Dangerous Landing in a Luscombe

The pilot of a Luscombe experiences a close call while trying to land in 20+ MPH winds at Flabob airport.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• hard
• dangerous
• landing
• vintage
• antique
• airplane
• plane

[tangokl]

Iis there seriously a Flabob airport? is that a town somewhere?

[scubakobe]

Flabob Airport is in Rubidoux, California.Next door to Riverside.

[SenorSpode]

I went ahead and talked with my dad and some other old salts on the Luscombe situation. They all agreed that the Luscombe is very tricky to land in even a moderate crosswind. One of them took his daughter's Luscombe one day long ago and landed in a similar crosswind: He ended up flipping it over, totalled. They got it off the runway, he went home and wrote his daughter a check for the plane, simple as that, admitting all guilt and shame.

[scubakobe]

I've talked to a 757 captain who also owns a Luscombe and he contradicts that.

It's more due to the limitations of the pilot.

A Cessna is a very tricky plane to land in crosswinds if you've never done it before.

[SenorSpode]

Is that John "Dr. Dirty" Valby in the background???

[scubakobe]

It's been over a year, I don't know

[hqbeamer]

why was someone shouting random fruit names?

[GeneralSirDouglasMcA]

That took a hell of a pilot to land in wind like that. I'll bet he was sweatin' bullets! (I'm a student pilot, and I have a tough time with a crosswind of just 5 kts., AND I'm not in a taildragger).

[SenorSpode]

@hqbeamer Ya gotta admit, that's what makes it memorable.

[DougDaCosta]

I used to fly into Flabob decades ago when it was still a dirt strip. They had an old restraurant there with good food. That Luscombe pilot did a good landing in that strong gusting CrossWind condition. Flown one a couple of times just out of curiosity.

[A65Driver]

The Luscombe is actually a pussycat, and a real pleasure to fly. The issue with the landing gear is that it is narrow, combined with a long wingspan and short coupling; the gear legs will not withstand excessive side loading (the gear legs are actually designed to crumple first, to protect the much more expensive gear box). What this means is the plane does not tolerate sloppy landing technique - on touchdown the nose needs to be pointing straight down the runway and with no side drift movement.

[michaelpilot1000]

Ex tail wheel pilot here..over 40 yrs worth. Fact, Luscombe always had a bad reputation for poor landing gear, cross wind landings. Beautiful airplanes, but,,the gear is a prob. Luscombe also had a form of Training Wheels . That is, a devise that moved the front wheel base forward and many pilots during training would flip the aircraft forward onto its back.

[pkitfox]

The pilot was flying the airplane throughout the landing. I did not see anything scary about it. We can argue about 3 point vs wheel landings, but I think this is an example of good piloting.

[SenorSpode]

Knock-knock...apple. Knock-knock...apple. Knock-knock....orange...orange you glad I didn't say apple?

[TheTodd2u]

This must be a very forgiving plane to take that and not ground loop. I think a wheel landing would have been the way to go on that one. Who am I to judge though.

[abrady242]

haha ironically enough the USAF theme song is playing in the background

[ppunterFlightsimdude]

He should have been going the minimum stall speed plus the speed of the cross wind

[minenu11]

Given the conditions and a Luscombe I think that's pretty good work!