Thanks Pattern,
Your post was more the experienced based feedback I was looking for and yes there is at least one T-tail taildragger that I know of, the Pipistrel Virus SW also available in tricycle configuration. I had been focussed on the Virus until further research indicated that while you could mount tundra tires it was never designed as a BCP. I figured there might be little chance of a t-tail being "lifted" by propwash but I needed confirmation. My next question would be -I may just need to start a new thread- how about a V-tail being lifted by propwash?
Originally Posted by
pattern_is_full
While it will depend on the exact aircraft type, especially prop radius vs. VS length, a T-tail is generally NOT in the propwash at all, and will behave differently. The propwash is a "tube" the same radius as the prop, and will pass right under the HS.
I got my ticket in a Beech Skipper (T-tail similar to the Piper Traumahawk).
It had noticeably different short/soft-field behavior than low-tail Cessnas/Warriors. Holding the stick back at the start of the roll did nothing at all to raise the nose until about 30 knots IAS - at which point the airspeed (not the propwash) kicked in very suddenly to lower the tail, raise the nose and lift off into ground effect.
With the T-tail, I was trained to be ready to release back-pressure right now once the elevators kicked in, to keep from climbing right out of ground effect and getting a down-check on that portion of the checkride.
And in fact I was warned not to ever take the Skipper onto actual soft-fields, because the T-tail just couldn't protect the nose-wheel as well as low-stabilizer aircraft. T.O. or landing, it was not possible to hold the nose up out of the grass/mud at low airspeeds, due to the lack of propwash over the HS.
Now that is, of course, backwards to raising the tail of a tail-dragger, but it clearly indicated to me that T-tails just don't follow the same rules when it comes to STOL elevator techniques.
Except for a couple of motor-gliders (Dimona and Grob) is there even such a thing as a T-Tail taildragger?