First tailwheel time!

ScottK

ScottK

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ScottK
I had the pleasure of getting my first tail wheel time yesterday. A CFI friend of mine has a Cessna 170B and asked me to go along on a little sightseeing ride. Now I've been in this plane before, but I never got to fly it.

He asked me if I wanted to taxi it out to the runway. I've heard so much about how careful you have to be with tail wheels. Well, I did fine (keep the feet active) until my first 90 deg turn. He explained how to do it, but I wound up having to stop my turn with the brakes. I was a little late slowing the turn and was heading well right before I stopped it.

After getting to another local airport, he asked if I wanted to try a takeoff. I have to admit being nervous about this. This is a beautiful plane and his baby. He told me he would be on the pedals if I needed it. So off I went. I did ok keeping it straight (drifted a bit left), but the weirdest thing is lifting the tail. It felt like we were going to nose over. We did a couple loops in the pattern with him handling the landings. On the second landing, he showed me a pretty severe slip. It was amazing to see how far you could kick this thing over with the bigger rudder.

I'd love to get my tail wheel endorsement, but I would probably never use it. There aren't any tail wheels around here to rent. Even so, it was a fun day and I can't wait to do it again.

Added pic...
 

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Glad you had fun,it's always good to try something new.
 
I got my TW endorsement a few years ago at Andover-Aeroflex. It was only about 45mins from home, and I figured the opportunity to fly with Damian DelGaizo was too good to pass up.

Haven't flown a tw since, but I'm glad I did it. Flew a CubCrafters Top Cub (Super Cub clone, 180hp) and had a blast. Low and slow with the windows open? Can't beat it. No way no how. I definitely learned about basic flying dynamics in a way that I never had in the various tri-trainers I got my PPL in.

Do it. It's great fun. WHo knows, it may just encourage you to buy a cheap taildragger, like a Champ or 140, and just fly for the pure joy of it.
 
ScottK said:
I had the pleasure of getting my first tail wheel time yesterday. A CFI friend of mine has a Cessna 170B and asked me to go along on a little sightseeing ride. Now I've been in this plane before, but I never got to fly it.

He asked me if I wanted to taxi it out to the runway. I've heard so much about how careful you have to be with tail wheels. Well, I did fine (keep the feet active) until my first 90 deg turn. He explained how to do it, but I wound up having to stop my turn with the brakes. I was a little late slowing the turn and was heading well right before I stopped it.

After getting to another local airport, he asked if I wanted to try a takeoff. I have to admit being nervous about this. This is a beautiful plane and his baby. He told me he would be on the pedals if I needed it. So off I went. I did ok keeping it straight (drifted a bit left), but the weirdest thing is lifting the tail. It felt like we were going to nose over. We did a couple loops in the pattern with him handling the landings. On the second landing, he showed me a pretty severe slip. It was amazing to see how far you could kick this thing over with the bigger rudder.

I'd love to get my tail wheel endorsement, but I would probably never use it. There aren't any tail wheels around here to rent. Even so, it was a fun day and I can't wait to do it again.
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Acro in the pattern in not a good idea. Fun, but not a good idea. ;)

You have discovered why TGs are so fun. You actually have to fly them. If you think lifting the tail on take off is unnerving wait until you have to push the stick forward when landing to "stick" the gear on the runway when doing a wheel landing. That is counter intuitive for sure.

Have fun learning to fly all kinds of different planes. It makes you a much better and experienced pilot.
 
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It is my belief that every new airplane we fly, every new airport we fly into, basically any 'new' experience makes us better pilots. I waited 27 years to get my TW endorsement and I could kick myself, it is a great and more direct exposure to airplane dynamics than we get through nosewheel aircraft and I do believe makes us better pilots.

No training is wasted if you work at it, even if you don't use it often.

'Gimp
 
I spent 5.5 hours in a SuperCub on Saturday dragging gliders into the sky. An early morning warm-up flight off a freshly mowed grass strip into a perfect blue sky with the door wide open as the sun is slowly rising is darn close to aviation nirvana.
 
Yep, I took an Xtreme Decathlon around the patch for an hour this morning... nailed 4 wheel landings and 2 three-pointers. Such an incredible blast. The only thing that would have made it better is if I was on grass instead of asphalt!
 
I thought it strange when I got my TW endorsement from one of the Maules in a Maule. The one thing he never gave me a bit of instruction on was taxiing. We talked about control surface positions while taxiing but not use of the rudder or brakes.

I always thought the way tw towplanes taxied around was pretty cool but could never imagine how the turns were made. Turned out you just do it and you get it.

Enjoy it!
 
