Ground loop vs Bent nose wheel
 

On a different thread these issues were argued and I thought gee we have the data in our own experience. So lets take a pole and compare hours vs ground loops in tail draggers and hours vs bent nose gear in A models.
If I can make the poll work.
Edit, I couldn't do it vs hours so it is in the form of "have you ever?"

A Model
 

I have flown a 9-A 900 hrs. and a 7-A 60 hrs. off a grass strip, both old style nose gear. (Knock on wood,) no problems so far.
Larry

It is interesting that there are about 50/50 nose vs tail wheels (at least among those answering the survey), but that seems about right. It is also interesting that either incedence is turning out low considering the nature of the question being "have you ever..?" Note that you can click more than one answer, so if you have had both types you can still fill out the survey. To be useful we probably need about 100 respondants, the more we get the more valuable the data.

Many are looking at this Poll and not voting, why? We are not tracking who votes how so there is nothing to be worried or embarrassed about. Of course, don't vote if you are not flying yet. It is interesting how rare these events are!

I replaced my tail wheel springs with Darwin's tail wheel link from JD Air. Great product, improves ground handling greatly. My 7 was easy to land, but it is even easier now.

It?s not useful with ought hours of operation, a guy that had an accident might have flown 2 hours or 4000 hours, same for the guys that had no accents.

1100 RV hours mostly in my -4 but some in two other -4s and one landing in a -7A, no problems.

[QUOTE It is also interesting that either incedence is turning out low considering the nature of the question being "have you ever..?" [/quote]

Per the data when I looked at it, about 4% of nose gear RV fliers had experienced a bent nose gear. This does not seem "low" to me. It seems etremely high. What do you think the number would be if you asked Cessna, Piper or Bechcraft owners the same question? My guess is less than 1%.

Unreliable polls
 

Thats because polls like this are not reliable enough to produce accurate results. These types of polls tend to not interest folks who have never had a problem or accident. You end up getting a lot of input from folks who are passionate because they have had problems in the past. Thats not to say the results are useless. But they should not be taken as valid for decision-making.

Originally I tried to set up the poll the way you suggest but couldn't figure out how to do that given the way these polls work. So, we just have to take the limitataions of this poll method into account when processing the information we get from it.

ground loops
 

It's unlikely that anyone is going to admit to a ground loop on a public forum.
After all, you cannot blame the tail wheel design for a ground loop incident.
Personally I know of 2 bent main gears due to the fact that the tail wheel wanted to be up front upon landing.