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Old 1st Aug 2007, 06:29
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HappyJack260
 
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Sydney, Australia
Age: 61
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First flight in a Tiger, we had a slight quartering tailwind and the (very experienced) instructor had us almost ploughing up the runway lights as we did a touch and go! The school I was flying with teaches wheelers only in the Tigers, to ensure maximum rudder effectiveness. Tiger is a big pussy (in light winds, anyway). The hardest thing was the lack of braking whilst taxying the version I flew - which had no main wheel brakes and just a small drum brake on the tailwheel. Interesting....

There have been a couple of comments about tailwheel first touchdowns in the Pitts. In my S-2C, at least, that's what I aim for and what the POH advises. It helps straighten out the touchdown and gives a better AoA in the flare, which means a gentler landing and less chance of the slalom down the runway that comes from landing with drift on.

I wouldn't suggest wheeling on a Pitts unless you had to ( I know a couple of pilots who had screws jammed in the elevator bell crank and didn't have enough back stick to flare properly - so they had to do a long shallow approach and wheel it on - they had no choice, apart from a parachute descent. The Pitts has a very high sink rate, power off, so you need to manage a fair bit of power to achieve a glide path that's flat enough to avoid the Mother of All Bounces (MOAB)...which means that you're (a) rather too fast and (b) you can see even less ahead than normal.
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