Landing the yak

[malcheus]

I searched quite a bit, but I couldn't find a topic specifically about this;

 

I'm finally learning how to land the yak, a bit; but still very often I end up destroying my gear or engine. 

The problem seems to be high vertical velocity; causing either a bounce, followed by a stall and an other rough touchdown untill the gear gives in, or the engine dying on touchdown, but the gear surviving.

 

Can someone please give me some advice about landing in the Yak?

 

A few specific questions I haven't quite figured out:

 

Flaps are extended/retracted, or is there a way to set them to 50%? Do you guys use them on touchdown? I seems to me like the bounce is a lot less when they are retracted, but you need a longer runway and higher horizontal velocity.

 

How fast should I be going before flaring and touching the runway?

How should I recover from an exessive bounce?

How should I put the rev. limiter during final?

 

And something I have learned from experience: if you have trouble seeing the runway and positioning your aircraft relatively to the runway, open the canopy and stick your head out on final aproach. 

If you do it on the left side, you can still see your speed and altitude gages. This really helped me a big deal in at least crashing on the runway, not next to it. 

 

 

[Yazh-29]

 

Enjoy!

[coconut]

I'm a beginner too, and going through the same issues. I'll comment with the few things I think I've learned so far. To be taken with a big rock of salt.
 

I searched quite a bit, but I couldn't find a topic specifically about this;
 
I'm finally learning how to land the yak, a bit; but still very often I end up destroying my gear or engine. 
The problem seems to be high vertical velocity; causing either a bounce, followed by a stall and an other rough touchdown untill the gear gives in, or the engine dying on touchdown, but the gear surviving.
 
Can someone please give me some advice about landing in the Yak?
 
A few specific questions I haven't quite figured out:
 
Flaps are extended/retracted, or is there a way to set them to 50%? Do you guys use them on touchdown? I seems to me like the bounce is a lot less when they are retracted, but you need a longer runway and higher horizontal velocity.

No intermediary position on the Yak according to the video posted above.
 

How fast should I be going before flaring and touching the runway?
How should I recover from an exessive bounce?

Abort and go around... The right thing to do is to learn not to bounce. From my experience, I have a tendency to reduce my speed below 200 kph too early, which causes me to fall onto the runway. I'm currently trying to delay that and slowly getting there, but it will take some training. Currently, I'm pretty good at flying parallel to the ground a few meters high. Still hard figuring out exactly when I'm about to touch down.
 

How should I put the rev. limiter during final?
 
And something I have learned from experience: if you have trouble seeing the runway and positioning your aircraft relatively to the runway, open the canopy and stick your head out on final aproach. 
If you do it on the left side, you can still see your speed and altitude gages. This really helped me a big deal in at least crashing on the runway, not next to it.

I also had that problem, and I think it's an indication you are doing something wrong. You should have no trouble seeing the runway. That the runway is under your nose could be an indication the nose of your aircraft is too high. Let it point down a bit until you flare. Doing so should get you flying at 200kph, and by the time you are finished with your flare, you should have reached 170kph, which apparently is the touchdown speed.

[malcheus]

Thanks for the advices chaps;

One thing that already surprises me in the video (and also in coconut's comment) is that the pilot points the nose downward during the final descent;

with the crosshair pointing at the beginning of the runway.

I always learned to fly with the nose more or less neutral, and to adjust the speed to get on the correct glideslope. 

However, I learned this in sims that simulate jet aircraft, mostly with an ILS installed.

 

Is this really how pilots landed these planes back then, or is it just an easier alternative?

[unreasonable]

Thanks for the advices chaps;

One thing that already surprises me in the video (and also in coconut's comment) is that the pilot points the nose downward during the final descent;

with the crosshair pointing at the beginning of the runway.

I always learned to fly with the nose more or less neutral, and to adjust the speed to get on the correct glideslope. 

However, I learned this in sims that simulate jet aircraft, mostly with an ILS installed.

 

Is this really how pilots landed these planes back then, or is it just an easier alternative?

 

What you are doing is correct for jets because they change power rather slowly compared to a prop. So you get them set up early and maintain a constant descent at just about landing speed. Actually a carrier landing is a bit like that even with a prop because it is the best way to hit a precise point.  The problem is the rate of descent is a bit high and most of these planes did not have very strong gear.

 

With a prop you can increase power almost instantaneously so you can actually fly down towards the end of the runway at 200-220 kmp with the flaps and gear slowing you down and then flare along the runway to allow the speed to drop. The difficulty then is judging the height.

 

If you find some videos on you tube of prop planes landing you will see how they do it.

[malcheus]

What you are doing is correct for jets because they change power rather slowly compared to a prop. So you get them set up early and maintain a constant descent at just about landing speed. Actually a carrier landing is a bit like that even with a prop because it is the best way to hit a precise point.  The problem is the rate of descent is a bit high and most of these planes did not have very strong gear.

 

With a prop you can increase power almost instantaneously so you can actually fly down towards the end of the runway at 200-220 kmp with the flaps and gear slowing you down and then flare along the runway to allow the speed to drop. The difficulty then is judging the height.

 

If you find some videos on you tube of prop planes landing you will see how they do it.

 

I tried it a bit, and it works surprisingly well (I managed about 5 touch-and-go's without destroying the gear.

What I really noticed is how the yak actually slows down in a shallow dive when the engine is idle; It has a lot of drag it seems. 

 

Thanks again for all the advices. 

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 Yak-1 is pretty easy to land, the controls are good and responsive. Keeping the glidepath with power a breeze. The lockable tail wheel is a big improvement over the castering one on LaGG-3 or La-5.