My tailwheel training impressions..

With the Citabria/Decathalon spring steel gear I find it is VERY easy to tell when you touch the ground. You know because that is when the plane springs back into the air with no airspeed. :D
 
Sometimes it just don't go the way you planned (don't know if this has been posted earlier). My heart goes out to the pilot:

 
Daleandee said:
Sometimes it just don't go the way you planned (don't know if this has been posted earlier). My heart goes out to the pilot:

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Hint, if you're already off the runway, don't try to go around. He'd have rolled out just fine in the grass if he'd kept the power off. I saw a guy in a Pitts once barely clear the top of a hangar after going around after going off the runway.
 
I've had my new Husky for about 5 weeks. I haven't flown a tailwheel much in the last 20 years or so. Prior to that I did a lot of glider towing with Super Cubs & Champions. I also did train numerous pilots to fly tailwheel & signed off a bunch of tailwheel endorsements. But again over 20 years ago.

I had to get 1 hour of dual from a Husky qualified instructor thanks to my insurance carrier. I found a nice gentleman even older than I & ended up flying with him twice for around 3.4 hours & 20+ landings including some real strong cross winds. 18 gusting to 28, 50 degrees off of the runway. We landed on both grass & pavement. I felt like it went pretty well. That said, I also give about 700+ hours of dual instruction per year. So fairly current & hopefully proficient.

I've been solo twice now including today. I made my worst landing in the Husky today. I was landing on an 1100' grass strip over some 20' trees & came in a little high & fast. I had all 30 degrees of flaps deployed but I should have slipped it too. I had a slight crosswind from 8 to 16 knots. I was doing a three point landing & hit a little harder than usual & got a good bounce. It felt like 75' but was probably a couple of feet. I held the stick as far back as I could & when it hit the second time it was all done flying. I should have gone around & set up again. The best thing was nobody was around the airport to see my crappy landing.

I sold my 182 & bought the Husky just to challenge myself & have an airplane that I could have some fun in. So far mission accomplished.
 
RoscoeT said:
Hint, if you're already off the runway, don't try to go around. He'd have rolled out just fine in the grass if he'd kept the power off. I saw a guy in a Pitts once barely clear the top of a hangar after going around after going off the runway.
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Well that was my thinking too. When you're in a hole ... stop digging!
 
Luscombe pilot lost control on a zero wind morning. Odd. Amazing he didn't kill the person watching and appears to have panicked since never retarded the throttle until the hangar door did it for him. Hopefully he had shoulder harnesses as the impact could have caused injury without them.

@saddletramp - almost every xwind landing ends with a slip in a low wing loading kite like a Husky/Cub/CC/etc. But you know that. And 18 to 28 knots is impressive, but in those aircraft, they are winds where you mostly land across rather than along the runway with their very low stall speeds. May not be able to taxi back to the hangar without a wing walker though...
 
saddletramp said:
I was doing a three point landing & hit a little harder than usual & got a good bounce. It felt like 75' but was probably a couple of feet. I held the stick as far back as I could & when it hit the second time it was all done flying. I should have gone around & set up again.
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I meant to ask about this scenario. In a 3pt attitude with the wheel all the way back, if I balloon or bounce, it always feels like I'm out of energy and out of options, except to wait for the crashing noises to stop. Adding throttle will put more air over the tail and increase pitch attitude; dorking around with the elevator to compensate does not seem like a great idea either. Does the ability to finesse it down come with more experience?
 
GeorgeC said:
I meant to ask about this scenario. In a 3pt attitude with the wheel all the way back, if I balloon or bounce, it always feels like I'm out of energy and out of options, except to wait for the crashing noises to stop. Adding throttle will put more air over the tail and increase pitch attitude; dorking around with the elevator to compensate does not seem like a great idea either. Does the ability to finesse it down come with more experience?
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Three point with a bounce indicates more vertical energy than desired at touchdown. Adding power will cushion the descent rate out of the bounce, but you'll have to figure out the correct stick position for the particular bounce in the particular aircraft. If the obstacles and field length permit, a go-around from a three point attitude is quite manageable in the "bush" aircraft like SC's, Maule, Husky, etc. However, many truly backcountry strips are one-way, so you'll need to use power, elevator, and rudder to get it down more softly the next cycle. Sometimes riding it out as described is the best and only option.
 
That Luscombe, holy cow it stood up pretty well against that million and a half pound hangar.
 
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