Chuck

When I earned my Pvt/Cml/CFI, tailwheel endorsements didn't exist. I was grandfathered in. I basically taught myself to be as proficient as possible before giving instruction. Years later, I wonder how I did it compared to what I know now. :uhoh:

All an instructor needs is a tailwheel endorsement to meet FAA requirements for operation and instruction. The endorsement goes to his pilot's license. While that is not really a solid qualifier for giving tailwheel instruction, neither is being nosewheel qualified in a 206 a qualifier for backcountry instruction with DA and heavy load issues. The "student" should exercise due diligence in finding an instructor, while understanding caveat emptor.

The POH and FAA PTS descriptions of short and soft field operations only scratches the surface of what to do in the backcountry. Unfortunately, that is usually the extent of the run-of-the-mill flight instructor's knowledge and experience.

Hi Desert185 I live just north of you in the Socialist Republic of Canada and thanks to inertia and the lack of neurons our regulator has not got around to requiring an endorsement for tail wheel airplanes.

I used to own a flight school with both fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft and it never ceased to amaze me that the regulator would issue licenses to low time pilots with such limited flying skills you were playing Russian Roulette with your airplanes every time they flew one.

It boggles my mind to see something as common as two little Cessna's sitting out on the ramp, one a Cessna 140 and the other a Cessna 150 and out of say ten instructors at the airport non of them are capable of teaching on the Cessna 140.....

Pathetic state of affairs in my opinion.

Just out of curiosity, what is anyone's preference on short bumpy grass surfaces? Three pointer or wheeler?
I have a number of hours in tailwheel RV's and the Aviat Husky and only done wheelers on smooth metalled surfaces.

I would three point on bumpy grass surfaces.

The Husky will take a bumpy grass surface wheeling on better than the RV, from my experience flying them.

It's just as bad here in UK. Years ago Lancashire Aero Club at Barton had a Citabria on the fleet. It was available for £60 an hour wet, when the club 152s were about £85. But the little taildragger went almost unused as PPLs queued to hire the horrid 152s and ignored the Citabria. For those of us in the Chipmunk group the Citab was an ideal stand-in if our beloved dHC1 was unavailable for any reason.

And IIRC there was only one instructor at LAC who could fly it!

Why is this? Why is the world of PPL training almost 100% nosewheel? Why are almost 100% of PPLs incapable of flying a taildragger?

Pathetic is the word! There are so many fabulous aeroplanes unavailable to the nosewheel-only pilot!

Pathetic just about sums this up SSD.

How did aviation get to the place where so many flight instructors are so poorly trained in airplane handling skills that a Citabria is beyond their ability to fly????

The Citabria is arguably the most docile tail wheel airplane out there.

Sad but true. Probably came about because instructing was used to build hours while waiting for an airline job, badly paid, no respect for those instructors who genuinely tried to do a good job, and no consideration for the paying student by the airline wannabes.

Never flown a Citabria myself, but if I had to vote for world's easiest taildragger I would go for the Pawnee, brilliant tug but a bit heavy on fuel. Or maybe the Wilga, what's more it has a round engine.

Back on topic though, I prefer a wheeler on tarmac in a crosswind in the Super cub, and three point with the Jodel. Just seems more comfortable, I can't really come up with a logical reason. Oh, and I might take out some of the crosswind component on a wide runway by going a bit diagonal. Next problem is taxying with less than efficient brakes in the Cub, with the original bag brakes. Forget it altogether in the 112 with pathetic cable brakes!

I mostly fly off grass, or at the moment, mud. Does anyone have a system for washing the underside of the wing without water running down inside their sleeves?

that is an easy one.

Get someone else to wash it. :E

Do you remember The French Flying Legends Piper.Classique?

Hi Chuck! French Flying Legends a bit before my time in the country.....

No problem..:ok:

I think that your statement is an unfair generalization. The fact that many instructors have no tailwheel time is not that they are incompetent, it is because virtually no flight schools operate tailwheel aircraft.

There are undoubtedly many instructors that have less than impressive aircraft handling skills but there are also lots of young keen instructors that have excellent hands and feet and would have no trouble flying a Citabria if one were actually available to them.....

I know the feeling well. Recently invested (very cheap) in an extendable rod with a pad/cloth on the end. Seems to work pretty well on the underside and keeps you dry and free of other items that stick to aircraft undersides flying from farm strips where livestock graze ;)

And thanks for that piece of advice Chuck. I'll stick with three pointers on the rough strips.

After about 1000 hours on taildraggers, I would strongly discourage anyone new to Xwinds from attempting 3 pointers. Wheeling it on with into wind aileron gives much better control and lowering the tail slowly gives maximum rudder availability. If flaps are fitted, whipping them up on touchdown is the equivalent of lift dump on larger machinery.
One would hope that on most rough grass fields it would be possible to land into wind but the thought of being bounced into the air with stick hard back is not a pleasant one.

Exactly...unless there is a airplane specific reason you should not wheel it on....

...and after around 10,000 hours of tail wheel time I have yet to fly one that could not be wheeled on.

aeroplanes certainly differ.

in my aeroplane (a Wittman W8 Tailwind) I have a solid link to the tailwheel.
so I always get the tailwheel on the ground and nail it there.
then I have absolute control of where the tail is going.

2 pointers in high wind or 3 pointers generally and full aft stick give me best control of the landing.

YMMV (your mileage may vary) :ok:

I fly a Maule MX-7-180 TW in and out of unprepared fields (grass, dirt and sand) and 3 point it every time, the primary reason being when I bought the plane from the factory I took a flight with Mr Ray Maule and he told me to always 3 point it, now i am not sure if that was his best advice in regards to the planes performance or a reflection of my capabilities, but I have followed his advice and it lands like a dream and is very forgiving regardless of how rough the field is.

Everyone has a different view of this topic. I don't have a vast number of hours, but probably over 3000 tail-wheeler landings - they add up quickly when you are towing gliders. ;)

I, and every tow-pilot in my club that I have watched, always three-points, or two-points in significant cross winds, always with full flap. I've never had a problem and none of my colleagues ever admitted to one either. Admittedly mostly on grass, but there were quite a few landings on hard runways.

This includes a long-time club member, now sadly deceased, who had over 10,000 tows in his log book, starting out with a DH 82C. Besides his longevity as a tow-pilot, he is famous for his statement "It's not a rough tow, unless you get rolled inverted by the rotor!" :E

Actually there are a lot of places you can learn to fly taildraggers in the UK now. When I started in the 1980's I had to seek out somewhere and ended up driving from Sussex up to Cambridge as I was determined to learn on them. Now there are schools in most areas that will teach you from the start if you want. Unfortunately, not all the instructors around now are that proficient to teach anything more than the basics though! I was fortunate as my instructor was an ex Lancaster pilot!

SS

Oh and whilst I prefer tail down in most instances I prefer a wheeler and wing down in strong crosswinds ... usually! :ok:

And that is because it is the safest way to do it......

......it is one of the basics of airplane handling fundamentals.

What really puzzles me is why so many pilots do not understand this.