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Old 27th Sep 2014, 12:55
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9 lives
 
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Though I have no particular knowledge of the Titch, I am familiar with, and have flown a few similar aircraft. If you have been trained to fly this type of aircraft, they can be great. But bear in mind that they can be quite different (sometimes in a nice way) to the common certified GA aircraft most pilots are familiar with. Approach with informed caution.

The handling of this type of aircraft is often termed "like little fighters". That's 'cause people like Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mustangs, and these are intended to offer something similar. But, today's training has taken a different turn, it is not geared toward competence in "little fighters". "Hands and feet" skills seem now to be very secondary to glass cockpit and magenta line skills. I find now that many "newer" pilots I fly with are way behind a "twitchy" plane.

Sure, a competent pilot can gain these skills, but there is a training gap now. It takes a lot of skill to check one's self out in such an aircraft, and that skill comes with great hands and feet skills, and from flying similar aircraft - not so easy to arrange. With little or no tailwheel experience, aircraft like this would not be a good "next step". Being really sharp in a Citabria is a start. If there were a tailwheel Tomahwk, I'd suggest that. But Piper's lawyers of the day knew that such a plane would come back to bite the company. Cessna and the "land-o-matic" tricycle spoiled pilots, and Piper followed quickly.

These homebuilt aircraft were born in an era when we had "old fighter pilots" to mentor the new pilots. Those old fighter pilots are gone. Yes, there are many competent civil pilots of high performance uncertified aircraft, and you'd be best to get some mentoring from one of them.

By comparison to a certified mainstream GA aircraft, the lesser stability in all axis, more noticeable reaction to torque, higher wing loading, and perhaps less forgiving stall and spin recovery of these homebuilt aircraft may well be beyond the skill set of a standard GA pilot.

The challenge will be to find a mentor, who can take them self back to your skill level, and present what you need to know. I have trained tailwheel in Teals, which are certified, but that are still an unstable handful. No pilot I have flown with in the Teal was ready to solo it after an hour or two on the runway, let alone the water.

Do not buy an aircraft of this type to "learn on it". Buy it because you know that you can handle it safely, based upon your previous experience in a similar type.
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