Tailwheel training
Hi abgd,
Tailwheel is not something you can learn with a quick hour in a Cub and there is a surprising amount of poor tail-wheel training on offer. So definitely read 'The Compleat Taildragger Pilot' by Plourde as this may be the only means by which you will know in what respect your tailwheel training might have been lacking.
My greatest area of concern is that many flying schools/flying clubs nowadays just don't teach wheeler landings. You might well need this skill to pull off a cross wind landing in a strong cross wind. (I hear some places don't even teach cross wind landing at all, which is disgraceful)!
For landing cross wind, most will teach you to do a two-point landing instead. This is where you stall the aircraft on with your into-wind wing down, putting down your into-wind main wheel and tail wheel first. This is O.K. for a mild to moderate crosswind in a forgiving high wing aircraft, but if you have to land a low wing monoplane or bi-plane with a strong crosswind, then in my view two-pointing could be hazardous.
There are also two methods of landing approach, the 'crabbing in' method and the 'wing down' method. You need to know both methods of landing approach and should be able to do both and be ready to use either method, according to the characteristics of the aeroplane and the conditions prevailing.
The wheeler landing is where you allow the main wheels to brush the runway while you still have flying speed. You then move the control column forward to remove any positive angle of attack causing the aeroplane to roll along the runway on her main wheels while keeping her tail up with the elevators.
You allow the speed to fall off while holding the tail up and the aeroplane straight and as close as possible to the centre line of the runway. As the speed falls off, you will find yourself moving the control column further and further forward to keep the tail up, while applying more and more into wind aileron and more and more away-from-wind rudder to keep her straight. Eventually, you will be unable to hold the tail up any longer and it will sink gently onto the runway and the aeroplane will roll to a halt with the flying controls now very crossed - the stick fully forward with full into wind aileron and full away from wind rudder.
When I returned to flying after a break of several decades I was taught the two point landing, (a method which incidentally I had never even seen before). I asked if I could relearn my accustomed wheeler landing, and received no clear reply. So I did as I was told and used the method I had now been taught. A few weeks later, I had my very first ever groundloop!
I am not saying the sole cause of the groundloop was 'two pointing' the aeroplane, as other factors were at work on that occasion also, not least of which being hit by a gust of wind funnelled between two nearby hangars, but I certainly believe the two point landing method contributed to the development of the ground-loop by removing some of the rudder authority, as with the tail down part of the fin would have been masked by the forward fuselage because the aircraft was now in a landing attitude.
I believe that if that gust had caught me during a wheeler landing, while my nose was still level it would have been that much quicker, after getting full power back on, to accelerate to flying speed, and do a go-round.
I have the impression that many present day instructors, (both ex-military and civil trained) lack the ability to teach the wheeler landing, perhaps being afraid to teach people to brush the ground with their mains and push the stick forward, while still having flying speed during the resulting ground roll, for fear of grounding the prop.
Whoever you go to, make sure you are trained properly. You need to come away feeling confident about landing cross wind using a wheeler landing. You need to ask before commencing training whether the wheeler will be part of your training.
Good luck.
BP.