landing on hard runway pain

[flywise 169]

Hi everyone,

I really would like to have some help/input with best landing technique and experience on hard runways with the catalina. I mastered water landings very well but I have a hard time landing the thing under gusty conditions on hard runways......I did my taildragger endorsement on a C-185 (that was a long time ago) and recently took additional lessons  in a citabria I thought was very similar to the Cat....

 

Thank you very much to the member's feedback on this one

[akflyer 1427]

Can't help too much on this one.  I have yet to fly mine but I have often wondered how the narrow gear would be on black top.  I am not sure that anything will prepare you for the cat as not many other planes have no suspension other than the tires. 

 

 

[cowlove 33]

First I'll address the gusty wind part of your question.  

Really NOT an ideal crosswind machine.   Given the minimal sponson clearance and the narrow track, I kinda developed a "decrab and plop" technique where I kick it straight at the last moment of a 3-point landing with a tiny bit of power added in for rudder authority.   Get right on firm crosswind corrections the second you touch down, then bounce to a stop on your ridiculous golf cart tires.   The only saving grace is you're going pretty darn slow at touchdown.     If you don't time the "decrab" part perfectly, you'll either scrape a sponson or sideload the tires and wallow all over the runway fighting a groundloop.   

Not a good general technique, and if you try it in someone else's land plane they'll probably never let you fly it again.

Honestly, I'd avoid crosswinds until you're super comfortable with the plane.   The maximum I've landed is a 6 knot direct crosswind at KBFI, and would probably divert to a water landing at KRNT and walk home rather than do that again. 

PS: Be careful about scraping your sponsons to the point where they can get waterlogged or water-filled... a Catalina owner died that way.   

Second, as far as the suspension goes- the tires do have a lot of give to them, but unfortunately also have no damping and will bounce you even more than spring gear.   Running a really low pressure helps.   I added a simple suspension by cutting the main landing gear push/pull tube in half and making it so it could telescope a couple inches, then adding ears for a standard Piper Cub HD bungee to hold it together/shortened.  I'll upload pictures when I get home.  

Jack from Texas spoke about wheel landing his plane, but I never found a technique that worked predictably and consistently.  I keep meaning to spend more time exploring that. 

Good luck!

 

[cowlove 33]

Also- check to make sure your gear mechanism is actually over-center.  With the right precautions, actually undo the lock pin and bounce the plane and wiggle the handle around and make sure it doesn't collapse.   The build manual stated the builder should bend the push/pull tube to ensure the mechanism was over-center, but that doesn't actually change the geometry of the mechanism, it just makes it *look* more over center.  

Mine was just barely *not* over center, and held fine for hundreds of landings, but the lock pin was actually getting loaded a tiny bit.  I finally planted it hard enough to rip out the lock pin one day.   The good news?  The Catalina is perfectly at home sliding across grass.   Steerable right up to the stop, smooth, just a little grass stain on her chin.    Zero damage other than the lock pin. 

 

 

 

 

[flywise 169]

Great info....It feels a bit better now that I have confirmation someone else works out hard to land this craft on a runway....I started thinking I had lost my abilities.  Regarding the gear overcenter, mine is electric and hence will not have that issue. Also maybe a better technique, if really necessary to get down in a bad crosswind would be to leave the gear up intentionally and land on grass that way....only problem is how to taxi without someone noticing the noise generated on the paved taxiway