had around 2500 hrs flight experience and 150hrs on Cubs, with about 300 Cub landings in all sorts of winds without any problem when this happened. The exact same thing actually occured to a friend with the Cub a week after in very similar conditions (low wind but some gust due to strong thermal activities). This person has over 20 000hrs and is a profesionnal flight instructor. He was very surprised ! Seems those things can realy hapen to anyone with light Cubs flown solo.
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