Ah tailwheel. A dying art indeed.
In a previous life I used to fly tailwheel aircraft. I can still tell, today who have flown tailwheel and who have not. The tailwheel trained pilot will use his feet effectively, on or near the ground more so than others. I can still here my instructors words ringing in my ear. " Have you ever pedalled a pedal car XXX?" Yes. " Well pedal the F'in thing!".
If you really want to be able to get the feel of a tailwheel and go someway toward mastering the art, then try and get a hold of a Cessna 180/185, with an Instructor who knows how to fly the thing. This of course should be after your conversion, say on a PA 18, or similar. If you can master that machine in a good gusty xwind, then it will be good grounding for most other tailwheel machines. In fact good grounding and training, period, as you will not see most tailwheel trained pilots land with drift, relative to the ground. Like other arts, you do not forget it, just maybe become a little rusty.
The technique I employed, as did most others at the time, was the "tail down wheeler" in most cases. This covered most eventualities. The three pointer has it's uses but does put more of a strain on the airframe, over a period of time. Some of the advanced tailwheel aircraft I operated over a ten year period had tailwheel locks. Locking the tailwheel was achieved by full back stick, releasing a locking pin to lock the tailwheel in the central position. This was good as it saved the wheel brakes somewhat. Full forward stick, would withdraw that pin and the tailwheel would caster. The Thrust Commander was one such machine that employed this. The others would lock towards the centre and released by a chain connected to the rudder.
As I am no longer an Instructor I will refrain from further comment.
Last edited by weido_salt; 22nd February 2009 at 14:46.