Back on topic. What mistakes did these pilots make,
and how can you avoid doing them yourself?
1) excessive speed on final. This one is really obvious,
but it happens to us all, sooner or later, for various
reasons. A big mistake these pilots made, is that
they didn't do anything about it. Did they get the
power all the way off? Full flap? Maximum forward
slip with full rudder deflection
2) The biggest mistake these pilots made was
accepting the poor approach, and trying to force
it into a poor flare, and a poor landing. They should
have overshot when they realized they simply could
not get the airspeed under control when they crossed
the runway threshold. I will leave it to the psychologists
as to why so many pilots would rather wreck their
aircraft than go around. When I teach tailwheel, the
students learn that the simply can't accept a shoddy
approach, or flare, or touchdown, or rollout. When it
goes to hell, OVERSHOOT.
3) Oscillations. The Embry-Riddle pilot and the Piper
pilot (not to mention the U2 clip) tried to teach you
about oscillations but I'm not sure the lesson was
learned. Oscillations are really bad in aviation. Oscillations
in pitch during landing (porpoising) can rip the nosewheel
assembly off, and destroy the prop, engine and cowling.
Oscillations in yaw during and tailwheel landing will
ground loops and destroy a taildragger. Oscillations
during an ILS on both the loc and esp gs can result
in full-scale deflection and your death. Oscillations of
a flight control surface can result in flutter and the
surface exploding and departing the aircraft. A friend
of mind is dead now because his rudder fluttered on
his RV-7A.
As a pilot, you need to be very aware of the dangers
of oscillations. As a Good Stick, it is your job to actively
dampen them out (eg with rudder pedals in taildragger).
The U2 clip had a hint at the end:
FREEZE THE YOKE
Learn about what a PIO (pilot-induced osciallation) is.
Learn what causes it, and learn how to recognize it,
and learn how to fix it. Even if you only ever fly an
Embry-Riddle 172.
Unfortunately most pilots try very hard to induce
an oscillation, for example when they are "fishing
for a greaser" landing. Back and forth, and back
and forth the elevator goes. If there's anything
unstable in that system, by God, you're going to
find it.
When I teach tailwheel, I tell students once we
establish the aircraft in the 3-point attitude at a
foot or less above the runway - aligned with it -
to freeze the controls and don't do anything.
Don't do anything. The airplane sits down, then
the elevator comes back, and only minimal
rudder inputs as required. Again, if the taildragger
lands precisely aligned with the directly of
travel, it will continue to do so until the pilot
starts peddling on the rudders like he's riding a
bicycle down the runway. Again, working very
hard to try to find a resonant frequency so that
he can induce a divergent oscillation.
Don't do that.