I want to thank everyone for their help and for the video posted and sent to me via e-mail. I am cured lol.
I'll tell my new method for landing this beast, maybe it will help others:
I set up by making sure the tail wheel is locked, prop pitch to full and mixture to full (not adjustable in the 109 though). I get lined up as best as possible using the gun sight view. Lining up and being pretty close to the line of the runway is critical so I do it early.
What I keep in my mind when setting up to land is coming in steeply, this give me a good view over the engine cowling. I do not really set up each landing and pay much attention to altitude...this prepares me for landing damaged aircraft in a hurry.
Short approach. Long, slow, low approaches not only take too much time, there is too much room for error. The longer you are flying low and slow, the more chance you have of making a mistake and having to go around.
My "target" is about 300 meters short of the runway. I put that point in the center of the retical.
I lower the gear at 300 kph and once it is down I start lowering the flaps in increments to "full". If I need to bleed off speed to get to 300 kph, I just cross control (rudder all the way to one side, ailerons banked in the opposite direction).
Approach speed is about 210 kph, not slower. Usually the throttle is set to about 40%. Lowering the gear and flaps bleeds off the airspeed and any throttle adjustments to get to 210 kph are minor.
At about 50 meters altitude, right when I am over the imaginary point I was centered on, I pull up and point the nose at the runway threshold. This bleeds off even more speed and flattens out the approach. This is really the last chance to make any last second MINOR alignment adjustments.
Just short of the threshold, I pull the nose up even with the horizon. Speed at this point is about 190 kph. At the same time, I ease the throttle back to about 25%.
Now I am flying with the aircraft parallel to the ground, but altitude is dropping gradually. I am maybe 10 meters high at the threshold.
At the threshold, I pull the nose up JUST slightly so that it is above the horizon and I am in a slightly nose up attitude.
At that point, I just hold what I have until the plane settles onto the runway. I do not reduce throttle until the wheels are down and even then I ease it back to idle. Touch down speed is approximately 170kph give or take. Speed is not the issue here....just be aware of the rate of descent, the plane will touch down when it gets to the ground
.
Once on the ground, I flip up the flaps (just a good habit I think). I keep an eye on the edge of the runway by looking 45 degrees out of the side of the cockpit. If I am still relatively straight, I leave the tail wheel locked. If I need to change course a bit, I unlock the tail wheel and make very suubtle adjustments.
Once the tail wheel is down, I pull all the way back on the stick (flaps are up by this point) and begin applying brakes. If the nose starts to drop, I ease off the brakes. Now I am looking for the taxi way
. Remember to unlock the tail wheel at low speed in order to make the turn to the taxi way.
I hope that helps any other newbs land the 109. It's only taken me about 100 landings and the help of this board to figure it out....
Splitter