Tail wheel endorsement question

juskl said:
Oh yeah, and they weren't landing on a paved surface. Landing in the dirt makes everyone look like a rock star. Then you try to do wheel landings again on a paved runway, and all goes to hell. Also the training accidents back then were absolutely staggering in numbers that would cause a media uproar today.
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:yeahthat: :yeahthat: :yeahthat:

Best answer I've seen for the people who say "the old timers soloed people in tailwheel planes in six hours back in the day, why can't I do it now?"

Obviously I wasn't around back then, but my understanding is that ground loops were surprisingly common in those days. It was just viewed as a regular risk of training, whereas today it's unacceptable and a huge financial risk, considering the price of aircraft.

And ditto to grass/dirt runways making any tailwheel pilot look good. My instructor gave me a very thorough checkout on pavement and I'm glad I did it that way. Grass is extremely forgiving compared to the "stickiness" of pavement.
 
Actually saw someone ground loop for the first time a few weeks back. We were on short final when I heard my student say, "Uh Oh"... I looked past his shoulder and saw a cub slide left then right and then away he went. He was very lucky though, he looped it right at the intersection of the runway and a taxiway, so he never left the pavement. Also the damage was very little. Just a wingtip scrape. Usually, these involve a prop strike.

Needless to say my student wanted to take a break in landings after witnessing what can go wrong with heavy, slow feet in a crosswind.......
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. I still have to pass my PPL check ride. Once I pass I will work on making my landing in the tricycle gear more consistent. I have a bit of a problem coming in high. Everything else is good, get the stall horn on almost every landing, no to very little side loading even in cross wind and normally on center line. once I get rid of the coming in high tendency I will go for the tail wheel.
 
Ground loops are no fun. One destroyed my first experimental I built-my fault. Luckily I didn't land on my back. 3 years down the tubes...

Hey, I have had days that I just couldn't nail the grass runway, transitioned to a paved and greased it.

My Tailwind touches down at 75 mph. Not much rudder input, but you have to be ready. Some grass runways are ROUGH for a plane that touches down at 75-holes, mounds, etc. You can be a pro and botch it. The one at my airport right now has a bump(I call it "the ramp")right in the middle of the runway where it crosses pavement. If you are going over 40 you will be airborne again. I try to miss it to either side, then I am fine. If I hit it, I give full power, let it bounce once more, ride ground effect, then have enough speed to get airborne again.

Tail draggers teach you that you learned a lot of nothing about ground handling, takeoff, and landing technique during your flight training in a nose dragger. Do you remember your instructor saying your airplane is like a weather vane??

Gosh, if I got back in a nose dragger...the things I'd have to re-learn about the ease of point-and-go...

Real pilots fly tail draggers!!

Wittmandriver
 
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