A lesson

The great thing about being an instructor is you learn a lot about flying. Most days, the lessons learned are painless and fun. Some days, they sting a bit.

I was doing a flight review today in the Cirrus with a good, experienced pilot. Things were going well so I asked him to do a soft-field takeoff.

The soft-field drill is a great exercise in touch and finesse, which is why I like to have pilots do them even if they never intend to fly off of a grass or gravel runway.

You start with full aft elevator to keep as much weight as possible off the nose wheel. As the airplane accelerates, the nose wheel rises off the ground and ideally you start releasing back pressure as the elevator becomes effective to hold the wheel just an inch or two off the surface. Then, you let the airplane fly off in ground effect at which point you level off still in ground effect while you pick up speed then climb out.

The elevator forces are constantly changing and when done well soft-field takeoffs are a thing of beauty.

The first part went perfectly but as we picked up speed the airplane started to rotate to an excessively nose-high pitch attitude. I tried to coach my guy out of it, but it wasn't working.

The nose shot up, the stall horn sounded and too late I slammed the stick forward in a last-ditch effort to keep the tail from hitting the runway.

It wasn't enough of a push to overcome the momentum that was building and there was a slight “thump” as the tail hit the concrete. Luckily, I was quick enough that the nose up moment slowed significantly so it wasn't a hard hit, but I should have been faster.

We got the nose back to a reasonable pitch attitude and the rest of the takeoff was normal.

It was the proverbial “rock and a hard place” situation. Shove the nose down too aggressively and risk a prop strike, don't shove it down hard enough and risk a tail strike. It's amazing how many things you can think about in a few tenths of a second.

It takes about 11 degrees of nose-up pitch to hit the tail on a Cirrus, which is actually quite a bit. The airplane lands and takes off in a fairly flat pitch attitude, so 11 degrees seems like a ton. Trust me, it's obvious when you have too much pitch on takeoff or landing.

Thankfully, our airplane had been retrofitted with a composite tail skid that doubles as the tie down. In the past, there was a solid mounted metal tie down ring and a tail strike of any kind would damage the airframe. In fact, this airplane had a few tail strikes early on (It's a 2000 model) that required structural repairs until folks figured out that sight pictures that work in your typical Cessna or Piper didn't work in the Cirrus.

So, the bottom line is no damage done, except for a slightly worn tail skid and a few frayed nerves on my part. I've never put a scratch on an airplane before today and it's a pretty rotten feeling, even if the damage is only cosmetic.

I'm always spring loaded with my hand guarding the stick when doing takeoffs and landings in the Cirrus because of the potential for a tail strike but I was still shocked at how quickly the nose shot up. The lesson learned there is to not try to coach the pilot out of the problem but to just take the airplane immediately as soon as the pitch angle starts increasing.

It's a tough call because I think folks need to see how much is approaching too much so they'll recognize a similar situation when they're on their own.

Before today I was more alert to the problem during landings than on takeoffs because the more common issue is getting too slow on approach, which leads to too high a pitch attitude and a potential tail strike.

It was a good lesson and I'm a better instructor because of it, but it's a tough way to learn.