Originally Posted by eltrome

Hi I am an old timer that wants to renew its CFI and found some confusing issues on the 2004 ASA manual:
Pivotal Altitude?? Are you not suppose to keep the same altitude on the 8 on pylons

Originally Posted by 250 or point 65

Ryan,

I am also confused as to why you would think there would be more stress on a wheel if you are only touching one down. If you are skilled enough to do this, the airplane is still flying...so you have less weight on the wheel than you normally would AND in order to do this, you must keep the aircraft straight, so the wheel is doing what it was invented to do... roll straight. in this situation, there is no sideloading of the gear because pilot's inputs cause the plane to go straight.

With that said, i disagree as well that this is a useful exercise. People make this WAY too complicated on their students in my opinion. Like i said in pearls other thread, a good approach will almost always lead to a good landing if you explain to a student that ailerons keep you over the centerline and rudder lines you up with the centerline. I think it does a student a great disservice to give them rote knowledge when they are trying to land. "ok, so if you have a right crosswind you are gonna use right aileron and left rudder, put the right wheel down first" Thats all BS...like a student needs to be thinking about all this when trying to flair. how about this is what rudder does (move the nose back and forth) and this is what ailerons do (keep you over the runway)

K.I.S.S.

Originally Posted by eltrome

Thanks for the reply,
I have read the explanation on the manual, but to mention ALTITUDE instead of “reference point” or other word that would make less confusing to some one that has never used this expression before?

Originally Posted by Photon

Myself I teach the crab on final and transitioning to the sideslip when approaching the runway (just before flaring).
Never tried a one-wheel touch and go myself, though it sounds interesting.
In regards to touchdown, I don't understand (like many others) why touching down with one wheel first would overstress anything at all.
Remember, if your airplane is "airborn" enough to touch down with just one wheel, and especially stay at one wheel, then it is still creating tons of lift, and there is basically no weight on the wheels anyway??

Originally Posted by 250 or point 65

I know that the FAA is incorrect about a lot of things, but one wheel touching down before another has been taught for a long time.

Originally Posted by NoyGonnaDoIt

I don't even think it's an FAA issue. As you say, I think we can agree that landing with the airplane pointed in a diferent direction that it is moving across the ground is worse for the tires than landing on one wheel that is rolling straight ahead with no side loads.

If you are maintaining longitudinal alignment with no drift, it's not a matter of "making" one wheel touch down before the other. If there is a crosswind and you are maintaining longitudinal alignment with no drift, one wheel =will= touch down before the other.

Originally Posted by ryan1234

If the airplane has lost enough lift to touch down (one wheel) it has generally passed its critical AoA. As such there is not enough energy in the boundary layer to overcome reverse flow. There isn't much lift being generated at this point, especially since the aircraft has passed through the ground effect. Unless the airplane is flown into the ground and forward energy is placed into the ground (which usually causes a bounce), it must have weight on the wheels. On the other side... you would need to have enough dynamic pressure for the control surfaces to be able to bank the aircraft - this also puts a heavier load on the aircraft since less "lift" is being used vertically to overcome weight - but none the less produces some lift.

All in all... I can't imagine this being good for the tire itself.