Scraping the tail in the air.

[boeinglover]

When I have been taking off, I have been over rotating a little bit causing the tail to hit the ground. Well, this time coming out of BUR, I
knew I should pull up lightly so I have a very smooth takeoff, which happened. Once I was fully airborne, I then pull up to have a climb at
about 3600 VS. I heard the noise and then the nervous pilot, "Did you hear that, I think we scraped the tail." I replayed the last 20 seconds
and the 737 was already airborne and the gear was up when I gave it a little more of a climb. Then I suposibly, "Scraped the tail." This for
one is stupid and would never happen. How can I fix this?

-Nick

[crowebird]

what pitch up attitude do you rotate at?
You probably shouldn't be trying such an agressive climb.

[Launchbury]

The copilot will never announce the tail scrape until you are in the air. He never says it right when it happens. There is a delay of probably
3-5 seconds. If you're scraping often, just rotate more slowly.

[Dutch64]

Depending on the plane, the scrape points can be off also, try different contact points from another 737 and see if it makes a difference

[LUPilot4God]

As a side note, you shouldn't be rotating any more than 7-8 degrees at a max until you are airborne and have a positive rate of climb
established

[fruitfly]

...and in case there's something inherently wrong with the plane, lake displaced contact points in the tail section, here's how to fix it:

http://www.sim-outhouse.com/index.php?lo...es&page=cp

P.S. It's very useful for Concorde pilots cause it rotates at 13*!

[PaulAH]

P.S. It's very useful for Concorde pilots cause it rotates at 13*!

Absolutely right! In this case though, it's not the scrape points that are the problem. It's the 13 degrees. Rotate slowly to 10 degrees in a
way that the 10 and V2 coincide then when the mains leave the runway, continue the rotation to 13 degrees (or whatever the calculated
theta angle is).

The real Concorde would've scraped the tail at 12.5 degrees.

I've scraped the tail several times in the early days



Post Edited ( 08-21-07 00:40 )

[ragingfred]

It happened to me to when I passed 20 degrees pitch up on the climb, at about 300 feet in the air RA. all the contact points were fine and on the
replay the tail wasn't even close to the ground

[boeinglover]

Yeah, but the tail is no where near the ground. There must be atleast 20 feet between them. I rotate at about 162KTS which will glide the
plane straight into the air no problem. The plane is the Overland/SMS 737-700/800/900, 747-400 777-200 and 300 the 767-300 and the
MD-11. Basically, all the Overland/SMS Boeing pack models, as well as the default World Travel 737-400.

[Dutch64]

Did you try different contactpoints? Like suggested above?

[kjevans]

In my 737, I try to climb at the standard rate that is in FS9, 1800ft/m, anymore than that I find that I need excessive throttle to compensate for the
high climb rate and thus this is less economical.

There are some instances like London City Airport, where more of an agressive climb is needed to clear the scenery.

[MonsterCheese]

Also if your flying in war zones, you need to get a really high vert. speed to get clear of the range of ground to air missiles.