In Canada, CAR 602.01

[Colonel Sanders]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mma-Mwg9NNM

[TeePeeCreeper]

Brilliant!!!!

Just feet, just the footsies!!! (I wonder what the epaulette crowds would think of it...)

All the best,
TPC

[iflyforpie]

WTF was that?

When I saw..... 'Landing a Piper Cub backwards' I was assuming that there was a slight headwind and the ground speed was negative.....


Finish welded my compression struts today..... ...... can't wait to try that out!

[Colonel Sanders]

Sammy Mason is a very, very impressive
young airshow pilot, from a strong aviation
family.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjQiNi3yeoA


His grandfather - a friend of Tony LeVier - was
an airshow and Lockheed experimental test pilot,
who taught Steve McQueen to fly. He was an
expert at spinning the early jet fighters, and was
the first person to fly a helicopter upside down.

That might not cut much slack with the four
bars here, but it impresses the hell out of me.

Back to the original video - landing the cub
looking backwards. Sammy is actually a
biological Kalman filter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalman_filter

[iflyforpie]

Actually, the more I watch and think about the video, the less impressed I am.

First is the intent. If you want to 'feel' the yaw of the airplane...... close your eyes, concentrate on the feeling in the seat of your pants.... and get a safety pilot to monitor your progress. Or cover the instruments and see how close you are to your desired values when you remove the covers.

Second is related to the first..... you aren't feeling the airplane by looking backwards, you are simply replacing one reference with another.

You do the same thing when:

-Reversing a vehicle looking over your shoulder vs using mirrors.

-Flying a remote control aircraft towards you.

-Rowing a boat using references behind you to stay straight.

-Going from visual to instruments and vice versa.

-Flying relative to horizon vs relative to another aircraft and vice versa.

-Students (incorrectly) staring at the main wheels to try and judge height above ground before touchdown.



Alignment doesn't look like it's an issue at all given the big field, and vertical control could either be done by feel as he has probably done hundreds of times before, or by setting up a constant slow decent rate like a glassy water landing. Detecting yaw would be even easier since the vertical stab and tail wheel are a huge reference point... and pilots are quite used to seeing the rudder move the way we want it to over our shoulders during control checks.

While a neat trick, I don't really think it really adds any value to flying skills.

[Colonel Sanders]

You're probably right, but I still have to try it!