I got my tailwheel training specifically because I knew I wanted to own an RV someday. Started it in a Cessna 140 and completed it in a '46 J-3 Cub, with some Citabria, Champ, and Supercub time too. Now someday I hope to also own some kind of back county bushplane in addition to the RV, but I'll need to win the lotto first.
 
My first tail wheel experience was by accident.

I was a flight instructor at a small airport. The mechanic had just finish some repair work on a Piper Pawnee and needed the engine and oil warmed up. It was a really windy day or the mechanic would have done it himself. So I taxied it to the end of the runway, (single runway, no taxi way) turned it into the wind and increased the power. I was playing with the tail, lifting it up and down, getting used to the feeling. After the oil came to temperature, instead of powering down, I let go of the brakes to start moving. Just at that point a very strong gust of wind hit, and the plane lifted off the ground. I added power to keep the plane from falling back to the runway. I never got out of ground effect, but it took almost 500 feet to get it back on the ground. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the mechanic waving his arms frantically. He didn't want me to fly it, just run it up.

Come to think of it, this was just a few days before TW endorsements were required. Am I now grand fathered in?
 
Zeldman said:
Come to think of it, this was just a few days before TW endorsements were required. Am I now grand fathered in?
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I'm thinking you are! It doesn't say how much experience was needed before the regulation change!
 
Bill Watson said:
I thought it strange when I got my TW endorsement from one of the Maules in a Maule. The one thing he never gave me a bit of instruction on was taxiing. We talked about control surface positions while taxiing but not use of the rudder or brakes.

I always thought the way tw towplanes taxied around was pretty cool but could never imagine how the turns were made. Turned out you just do it and you get it.

Enjoy it!
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Strange! How to taxi with rudder and breaks is the first thing I was taught as one can easily screw up a taildragger if not well trained in this. Often times the rudder alone doesn't get it. A tail wheel endorsement is along way from being really proficient in one. Same with ppl. Just a license to learn.
 
Zeldman said:
Come to think of it, this was just a few days before TW endorsements were required. Am I now grand fathered in?
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Did you log it as PIC?

"The training and endorsement required by paragraph (i)(1) of this section is not required if the person logged pilot-in-command time in a tailwheel airplane before April 15, 1991."
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Did you log it as PIC?

"The training and endorsement required by paragraph (i)(1) of this section is not required if the person logged pilot-in-command time in a tailwheel airplane before April 15, 1991."
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Ya might've got me on a technicality there. The purpose of the movement was to warm the engine oil to operating temperature, not to fly.

All a moot point though. I did the TW endorsement later on.
 
Jimmy cooper said:
Strange! How to taxi with rudder and breaks is the first thing I was taught as one can easily screw up a taildragger if not well trained in this. Often times the rudder alone doesn't get it. A tail wheel endorsement is along way from being really proficient in one. Same with ppl. Just a license to learn.
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I thought so too but never questioned it. Of course you need brakes on trikes to move around as well. And now I fly a brakes-only RV10.

Did over 1500hours in the Maule and no harm done.
 
Jimmy cooper said:
A tail wheel endorsement is along way from being really proficient in one. Same with ppl. Just a license to learn.
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+1. Got my TW endorsement last summer, plus 3 hours of transition training for my RV-8, and I still couldn't land properly. So I got another 10 hours of TW dual this summer with 50 more landings and the improvement has been dramatic. No substitute for practice and experience.
 
Tailwheels make you a better pilot. Everyone knows this.

:popcorn:
 
I just completed my TW endorsement on Saturday...and sure enjoyed it! Great instructor with a Super Decathlon. We did 3 flights over consecutive weekends.
 
I learned in a taildragger and was able to transition into many tri gears easily. There's no question tail wheel training give one a much better feel for what's happening in take offs and landings. People who deny this usually have no time or very limited time in one. I know a girl who learned in her fathers 195 Cessna, got her instrument in my 140 Cessna , went on to log some time in a beech 90 then went to work flying for a major corp. now flys one of their gulf streams worldwide. She claims her tail wheel time was very important. Lots of these story's. I think it takes about 500 hours in a taildragger to become really proficient. Maybe more. Many many airline pilots were military trained in taildraggers up until the 1980s when most were retired.
 
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Congrats Scott!!!! Welcome to the joy! Nice plane choice too! I am unortunatley going to be selling my taildragger at some point in the near future so it's a little sad to give that up but we've purhcased a Saratoga for a larger family cruiser that replaced it while the baby grows up so we can all go on family trips and share the joy of aviation with my little girl who's now 14 days old..... I'll get another tail wheel though if she wants to learn to fly :)
 
Cpt_Kirk said:
Tailwheels make you a better pilot. Everyone knows this.

:popcorn:
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Well, at least a more capable pilot based on breadth of skill set. Put a tailwheel-only trained pilot in a trike and a trike-only trained pilot in a tailwheel see how they do!
 
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