I'm scared of doing this:

Cessnaflyer

Cessnaflyer

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/1203506/L/

I am doing my commercial maneuvers stage in a citabria because I've really fallen behind my stick and rudder skills because the Beechs I've been flying have that really nice rudder connection that keeps you semi-coordinated. How often do ground loops happen and how much of a gust would it take to send you over and around?

I've done all the reading taxi with proper control imputs and am never ever putting the cg outside the ground track when landing. Is there anymore protection I can do to save myself from an event like that?
 
If you are worried about it just stick to 3 point takeoffs and landings, which is SOP for transitioning to a new tailwheel setup anyway. A TW airplane has never tried to get away from me if I had the stick back and was firmly planting the tailwheel into the ground (well except for one time when the chain to the TW was messed up but thats another story).

It might seem cool to always do everything 2 point, as in get or keep the TW off the ground as soon or for as possible, but I had a bad experiance one time that would have been avoided if I would have recognized the student was pushing himself beyond his comfort zone and made him stick to 3 pointers. PM me for details if you want. I've heard Citabrias are very docile and incredibly fun airplanes to fly. I'm jealous:)
 
Ok thanks!

The schools procedure is to taxi with the stick planted into the seat to keep the tail wheel down. Most of my landings are 3 points but they want me to be proficient in the wheel landings for obvious reasons.

The citabria is an airplane that I would have for sure in my dream toy box one day.
 
This is a good illustration of the importance of control positions in a tailwheel.

Notice the ailerons...deflected part of the way, but definitely not full deflection.

Same with the elevator...for a wheel landing maybe this is correct, but it's nowhere close to full deflection for a 3 point landing.

And the rudder is almost full deflection to the left...while the plane is groundlooping to the left. In that position, all it's doing is accelerating the loop!
 
When the tailwheel touches you need to keep it down. Easy to think about when taxiing, but easy to forget during your first landings.

You are always flying a taildragger. This includes taxi, but most importantly right after touch down. You are used to getting some slack in a tricycle gear a/c so don't get complacent.

Most important, don't let the nose into the wind one bit. It is all about small and constant corrections (like flying an ILS). If you error by letting the nose point to the lee side of the runway, you are ok, but if it gets into the wind... too late. Due to the unstable nature of the craft once it starts to go you are just along for the ride. Nothing you can do.

Two point landings, three point landings, whatever... neither is harder. Both have their pros and cons, and you should be a master of both. Both require you to set the tailwheel down at some point so I don't see much difference.

If it starts to loop on you you can always try dragging a brake, but that will only help so much, and for only a very small error. Generally not a good practice.

Pick a point on the center of the nose/glareshield/whatever and pin it to something on the far end of the runway. Don't let it move.
 
don't get complacent. an 4000 TT+ instructor of ours just groundlooped our J5 a few weeks ago. I was calm wind even:banghead:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top