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Groundlooping a Skyhawk

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • While traditionally associated with taildraggers, tricycle gear airplanes can also experience groundloops under specific dangerous conditions.
  • The main risk for a tricycle gear groundloop is landing with a quartering tailwind, especially when attempting a high-speed runway exit followed by sudden braking.
  • To prevent this, pilots should always land into the wind; if a tailwind landing is unavoidable, extreme caution regarding its effects on directional control is advised.
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Even if you’ve never flown a taildragger, you probably know what a “groundloop” is. If not, it’s a sudden loss of directional control on the ground that’s normally associated with taildraggers, which have their centers of gravity aft of the pivot point and so naturally want to swap ends on landing.

But can you groundloop a tricycle gear airplane too? Sure you can, and there’s a set of dangerous conditions under which it’s more likely to happen.

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