Pattern and Landing

[aldoradave]

Going back to Texas to pick up my P337 next week. I will have a ATP/Citation jockey with some 337 experience with me. But never having flown one myself, I am more than curious as to the pattern and landing speeds as well as flap settings at the various points. If some of you more experienced pilots could give me a run down on what you do that would be much appreciated.

Dave Dillehay

[gkey]

I think most of us land our 337's at higher speeds than what they can really do (human nature, maybe). Think about it: Vs=65 KTS and Vso=52 KTS (for my plane), and still I land at about 75 KTS. These planes were originally built to fly Vietnam, and one of the key characteristics were to fly low, slow and be able to do steep decends for landings on very short runways. I have at (one) occasion landed my plane at 68 and was able to turn off the runway at the very first taxiway within a few seconds.

Having said that, here is my 'standard' procedure:
Before entering airfield - get speed down to 120
At entry of airfield or just before - lower gear + flaps 1/3 (this acts as a super-efficient airbrake, and will kill another 10 - 15 KTS easily. Do both simultaneously and you will have no pitch of the nose
Downwind - 100
Base - 90 + flaps 2/3
Established on final - 80 + props full +flaps full
Over the fence - 78
Over the threshold/numbers - Pull throttles back and round out just enough to make sure the mains will touch first; don't 'flare'. She WILL tippie-toe her feet on the ground 400 feet later. Like a symphony in aviation...

Of all the planes I have flown, I can tell you this: the 337 makes the best, most predictable landings ever. Time after time after time.

[Ernie Martin]

I go by the book, with some adjustments to ease workload and triple check gear down. My protocol is in the figure below*. Flaps to 1/3 and gear down abeam the opposite end of the runway at 1000 ft. altitude; do nothing but watch for gear down light; throttle to 16 abeam the start of the runway; maintain 1000 ft. until speed bleeds to 100 mph and then lower nose and adjust trim to maintain this speed throughout downwind and base; on final, flaps to full (with modest crosswinds, otherwise 1/3 to 2/3), props full fwd, adjust trim to 90 mph and put hands on throttles until touch-down; inside the fence and clear of obstacles, adjust trim (and, if needed, throttle) to 80 mph; when 3 - 5 ft. above runway, throttle all the way back and try not to land, slowly pulling the yoke back to keep flying 3 ft. above the runway (this is my trick for perfect landings, which avoids float and settles the aircraft down at the lowest possible speed). Obviously, short fields may need a different approach.

Note: I wrote the above before reading Jakes response, and I wanted to alert readers to the differences in speeds, because mine are in mph, and his appear to be in kts.

Ernie
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* Derived from my "Passenger is Suddenly the Pilot" document, which I keep in the glove compartment to assist passengers if I become incapacitated.

[aldoradave]

Thanks for the input. I'll give it a go.

Hey Ernie, I sent in an e mail requesting your check list and that other info, and even included the liability release. Can you get that to me?

Dave Dillehay

[Ernie Martin]

Sorry, Dave, just checked and I never got it (request from others fulfilled 6/28/08, 8/10/08, 2/15/09, 3/7/09 and 3/12/09). Please send it again -- instructions at www.SkymasterUS.com

Updated 1.5 hours later: I found it. Outlook had put it in the Junk Mail folder. Will send it out shortly.

Ernie

[skymstr02]

I use the same speeds as GKEY, but on short final I trim almost full nose up where it takes effort to push on the yoke to maintain the glide path, so when I pull the power, all I have to do is relax the push and the airplane actually flares itself.

[John Hoffman]

Flew with an instructor who was a great Skymaster guy - he had me fly the pattern and down final with out ever touching the yoke. It was all pedals nose up trim and throttle. Had full up trim down final to finally taking the wheel just before touch down. I allways have full up trim now and as you say it pretty much lands itself if you have speed under control.