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No not a failed Catholic contraception technique nor yet another boring music clip but something a wiser pilot mentioned to me yesterday as I sat futilely bumping up and down in our light aircraft as I endeavoured to get it moving in the glutinous mass of mud. "Surely you haven't forgotten the rhythm method" quoth he and took control of the yoke and with the expert timing of a virtuoso playing his Stradivarius, pumped the column back and forth, felt the air and the recalcitrant aircraft crept sullenly from the quagmire...

The yolk was on me and my name was truly mud.

What other techniques, not necessarily aviation related can the cognoscenti, here think of "off hand" as it were?

Sounds rather like 'rocking' a car out of mud or sand by alternating between forward and reverse gears. Got me out a nasty situation on the dunes at Swakopmund once. Don't ask how I got into the situation!

Sideslipping into a tight field with no flaps....carry a few extra knots, don't want to spin in!...don't carry so many as to float the length of the marginal strip.....

Don't ask how I got into the situation!

How did you get yourself into that situation? We surely must be told.

Fliegenmong wrote:Sideslipping into a tight field with no flaps....carry a few extra knots, don't want to spin in!...don't carry so many as to float the length of the marginal strip.....

Ah yes, managed to inadvertently spin a tiger moth many moons ago after fluffing the sideslip, fortunately while practising said technique at altitude.

"I really meant to do that, honestly"... nose getting longer as I shamefacedly tried to explain my gaffe to furious instructor. More yolk running from my face...

Indeed - used it once (the aircraft version...) when the wheels sank into soft grass.

Ferrying a Beech Sundowner back for maintenance from a remote outback station. The aircraft had a dodgy battery and was a bastard to start by handswing. Long taxi from homestead to strip and rain had recently fallen. Consequence was a large patch of boggy ground just before the strip in which I became bogged! What to do? Switching off was problematic for a re-start; it was a fecking long walk back to the homestead. So, leaving the aircraft running I jumped out and pushed the bugger out of the boggy rut. Hopped back in and job’s a good ‘un.

I learnt about flying from that .....eek

Got me out a nasty situation on the dunes at Swakopmund once. Don't ask how I got into the situation!

Sorry Capetonian, but you mentioned it!! So out with it!!!

We definitely should be told about this, right everyone?

MoreAviation wrote:No not a failed Catholic contraception technique nor yet another boring music clip but something a wiser pilot mentioned to me yesterday as I sat futilely bumping up and down in our light aircraft as I endeavoured to get it moving in the glutinous mass of mud. "Surely you haven't forgotten the rhythm method" quoth he and took control of the yoke and with the expert timing of a virtuoso playing his Stradivarius, pumped the column back and forth, felt the air and the recalcitrant aircraft crept sullenly from the quagmire...

The yolk was on me and my name was truly mud.

What other techniques, not necessarily aviation related can the cognoscenti, here think of "off hand" as it were?

Know someone who tried that with a glider tug at Mmabatho and dug the prop into the mud.

Normal takeoff technique with a DC-3 on skis if the conditions were rough, was to get the tail up as soon as possible and once you reached 60 - 65 knots add 1/4 flap and lift off. You'd be about 15 knots below V2, but it was better than pounding the p1ss outta the poor thing. If an engine coughed you chopped them both and went straight ahead. The same technique worked on muddy strips in the spring during the freeze-by-night, thaw-by-day cycle.

In rough water the Norseman needed three swells to get airborne. The first one you coasted over the top, the second you plowed through and you bounced off the third. Then played silly bugger trying to maintain flying speed in ground effect until the airspeed built up enough to climb away.