Damaged 262 Landing Help

[waystin2]

I have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to try to land a 262 twice in the last few days with a damaged right wing and right aileron.  Both times the plane got so unstable at low speed with and without flaps (even tried alternating flaps on/off as needed to keep plane stable) that I ended up crashing.  Any advice on how to handle the landing in this situation?  Thank you in advance for the help!

 

Way

[Wiley]

Not really specific to the 262 but my general rules for when I'm missing half a wing are to approach the field banking in a bit with the whole wing low using opposite rudder to keep the descent rate lower.  Generally it means coming in faster than a normal landing, I generally get just under 200mph to give the half wing enough airflow to work.  Flaps, I put out by feel.  I want as much as I can get out but as you saw it becomes unstable sometimes.

Basically I try to get descent into a reasonable range and aim for the low wing side of the runway, and when I get close pull the nose up at the very last moment so the wings go level at the moment of touchdown.  Gear rarely survives one of these landings.

Wiley.

[Delirium]

With flaps still present, landing the one winged Me262 is pretty easy. Once flaps begin to deploy about 250-225 TAS, the jet gets more stable until the speed drops below 175 TAS and it wants to snaproll again.

Without flaps in a Me262, it is much more difficult. The engines don't respond fast enough (compared to prop engines) to use differential throttle to maintain level flight and you need to use quit a bit of rudder and remaining aileron to keep it lined up and level.

[LCADolby]

Missing wingtips are a challenge. Having done this a number of times, there are some very bizarre handling characteristics that can throw you off.
(1st notch of flaps is 300mph and under.)

Be gentle is the key, too much pitch up or down can easily put you in an unrecoverable position, (the opposite aileron goes "numb" with too much pitch and will try and flip you over).

Slower her down as soon as it is safe on no flaps to 250. (Use rudder and slip to slow the aircraft, keeping as level as you can to avoid drastic pitch changes)
Get lined up with a runway out at about 10 miles at 3k.
Throttle off and slow to 210 and drop the gear.
Add one notch of flaps and regulate your throttle to 190 mph until stable.
Bring her down slow aiming to land at the beginning of the tarmac at 180mph.
The landing will be fast and very difficult so aim for the early part of the runway breaks on all the way.

[waystin2]

Thanks fellas. All good information.   Spoke with another pilot that suggested shutting down the engine on the left side to decrease lift on that side and allow the right  side engine to cover somewhat for the loss of lift due to missing wingtip and aileron.  Thoughts?

[FLS]

Full flaps for landing, both engines, power as needed. With more flaps out you get less lift from the unbroken wingtip so the lift is more even and controllable.

[LCADolby]

Thanks fellas. All good information.   Spoke with another pilot that suggested shutting down the engine on the left side to decrease lift on that side and allow the right  side engine to cover somewhat for the loss of lift due to missing wingtip and aileron.  Thoughts?

Although my method works with 1 engine, the dead one being on the side of the lost wingtip, I wouldn't recommend turning one off which is running fine.

[Puma44]

Also, do a controllability check at a reasonably safe altitude.  Slow down, configure, establish your desired approach speed and see if it's going to work.  If it does, you're good to go.  If it doesn't, clean up your configuration, recover from the unusual attitude you just    experienced,  and try a different configuration and airspeed.  For jets (with broken parts) less to no flaps (and a really long runway) and a higher approach speed is a good start.  Shutting down a good engine vs pulling it to idle is an exceptionally bad idea.  Shutting it down could cause an out of control situation that might prompt you to power up that engine NOW instead of waiting for it to spool up while you're out of control.   "Speed is life".  Engine(s) equal speed.  More engines, more speed, more faster.