Pilots only: tail-wheel aircraft?

Question

hey fellow pilots,

I'm thinking of learning to fly conventional gear aircraft.

any tips? which aircraft did you use to train in?

i just want to be as prepared as possible. my instructor's great but a little feedback can't hurt.

Answer 1

All the popular fabric-covered taildraggers are about the same in their handling and the ease of learning.  That is, the J-3, Aeronca Champ and Chief, Taylorcraft, Piper Voyager, Cruiser, and Pacer.

If you want something a little more challenging, try a Citabria, a Luscombe, or a Cessna 180.  The Cessna 180 can be really tricky.  For some real fun, get hold of a tail-wheel type Helio Courier.

I am retired from the airlines, and my personal airplane is an Aeronca Chief.  It's the same airplane I soloed in in 1964, and very easy to handle.

Answer 2

I received my tailwheel endorsement in an Aeronica Champ.  I couldn't get used to heel brakes.  Although we didn't use brakes on landing as it touches down so slowly, no need to brake.  My only difficulty was then flying my Sonerai.  The Champ was push left rudder, let up, push left rudder, let up. The Sonerai; if you breath on the rudder you're going that way.

I purchased Conventional Gear by David Robson.  You can't learn to fly with a book, but it helped me to have read and understand what the instructor was teaching me.

Hope this helps.  Good Luck.  It's good to take the training wheels off.

Answer 3

Anything with a tailwheel will teach you how to use the rudder properly. Champs, Cubs, and Taylorcrafts are great little training airplanes and don't cost much to operate.

There's a bunch of good advice above.

Answer 4

I would disagree about the difference between a Citabria and Cub (et al).  A Citabria (airabatic spelled backswards btw) has much better forward visibility.  When I used to instruct in them, that seemed to help in the transition.

In general though everybody here is right, they fly about the same, it's the rollout that gets folks.  Fly it until it's tied down is great advice.

I also used to teach a technique, note:  technique, of constantly walking the rudder pedals with small movements -- sort of inserting your own error that you needed to correct for.

Think push left, push right, push left, etc., etc.  Then you'll find that you are really pushing left, right, left, left, left, right, left, right, right, left, left, left, etc. and the airplane is going where you want.  The basic problem with people that learned in spam cans is their feet are asleep.  I found this exercised helped get them use to constant rudder inputs and a better anticipation of what they needed to do with that input.

I would also add the Stearman and T-6 to the list of airplane that will really wake you up.

Answer 5

Great input from Aviaop… but a couple more suggestions, it is sometimes easier to find a Decathlon for training since they are pretty common for beginning aerobatics.  They have really good landing characteristics.

Thinking back, the first tail-wheel airplane that ‘soloed in’ was a Pitts S-2B.  That airplane taught me (among other things) to be very aware of what shoes I was wearing.  You need to be able to feel the pedals and make sure your feet don’t slip around too much.  It is really not such a big deal in most airplanes, but it really matters in that one.

Answer 6

First conventional gear aircraft was a 450 Stearman at Ayers ag school in Albany, GA in the late 70's - may as well start with something really "interesting."  As far as a tip?  You're not done flying till it's tied down.

And a big "what he said" to the reply from pitts_pilot and Aviophage.