Tugging with the Super Cub polishes your landings nicely. I remember one fine day at Lasham logging seven hours in G-ATRG. And, yes, I would have rather done seven hours in a glider! :D

One of the vital skills of the tailwheel pilot is the ability to collect the aeroplane off a bad bounce, never mind a cr@p approach, and land it. This must be second nature; if you do nothing, the subsequent coming to earth, or if you are lucky, certainly the one after that, will seriously damage the aeroplane.

The inbuilt auto-response to add power, get the tail up/nose down (not too far), then re-land (or go around if there is insufficient runway) must be there.

I remember one check out pilot in the Chippy back in '70s would deliberatley bang it on nose-low, whereupon it would bounce, nose now heading skyward as the airspeed dribbled back... "You have control", he'd shout.

Yes! I was suddenly reminded of this when a mighty hand appeared from the right, and pushed the power levers way up, after I bounced a landing in the DC-3. The "fight" (to land) instinct suddenly must turn to "flee", when the training pilot tells you you're going around! I had been too fixated on completing the landing.

Since then, I've not been ashamed to go around the odd time, when I bounced a taildragger.

It's not the hours, it's the landings, how many in the 7 hours? Did 14 dH82a trial lessons in one day, that certainly polishes them - did another day, 7 t/l in the Moth in 30kts+ of wind, another one that really polishes them!

Although good airmanship might suggest that if you've not flown an aircraft class for over a decade, a little quality time with an instructor might be sensible, and if you're doing that, you may as well ask them to sign your logbook.

G

The guidance material in lasors actually states that if you havent flown the applicable type/variant within the SEP class for 2 years then refresher training with an instructor is recommended. Its not mandatory of course, but 2 years is the recommended gap.

Well, it was tugging.........
So a minimum of 42 if a tow takes ten minutes, but that's a pretty slow turnaround, usually seven to nine to the hour if the ground operation is fairly good and the glider pilots pull off not too high.

Foxmoth only 18? Is that because Mr. Black couldn't find anymore punters! Those were great days.

Chaps, found this amazing piece of work on a Google 'tailwheel' search:

In praise of airplane tail-draggers and grass-roots flying

It's Canadian, but very funny and some elements of the narrative are important.

Enjoy!

Thanks, GeeWhizz, I enjoyed that (I can't have been the only one, surely?), and some of the other articles on that website :)

This one made me chuckle, too.

In praise of airplane tail-draggers and grass-roots flying is one of the best tailwheel articles I've read - thanks for posting. Lot of good, practical advice plus humour.

Do the TW endorsement -- it will improve your stick and rudder skills no end.

But do the spin training. too. It may just save your life.

I have a J5D Auster with a 160hp 0-320 that gets along at 100 kn TAS. The demonstrated x-wind max is 9 kn.

It keeps me very honest :-)

kaz