Taildragger Recommendations

[USMC-SSGT]

The swift is an insurance nightmare. A guy at my local airport has a 100% restored one with stick conversions and it is a beauty of a plane. He is having medical issues and because of insurance I cant fly with him, we tried. They want I forget the numbers but ill get close 100 hours of RG tailwheel time and 25 hours of swift time for me to fly it. Not sure about the 100 hours of RG but it was around there.

As you know not a ton of people have RG tailwheel time. I have hundreds of hours of tailwheel time and zero RG tailwheel.

 

[Orange Anchor]

The swift is an insurance nightmare. A guy at my local airport has a 100% restored one with stick conversions and it is a beauty of a plane. He is having medical issues and because of insurance I cant fly with him, we tried. They want I forget the numbers but ill get close 100 hours of RG tailwheel time and 25 hours of swift time for me to fly it. Not sure about the 100 hours of RG but it was around there.

As you know not a ton of people have RG tailwheel time. I have hundreds of hours of tailwheel time and zero RG tailwheel.

I don't know who is quoting that for him and maybe it is because of his overall experience. I didn't have to meet those requirements for mine, especially a requirement for tailwheel retractable. ???

 

[USMC-SSGT]

Not sure either just what he said they wanted when he tried to get someone to ferry the plane for him.

 

[IPad (10)]

I have a little tailwheel time and my favorite is the Champ. I don't know if it will legaly carry 500lbs with full fuel. The one I fly has the 85hp upgrade (7DC) and it performs well with two adults and full fuel (a whopping 13 gallons). It will do 95kts off of 5gph. The Pacer is a sporty airplane that is fun to fly, but hard to land on hard surfaces and tiny upfront. Any bigger than 6'2'' and I doubt you will fit upfont. I learned to fly in a C170B and loved it. It was a very fun airplane and may best suit what you want to do with it. The C180 is an awesome airplane, but a good one is out of your price range and it burns quite a bit of fuel. The Swift is a very fun airplane to fly, it is a little tricky taking off and landing, but not much more so than any of the others.

Not sure either just what he said they wanted when he tried to get someone to ferry the plane for him.

That is the open pilot policy, 90% of the time they are rediculous. You could easily get named on the insurance of a Swift. I think the open pilot requirements on our airplane are something like 3000TT, 1000ME, and 100 in type. You can get named on the policy with way less.

Alex.

 

[BenWlson]

The swift is an insurance nightmare. A guy at my local airport has a 100% restored one with stick conversions and it is a beauty of a plane. He is having medical issues and because of insurance I cant fly with him, we tried. They want I forget the numbers but ill get close 100 hours of RG tailwheel time and 25 hours of swift time for me to fly it. Not sure about the 100 hours of RG but it was around there.

As you know not a ton of people have RG tailwheel time. I have hundreds of hours of tailwheel time and zero RG tailwheel.

The insurance for the Swift I fly requires 500TT, 100TW, 100RG, & 25 Swift.

I got insured on it for an additional $300 on top of the existing premium with around 300TT, 15TW, 140RG, 10 Swift, and a CFI certificate. They said the 10 Swift and the CFI is what closed the deal. I'm over the 500TT and 25 Swift now, but still short of the 100TW.

Other tailwheels I've flown are a the C-180, Citabria, Super Cub, SeaRey, RV-6, and RV-7. The Swift has some unique characteristics far different from any of those, but it is by far the most fun!

 

[PositionAndHold]

I may be a bit biased, but I love our Stinson. It's been a while since I looked at a Trade-a-plane, but 108-1/2/3 can usually be had for about 30-40 grand. I got about 300 hours in our 108-2 and love it. 3 hours with about a 55 min rsv. and around a 780 pound useful load. It's a highly underated a/c in my opinion, do a search, you might be pleasantly suprised.

PM me if you want some more info.

 

[PositionAndHold]

Double post. Oooooppps

 

[L-16B]

Thinking about possibly buying a taildragger and since I don't have much experience with them, I am looking for opinions/recommendations from the experts on some models to look at....

I'm looking for something reasonably priced (those brand new Cubs look awesome but way out of the price range), something easy to operate and isn't going to break the bank maintaining. I may look at the mundane (172/152 taildragger) but would prefer something a little more 'classic' (Cub, Champ, 140, etc). I would really like a J3 Cub but the useful load just isn't there - ideally, I'd like whatever I get to be able to carry 400-500 pounds with full fuel.

Thoughts/suggestions....?

A 170 is where it's at, 10 knots slower than a 180, but they sip fuel compared to the 180. You can get a nice one for 40-50k.

If you want to have 400-500 pounds useful load with full fuel, your gonna have to get a 4 seater unless you can afford a Husky or 180hp super cub, but then again those aren't reasonably priced.

Cub vs. Champ ? Champ, simply because I can barely fit in a cub anymore. I learned how to fly in a clipped wing cub, so I am biased towards cubs however.

If you want something airbatic - don't even think about a 115 horse citabria, the 150 horse that I fly is already a dog when I fly it by myself with full tanks on a hot day. If you can, splurge for a decathlon.

120/140? Too small for me. Classic airplanes don't agree with 6'3 220lb guys.

 

[L-16B]

Sorry... I'm going to disagree on the C-170B; the A and B variants have "piano key" switches that are becoming a complete nightmare to find when the do break. The C-170C has traditional breaker switches that are easy to find.

If you're going to spend the bulk of the time flying by yourself I'd encourage looking at the C-140a (metal wing). The metal wing is actually about 5mph faster than the cloth wing too.

Cessna 170-c? Never heard of it, don't know if one even exists.

I believe someone mentioned a clipper - good plane. 4 seats (but not realistically with 108 horses), and can go over red line in level cruise with a cruise prop on it. Short coupled, so have to be good on them rudders.

 

[ZeroPapaGolf]

How about a Maule m-7 or m-5? Not sure if that would be in your price range or not, though.