Roller coaster approach

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bobsk8
Technical Sergeant
Posts: 900
Joined: 04 May 2015, 12:53
Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Roller coaster approach

Post by bobsk8 »

I pride myself in flying good approaches and landings in the Connie. Tonight I flew into Sandspit in Alaska, and at about 1500 feet as I lined up for the approach to runway 30, I disengaged the AP, and reduced power, lowered the landing gear and 1st level of flaps. I then trimmed for about 105 mph, and as I moved the trim wheel to slow down to that speed, the nose pitched way up, maybe 15 degrees. I quickly applied down trim and pushed full forward on the yoke to avoid a stall, and then as the trim moved , the nose started moving down at a rapid rate and the Connie started diving towards the ground, whoops, back to trimming in the nose up position and now back to pitching up again. Now I am thinking that there is something drastically wrong with the elevator controls in the Connie, and I quickly looked at the boost controls, but they were all on. Now I am heading for the runway at around 500 feet agl, descending at about 1000 fpm, I began pulling full up yoke, and I still touched down at 380 FPM, to the screams and moaning and groaning of the passengers as they bounced around the cabin when I hit. :oops:

I pulled off the runway, and sat there for a second trying to figure out what went wrong, and then I looked at the AP controls, and I saw that I had disengaged the rudder and aileron levers, but the elevator lever was still engaged in the rear position. I had been fighting the elevator AP all the way to the ground, and that is why the trim had such a wild effect on the pitch.

Ok, now I taxi to the ramp, unload the Connie, and hit shift 9 expecting to get a good lecture about my crappy landing, and instead the evaluation said. " Nice landing, you got a nice round of applause"...

Got away with that one..... :D
MSFS 2020
ATC by PF3

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alan CXA651
Senior Master Sergeant
Posts: 2438
Joined: 15 Mar 2016, 08:23

Re: Roller coaster approach

Post by alan CXA651 »

Hi Bob.
You did well to control the landing with that still engauged , i bet you wont do that trick again , you where luky not to get sacked or jailed.
regards alan. 8)
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