Monday, January 12, 2009

Landing Gear Load at Touchdown

This was for a a piece in AOPA Flight Training or Pilot magazine (I can't recall) on landing gear. I think the focus of the article was the load strain that's put on the gear the moment of touchdown. I used the Cirrus for this because the low wing worked very nicely for the composition, leaving the sky nice and clear. I could have used the DA40, but the nose wheel on the DA40 is mounted slightly off center, which didn't work too well here because it looked like the pilot missed the runway centerline. Plus, the Cirrus' landing gear fairings are a bit more stylized, which I really liked. I think this image is as close to a Pink Floyd album cover as I've ever gotten!

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