Originally Posted by
jonkster
It does have a benefit - taildraggers being directionally unstable mean you should be taxiing with stick back (at least with headwinds) to give maximum tail skid/wheel effectiveness. Trimming back will make that easier to hold.
Some people will teach that as a method to assist you taxiing (I personally don't).
I really don't think so("easier to hold") as a general statement about taildraggers. But perhaps it does make it easier to hold the stick back for aircraft with the bungee elevator trim on the DH.82A and some other de Havilland products. Can't seem to remember now as it has been a while since I flew such an aircraft.
Originally Posted by
jonkster
Re aircraft staggering airborne at low speed being easily corrected, again a taildragger is a different kettle of fish. With low airspeed (and low rudder effectiveness) staggering into the air followed by nose down (and then another bounce and nose up and the stick jockey getting their movements out of sequence with the bounces) is a great way to get it yawing - when directionally unstable that yaw can progress into the classic tailwheel ground loop on take-off.
That has never been my experience in taildraggers of which there have been quite a few. With full power, there is plenty of air over the rudder and by the time one gets airborne, even if close to a stall, there is plenty of rudder control due to airspeed and propblast. One can see this during an in flight stall where rudder is still very effective at lifting a wing to prevent a spin(and that is usually practiced with the power at idle).
I wasn't at the airshow but I suspect that this was not a groundloop incident but a loss of directional control due to a stall. Perhaps once the aircraft touched down again in an out of control situation, it did groundloop. But a stall was the initiating problem. As we know, groundloops typically happen as speeds far below the stall speed.
You can see in the following two videos what can happen to an aircraft in terms of lateral displacement from the centerline when the lift off in a stalled/semi-stalled condition. Especially in the second video, it can be quite significant. I'm not sure how far the car was from the runway at Brimpton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ga603WA68
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffxh7f6tr_k