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#405888
Well, ten or so landings and a Whack! and a half. All at my local sites with LZs at or above 8000' msl.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIxJij618q0.
Rigid wing landings with my Atos B-V. Four landings at Villa Grove, Colorado, 8000' msl LZ. One top landing at Willow Cr., 8750' msl. Seven landings at Crested Butte, landing zone elevation 8900' msl. Surface winds in the LZs ranged from 1 to 5 mph. The wind streamer at the CB lz is on the fence line on the right side of the field. Did you see my launch compilation? It's on my youtube page. Landing nuances of my Atos B: Why little to no use of flaps to land? I tried full flap landings my first two seasons of flying the Atos (2000 and 2001), worked OK in high winds. In low wind at our elevation I couldn't get a good ground effect glide and flaring was ineffective. Regarding hand position on the downtubes, I used to slide my hands farther up for a full stop flare but found that could cause the keel to hit the ground first. Or, if slightly banked a tip could hit first sometimes snapping one of the tip ribs or rib pivot pin. After flying flex wings for 20 years and 19 on a rigid, it has all been fun. Launch and landing techniques are very similar. Enjoy the challenge of pulling off a good landing!
All my HG vids here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4BQ7Z ... XHIIcrvlLQ
#405894
Very nice!
I love watching landing vids. One of my most favorite moments in every flight is the approach and landing. That, and launching. Catching sweet thermals and making miles are right up there too. But landings.... I love a well-executed landing. It should greatly influence the definition with which a pilot labels his flight.
I especially enjoyed the first landing of your vid, flying it right down into ground effect (or nearly so) on the control bar. Awesome.
#405908
Yup, I had a couple Exxtacy flights before the Atos. They are downright heavy as well as nose heavy. I believe my Atos was about the 13th imported to the US, lucky for me. I've added a bit of weight to it -small LE carbon patches and a keel splice, and I often fly with oxygen. Still it's lighter than a Delta Wing Streak 180 I owned. Overall I find it well balanced and a nice to land.
RR a few of those landings were not so great, I'm not keeping real current, only 8 flights this year. That video was from the last 3 years. Recently I saw an awesome landing compilation video on youtube by Chris Carilllo, he nails every one. Bill Cummings also has a great landing compilation vid!
:mosh:
#405988
Nice compilation of your landings.

You have clearly figured out how to get the ATOS back to earth nicely.

I'm impressed by the consistency with which you pull off such high density altitude landings especially without flaps. I guess the stall speed difference isn't significant enough to outweigh the larger flair window on the no-flap landings. Interesting.

Going to check out your other vids now. Thanks for posting these.

DHM
#405996
Thanks DHM, it took some painful lessons, several downtubes and a busted keel to learn that full flap landings weren't working at my high sites. Once I decided to land my new Atos B just like my old flex wings, ignoring the Atos manual directions to always use full flaps for landing, all was well.
Here's my summary of good high elevation landing technique for any type of HG: Do a long straight final (if possible), pull on extra speed, set rigid wing flaps to 0 - 15 degrees or put flex wing VG at 1/2 to 3/4, level out in ground effect with basetube 3' to 5' above ground (or bush or crop) level, let glider slow to trim speed as you slide your hands up the downtubes (I only move mine up a couple inches), as soon as you start to lose altitude FLARE. That's been working well for me anyway. My busted downtube pile is pretty small for 39 years of flying.
I don't think rigid wings are any harder to land than medium to high performance flexies. The benefits of RWs are well worth dealing with the double wide package. Love the easy turning. And with 19 seasons on my wing now, it has been an excellent high performance value despite the higher initial cost.
Noticed the newer Atos models have much smaller flaps.
#406002
The smaller flaps are stiffer.
And a friend that was flying an older VR (big flaps) says they are just as effective due to being stiffer.
And the revised flap junction is a thing of beauty. Much cleaner