I’ve been struggling on doing wheel landings on the x-cub for weeks and am quite desperate. I’ve been binge watching one real life tutorial after another and nothing clicks. I just keep bouncing.
The best methods I’ve found through trial and error are:
flat landing as much as possible
while in real life, you’d want more speed, the chances of bouncing is higher in game so instead I approach the runway way slower, around 55 knots then bleed more of it on roundout
during roundout, I increase the power drastically until my plane hovers just above ground
once I feel like I’m less than 1 feet above ground, I push the yoke forward to pin me to the ground
2nd method:
almost same as earlier but I set my RPM to around 900 to 1200 RPM
during roundout, I push the gas to max! This method helps me as speed changes way slower and I can keep slowly pushing the plane down without adding much speed after hover, same as before, push the yoke forward unto the ground
These methods are so difficult, I just need help on how to do it properly. None of my methods are realistic as well. Is there no way to wait until I feel the wheel kiss the ground and then that’s when I push the yoke forward? I see real life videos of wheel landings where they just maintain the negative elevation until the plane touches the ground. When I do it, the plane bounces!
Pls. help, I really want to wheel land this plane T_T
P.S. the tags ain’t working, can’t tag cubcrafters-xcub. It says “No matches found”
I just did a couple of landings in the X-Cub to see if the gear was overly bouncy as some planes in the sim are worse than others.
What seems to work for me is pretty much how I approach landing a tailwheel aircraft. I maintain an approach speed and AOA that gets me my desired lift. I used one notch of flaps and when crossing the runway threshold, I was about 50-55 knots. At this point I am adjusting the throttle but only small amounts, I don’t increase by drastic amounts.
The flare/roundout is just about leveling out the aircraft, you should be flying it to touchdown. At this point, it’s ok and even desirable to hear the stall horn. You want the lift to drop. The tricky part is feeling how high the wheels are from the ground. That’s hard in the sim. The goal is to have the lift drop below the point where it can hold the aircraft in the air at the same time the wheels touch down. If you drop it even a couple of feet, it will bounce.
A smooth landing does not require pushing the stick forward or back too much. It’s level as your airspeed, lift and altitude all converge with minimal vertical speed. Really, it’s the vertical speed component that contributes to bouncing.
Try it with no flaps or only one notch and see if that makes any difference. With full flaps, you can end up with too much lift and more bounces.
Hi,
Its no problem. Just go in with the speed you shall go in with on final. Find the right altitude. That is so with all airplanes. Use flaps or engine or sidetrack to adjust your landing spot. Use long finals for training. Try this for taildraggers. Use a speed a bit above recommended 5 - 10 kan. Just before the terminal lower the speed to recommended landing speed and spot the main wheels a foot above the airstreep. No engine power. Keep it so until the plane does not want to fly anymore. Needs practice with real taildraggers or a lot og practice in the sim.
Its so simple and so complicated. Three point landing is the reward.
Lots of great advice here so all I can add is maybe also try some other Cub variants, I find the Zlin Norden, Savage Cub and Ultra a lot more fun and agreeable than the X-Cub
Yeah, there are more Cub variants that fly really well. I am a big fan of the Savage Cub. It’s very well behaved and easy to land smoothly.
The Norden is great but it’s in a league of it’s own. Very good flight model and great for slow flying. The gear is softer so you really want to bleed off all the energy so you can keep it straight on the runway.
This class of lightweight, high-lift tailwheel planes are very rewarding to master. The best way to think about it is that you’re not done flying until you come to a stop. The air still needs to be respected.
Can you check my examples? I tried to land the plane with as little vertical airspeed as possible. Is my airspeed at the point my plane drops too fast? Do you drop at 30’ish knots.?
Pushing it down, this one is a bit fast but I can do it a lot closer to the ground now, but it was difficult to pull off, that’s why I’m asking for advice now:
But I don’t want to do 3 point landings. I’m already good with those. I want to do wheel landings. If I pull my throttle, the plane drops too fast for a wheel landing after the roundout
I see now. Even the first one looks ok but when you touch down, the tail is going down but with full flaps, the angle of attack increases enough to lift you back into the air a bit.
You can go idle on the throttle when you’re over the runway. Some planes need a little but not the X-Cub. And less flap unless you are going slower than that. You don’t want the extra lift. And keep the tail up longer and I think you have it.
When I want a super smooth landing, my eyes are glued to the VSI and I try to get it as close to zero as possible while the airspeed bleeds off. Let the stall horn blare at you and don’t let it pitch up.
I don’t bother with 3-point landings except for really short fields. That requires coming in with a high AOA and getting it to stall just at the right time.
I still can’t do it the way you guys do it. Can someone show me a video of their cockpit when they do it?
But Sal’s advice on only 1 flaps definitely helped, I don’t bounce anymore but only when I use my old method. Anyway, here are my progress:
Tried going idle, I can’t do it at all XD
1 flaps but with minimum RPM, push throttle until airspeed stops and I start hovering (0 VS) and then pushing the nose down into the ground. This time, I don’t bounce. It’s definitely not the correct way to do it but I think we’re getting there.
I get the best results when: airspeed at touchdown is 45 knots or below, almost 0 vertical speed at hover, 1 foot above ground and pushing the nose down into the runway. I think I’m getting to something
In real life we dont like 2 wheel landing. I use that only when short of runway and can use the brakes. Normally I use a goaround in that situation. Remember if you want to 2 wheel landing you are still flying when touching ground. Wind can fool you. Please dont use the vsi but look outside on runway when landing. Focus on flying, not instruments. Use them for control.
I see. You’re right, the more I practice I noticed I don’t look at the end of the runway anymore as I’m too focused on getting my numbers right on touching the ground.
“…still flying when touching ground” makes sense to me as that is why I increase the power after or during roundout as I want to hover above ground all the way until touchdown.
I still want to do wheel landings though, any advice?
Guys I think I got it. I’m quite happy with my landings recently though I need more practice as I use too much runway still.
Not withdrawing RPM, the one flap advice was gold, all I have to do is make sure I have a low speed on top of the runway, give it a little bit pit of push when I feel that I’m less than 1 ft above ground. Perfect, little to no bumps but I’m sure I am sticking the plane on the ground. Slip if there is crosswinds.
The less RPM gives me more control over speed which might be good for shorter runways as the better control on the plane allows me to hover sooner but I think if I can perfect my skills with the RPM all the way, I probably won’t need to use this method though it’s nice to know that I can do this. Same as above, hover 2 or 1 ft above ground, get it down as close as possible, push it down gently to touch the ground and keep it there.
Thank you everyone for the advice, it really really helped me. You all have no idea how long I’ve been experimenting, practicing and researching to do something so basic XD
Late to the party. But it turned out the X Cub specifically is just bouncy and way too hard to wheel land…super easy to 3 point land. You simply can’t fly it on the runway with front wheels on the ground the way you can on the savage cub for example. X cub would be my favorite bush plane if it wasn’t for that part of the flight model. Makes it way too hard to land in crosswind, where I would use less flaps, a little more speed and fly it on the runway until the tail comes down.
