What is a ground loop?

[Hans]

I always thought a ground loop refered to when a tail dragger aircraft basically spun out from braking.

Or is it when it flips head over heels on its nose from braking?

Hans.

[PropNut]

A ground loop is typically associated with taildraggers its caused by braking,bad crosswinds etc.. the plane will try to turn on the ground abruptly causing a side skid and many times will drag a wing tip and if your lucky you don't collapse a gear ...nose gear aircraft are almost immune to this. If you land in AH with a gear damaged the result is a ground loop.

[TheWobble]

ahhh...breakdancing airplanes...<sigh>

[hblair]

I always thought a ground loop was cuased by the pilot pulling the stick back too far on take-off before the plane was moving fast enough for the wings to have enough air traveling over them to keep the plane level, this causing the slipstream and/or torque to cause a violent roll, flipping the plane upside down. Many ME109 pilots were killed or injured due to ground rolls.

[Jigster]

"ground loop" was a euphemism for whenever a plane was damaged by dragging a wing along the ground, skidding into a small horizontal loop and usually ruining the wing tip or wing structure.

This encompasses cross wind accidents, brake failures, bad landings in general, accidents on earth fields, etc. Also includes catching a wing on the ground while taxing, usually going to fast for a differential turn.

-- paraphrase from Eugene Fletcher's LBC.

Overbraking was called a nose stand according the Yeager and Fletcher.

And severe overbraking that caused flips were called "Ass-over-tea-kettle" by Yeager
 

And Yeager addressed ground rolls too..."impatient pilots basically, who usually one way or another eventually became grease spots on the tarmac...this was just one of ways"

That doesn't take into consideration combat conditions though.

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