What is the angle...

[mhorowit]

What is the angle with the horizon the T'craft makes when on three points? - Mike

[jgerard]

Are you looking for the angle of the cord line? (angle of attack)and do you mean actually resting on the ground? because that changes with tail wheel and main gear tire sizes.

Jason
N43643

[mhorowit]

Yes; that's what I asked (I think). What is the angle (let's make it a close guess because of the aforementioned tire size) the a/c makes with the ground. Draw a line from the spinner to the aft most point; what's the angle between that line and the ground?

The reason I'm asking is when taking off I line up the horizon with a point on the windshield and try to remember that point because that's the attitude I will assume when I wanna land; I'd like to know what that angle is.

Is it anywhere near 30*?

[crispy critter]

Angle of attack

Hello Mike,
Sorry to hear about your mis-hap,I hope you get her going in time to make Alliance this year.How is the repairs coming along?
As for the angle in reference to the horizon,you need to learn to fly the plane more by feel instead of all site reference.The reason I say this is because the horizon will not always appear in the same place in your windshield from one airport to another.You may get by with doing that for a while if you always fly from the same airport taking off and landing the same direction but when you go to a different airport the angle may be the same but the horizon will be in a different place.Also,when making your approch for landing the airplane will not hold a constant angle from short final to touch down,if you tried to get the 3 point atitude on short final then you would stall long before reaching the runway.
If you make it to Alliance maybe Forrest or myself can do a few approchs with you to show ya what I'm talking about....I can show you a few easy ways to learn to feel the airplane in coordination with site and that should help you out some.
Hope to see ya soon,
Kevin Mays

[mhorowit]

Hi Kev - yep, I plan on being there, traveling by Ford though. Thanks for the offer and I may take you up on it, but my question still stands - what's the angle?

The reason I'm curious is that when my a/c recovers, I want to do a wing-over, and that requires establishing a 30* angle with the horizon, and I'm wondering if the same angle/sight picture I use on approach and climb would work i.e. if it's 30*.

Looking forward to finally meeting you - Mike

[jgerard]

how about this -

I kinda forget the formula but somewhere back in trigonometry class we learned how to find the acute angle of triangle (less than 90*) when only having the dimensions of the triangle and one known corner angle. Use a plumb bob to drop a vertical line from the underside of the wing to the ground = dimension/side A, If you were to take a piece of string and a stake you could stretch the string from the underside of the wing to the stake located some distance behind the tail = dimension/side B, Dimension/side C would be from where the plum bob meets the ground back to the stake. I think the formula is (sine 0 = A/B) this will give you the angle between side A (the wing) and side C (the ground)

I'm sure I almost have the formula right.

Jason
N43643

[Acroeric]

To find 30 degrees in pitch look at your jury strut and use it as a sighting device. I used mine to establish vertical uplines when flying aerobatics in the Tcraft. You can also use your wing tip and the horizon. Kevin has a point about feeling the airplane- forget about all the angle crap with it sitting on the ground- you need to be able to feel the plane through the wing over. If you can't don't do them until you get comfortable judging attitude.

[crispy critter]

Eric and angles

Hello Eric,haven't seen anything from ya in a while.I got my steps.Thanks,they looked better than I expected

I thought these older guys were supposed to be teaching us this stuff instead of the other way around When I'm flying aerobatics I use lots of little site tricks for reference but even then I still judge 75-85% of the controls by feel.

How's the clipped wing coming along?Crispy has been setting on the back burner( pardon the punn)for a month or so.I have been so busy lately that I just can't make time for it,plus I was promised some parts from Harry that I finally gave up on and that set me back about 40 hours making them myself...but they are made now and it's just a few more hours labor from being ready to cover.Things are starting to slow down enough for me to do some steady work on it again.Hoping to fly it before X-mas.....wish me luck.