tailwheel planes

DanTheMan

New Member
anybody have any pointers on flying a tailwheel?

I'm gonna get checked out in one next week. all I know is that it is a Citabria, not sure what year or model.
 
Be proactive, not reactive. Wear tennis shoes so you can feel rudder input better.

And if you start to get frustrated, remember two things:

1.) EVERYONE used to learn to fly in a tailwheell, so its not impossible.

2.) Its fuuuuuuuunnnnn!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
The guy I fly tail wheels with always tells me to ''dance on the rudder'' with my feet and always stay one step ahead. And don't just relax after you touchdown. I almost ran off the runway after I touched, because I thought I was done.
 
I got a GRAND////
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total of 3hrs in a Citabria so im very short on experience but in a nutshell i can tell you that the main diference compare to a "tricicle" is the handling on the ground due to location of the wheels forward of the CG that makes you work at tracking very strait on TO and rollout,also the nose is kind of high and cuts the vis forward while on the ground.
i found the transition to the control stick from control wheel ,very easy and natural,point the stick where you whant to go and it goes
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so the flying is a lot of fun/////////////.
Stalls and spins are gentle ,engine controls are located on the left side and the vis from the front seat is GREAT.
Full stall landings are so slow that it seems like hovering over the runway,wheel landings are a bit faster.
I feel that those 3hrs where very valuable and i notice GREAT improvment in my flying after .Good Luck Jetman
 
I have 6 hrs taildragger. What helped me was doing a fast taxi down the runway and raising and lowering the tail while changing speeds. I also realized that anytime the plane starts to get squirrly, adding power seemed to stabilize the airplane. have fun and good luck
 
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