Friday Update, April 13, 2012

Originally Posted by VO101_MMaister

I just want to add, that what made the 109`s take off and landing characteristic really bad was not only the fact that it had a narrow landing gear setup, but in the same time the struts and the wheels pointed outwards. Because of this the pilot had a very narrow margin to make fails. The slightest out of horizontal plane during take off and landing resulted a violent break out to the sides.

The spit had similar wheel distance but it had parallel landing struts, and that made it much more forgiving.

Could you please explain why the slightly outward layout of the landing gear would have caused such a behaviour? This does not correspond to my understanding of mechanics which says that the outward layout would have made it more stable around the roll axis with out of plane movements because it in fact increased the lever with respect to the roll axis. So a 109 landing on one of its front wheels would have fallen easier back on both legs than a plane like the Spit.