Flying Sdrawkcab

[Ira Heilveil]

Recently, on a particularly windy day, I told my instrument instructor that I always wanted to fly backwards, and as is typical of him he said, “let’s do it.” We had other plans for that day, and I wasn’t in the mood to change them, so I opted for another time. Apparently, it’s an easy thing to do, especially in a small, low-powered airplane such as a Piper Cub or a Cessna 150. The wings of a J3 Cub stall at about 33 knots, or about 38 miles an hour, so all you need to do to fly backwards is to point your nose into a 45 mile an hour wind, fly just over stall speed, and you can find yourself flying backwards over the ground. Find a stiff 60 mile an hour wind or more and you can fly backwards at 20 miles an hour. http://cftblog.com/?p=968

 

 

[Guernsey]

With the variety of recreational aircraft in Australia (slow moving) many of us have been doing this for years..

 

Alan.

 

PS. Not trying to be sarcastic here.

 

 

[Guest john]

Some years ago I was flying a Skyfox Gazelle along the coast at about 4500ft with a headwind component on the nose of about 50kts. During this flight there was a section that required you to navigate over water for about 5 nautical miles. Whilst over water, the time interval seemed to be endless & the view below seemed the plane was standing still due to the excessive head winds, however whilst still navigating over water I observed a yacht sailing along in the same direction as the plane except the yacht was now overtaking the plane, obviously because it had its sails facing the correct direction & was taking advantage of the prevailing strong winds.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

When serving with the RAF at RAF Seletar, Singapore, I watched a twin Pioneer LAND backwards on a very windy day.

 

 

[bull]

 

 

 

 

+5

 

Warbirds Online added 8 new photos.

 

 

[Guernsey]

When serving with the RAF at RAF Seletar, Singapore, I watched a twin Pioneer LAND backwards on a very windy day.

So did he land on the mains then gradually drop his Tail Nose wheel and taxi in backwards. Stone the crows!!!

 

Is that a tail dragger or a nose pusher.

 

Alan.

 

 

[Deskpilot]

Almost a perfect 3 pointer, but mains down first. At Christmas time, they fitted one out with a high powered audio system and flew around low and slow playing Christmas carols.

 

 

[SSCBD]

Did this a Mangalore at the fly in many years ago flying thrusters - just the two of us at the time were flying in very strong winds, but very smooth air. we were doing vertical takeoff and landings had to put the nose down to move forward and the downwind was really fast, then on final we could just hover - however the official's deemed it dangerous and stopped us. In reality is was not - due the smooth air. We were put in by other manufactures as they would not fly. You can do this at the beach in the right aircraft if the winds are good as its usually always smooth air coming from the water.