Gents,

I'm for the wing down method as I fly light taildraggers in often ..er.. 'stiff' breezes. Any drift on touchdown and it can all get very exciting and expensive as your world rushes round in a groundloop. The crab method is just not reliable enough, there are too many variables.

As Stik says, align the aircraft with the rudder and use the ailerons to steer... it's simple and gives you a head start on the ground when the aircraft tries to weather cock into wind and the into-wind wing tries to lift - the control inputs to counteract this are already in place.

Here is a great piece from Budd Davisson on the subject.

Kingy

Landing on the left
 

I have always landed on the left. Having learnt at a grass airfield where I was alway told not to track the centre line as the white lines are expensive to replace!

However I recently did a few circuits flying from the right hand seat and... every time I landed on the right!! Is it a perspective thing?

Phoenix,

That's interesting. I've never landed from the right hand seat. But I have flown tandem aircraft, where I'm sitting in the centre of the aircraft, and still landed on the left.

FFF
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Great link Kingy. That site'll keep me busy for the day (don't tell the boss.... :D )

Kingy -

I have flown with Budd Davisson and although I had 500hrs at the time, 200 of those tailwheel, I really learned a lot!

We never left the traffic "pattern" in the Pitts but we sure did a lot of landings!

N8PB is a sweet little aeroplane - having flown four different S2A's now I can honestly say that!

I don't understand this tendency to land on one side or the other - the centreline should bisect your feet on the pedals. Especially important in a taildragger as if left to its own devices it could go either way and you want to maximise your options!

Stik

Stik, I note your comment re wheeler landings for tailwheel. I've never felt very comfortable with them, so I'm looking to remedy that by having a good workout with someone locally who has the right experience. My tailwheel x-wind method is 2-pointer ie tailwheel-and-into-wind-wheel together (hopefully) and then the other mainwheel, with lots of aileron held in.

On the subject landing left/centre/right.
In a PA28 or AA5 at somewhere like Southampton I must admit I'm guilty of instinctively landing to the left of the centre-line, and I have to talk myself in to landing on the centre-line.

In the Champ on a grass runway with centre-line markings I do try to avoid dragging the tailwheel through the markings as I've seen a few with some fairly severe edges.

Slip
PS Stik: are you still Curry-Chief'ing?