The Tactical Approach

I wanted to try something new when it came to landing today based on something an ex RAAF member (not a pilot though) told. He told me that sometimes when the jets were coming in to land, and particularly if there were a few of them they might use what was called the "Tactical Approach".

Here's how he described it: Planes would fly, at 10,000 feet above and parrallel to the runway in the opposite direction to the landing direction. As they passed the end of the runway they would roll on their back, throttle back, engage the airbrakes and pull through a half inside loop easing out of the loop at the bottom to line up with the runway and land.

The advantage is supposedly the drastic reduction in approach distance.

It seemed like an interesting idea. Even though Curtin is big a couple of times I have been caught in situations where I either had a shortish approach over trees, or a land or hit the trees type scenario. In these situations the really tough thing is that last approach turn. If you have trees at the head of the approach and a short landing run you are between the devil and the deep blue sea. You can't fly too close to the trees for fear of becoming entangled, but if you fly too far away from them you lose some of your approach distance (which you might need). Also, you are trying to keep your altitude down so that you don't have a long approach, but against that is the fact that you need to pull a reasonably quick 90 degree turn - the sort that usually results in losing a bit of altitude.

More experienced pilots would probably be happy with making a more gentle turn with the wheels touching down very close to the completion of the turn and that is an option, but is one that takes finesse (I've managed something like that once myself) and practice.

So, I tried out the tactical approach twice with the zero today, and I have to say it shows a great deal of promise. At about 70metres distance flying directly downwind, and 30 metres altitude I flipped the zero on her back, closed the throttle and pulled through a half loop emerging at about 10 metres alitude. I held her level as she washed off some of the airspeed she picked up in the dive, and then gave her about 1/3 throttle (about the normal landing approach throttle level). She came in and landed about 10-15 metres behind me. Not bad.

Second run I had her in basically exactly the same position - maybe only 25 metres altitude as I was more confident about pulling through the loop, but this time let her wash of a little more altitude, very gently pulling her out of her dive (obviously you don't want your plane still plummeting at the ground at 10 metres - you need to almost be back to level flight by then) probably coming back to level flight around 6 metres. Once again landing speed throttle. This time I got her down about 20-30 metres in front of me, so I accomplished the landing approach from an altitude of about 25 metres in about 40 metres horizontally. Not bad methinks.

I didn't try the tactic with the RV4 because she didn't fly today. With the wind up I decided my two best wind beaters would get the nod (the RV4 is probably a good wind beater too - I'm just a little more careful as she is more fragile). However - I think she will do an even better job on the tactical approach. By engaging her flaps as she rolls over I should bleed of quite a bit more airspeed in the dive.

So - why does the tactical approach seem to work. A few things come to mind:

• Alignment. With the tactical approach you actually use the downwind leg to line the aircraft up. Once there, flip her on her back and pull through that wide loop (not too wide!!!). At this point you have effectively made your last turn. If you add the altitude to the horizontal distance you actually still have 100 metres or so of approach.
• There is no turn into the wind. If it is windy - the sort of wind that pushes aircraft into the ground when they turn into it then you really are between a rock and a hard place on that last turn. Too low, and you run the risk of being pushed into the ground by the wind, too high and you may not hit the mark. The wind may affect you in your half loop of course as well, but in a lot of ways correcting an aircraft perpendicular closeish to the ground is easier and more instinctive (pull up!) than having one on its side close to the ground (opposite aileron, pull up).
  
• Once you emerge from the bottom of your loop you have less things to worry about - the aircraft is essentially level - you may need to make some minor adjustments but probably nothing serious, and you need to remember to put the throttle back on to landing speed as your airspeed falls enough.

Having said all that the potential for disaster with this approach is definitely there, and I would certainly describe it as a tactic for pilots that know their aircraft well and find themselves in a spot of bother because of changing winds rather than something beginners should try.

Also gave the "Killer Bee" another hit out today - she is crazy. I think that high pitched whine was annoying the two guys trying to practice their golf but what the hey, I was only flying for 10 minutes or so - they can practice their silly game all day - besides which the distraction of that *noise* is good practice for shielding your mind 8-)

I got the impression the wind at altitude was a bit gusty by then. She was mainly rock solid, but she did get one or two slight nudges from the wind. Am a bit worried about the Feigao RX being flown out of range before I realise, but it seems pretty solid. Certainly more so than the one in the zero (which I switched the crystal in the other day in the hope of eliminating some of the glitch - not sure if it has worked yet).

I did a mixture of gliding, 1/2 and WOT with the elebee - she is still remarkably stable at slow speeds, and still has a really good glide angle (not surprising I spose as the weight of the new power setup is quite similar once removing the nose weight to allow for the heavier battery is taken into consideration). Oh - I didn't tactically approach the elebee either - I'm not sure how it would work with something with a really slick airfoil like that. It may just be too good at translating altitude into velocity. Maybe next time.

Also needing to mention that I found the cause of the Zero's bad behavior on the weekend - the base of the engine was not secured firmly against the firewall and so the slightest deviation in balance was making the engine shake around when running. Tightened up, and also gave the zero a little more downthrust. She is flying much the same way she did - perhaps a little bit better.

And the final note - in preparation for the indoor night on the 25th of Feb I bought a StevenAero "liddle squirt" from Nitro yesterday. I was told a 20 minute build - I was skeptical - I was right. I got the whole fuselage together last night - took about 2 hours of pretty easy modelling. Guessing the wing will take much the same tonight. She's not posted in the hangar yet but will be soon.