One more reason to put the little wheel in the back!

It was time to do my bi-annual and when I called the instructor recommended by a friend I was expecting to do it in a champ, since my -9 still isn't flying.

When the CFI and I spoke on the phone about my TW experience he said, "Oh great, we can do the BFR in my Chipmunk."

Without the TW time I have, I would never have the opportunity to fly such a cool plane.

Nice plane but the rudder bar – brake thing was odd as was the hand brake. Landing with one brake on beasue of the rudder bar / brake interconnect and minor cross wind was odd and took some getting used to.

Any of the two seat RV’s, including my –9, are better handling airplanes than the DHC-1. Compared to its contemporaries, the Chipmunk is a delight but it reminded me how spoiled us RV pilots are.

Yep, the tail wheel endorsement can take you back to the roots of aviation. 500 hours tail wheel time and no one will question your ability to fly a Chipmunk or any other tail wheel plane (except a Mustang maybe). However, 5000 hours all nose wheel and you'll be a Newbie all over again with the "wheel in the back".

I have long thought this is a big reason to be tailwheel qualified, if not necessarily to own a tailwheel airplane.

Say you get a chance to fly a J-3 or an AN-2 or a Mustang or a Cessna 120 or a Champ or a Luscombe or a Staggerwing or a 195. I can tell you it is really really great to be able to take the offer up, although I haven't had the offer yet on a number of those aircraft.

Building tail wheel time is great

One of the biggest reasons I built an RV-6 is so I could build up tail wheel time and in the future have the opportunity to fly some of the great classic airplanes in the future. I've already discussed trading rides with a few pilots with classic airplanes (chipmunk & Luscombe). I love old classic planes as much as I love my RV.

I like classic tailwheeled planes too. But I was a bit jealous of the Cessna Citation X, that I passed going to the hangar yesterday. Even though it was a nosewheel............I wished it was mine!

L.Adamson --- RV6A