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The Five Rules of Taildragging

mrblob

Well Known Member
Hey everybody!
I decided to start making some flight instruction videos. Here's my first attempt that covers the Five Rules of Taildragging.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up-RKRdrZro

Since I intend to make more videos (landings, stalls, RV transition topics, airport courtesy, etc.) I'm open to critiques to help make the next one better. Just don't be mean ;)

Paul
 
Excellent!

Excellent! That was every bit as good at the old ABC Wide World of Flying videos. Keep em' coming!

Aside: I recognized the Oceano/Nipomo coastline right away (being a Cal Poly grad).
 
Great video. Taxiing slow AND staying off the brakes can be challenge in these planes because they are typically overpowered relative to your run of the mill spam can. In my plane, I have to keep the RPMs below 700 to avoid picking up speed on the taxi way. RPMs that low can be a challenge to keep the engine running smoothly at times.
 
Nice video! As an experienced pilot with zero taildragger time I appreciate all the info I can get as I build my 8. Keep the videos coming.
 
Taildragger

Old pro told me years ago, "All you have to do is ALWAYS keep the little wheel behind the big ones!"
 
Hi Paul. I think you should take the last two words off your title; the rules are good for any airplane, no matter where the little wheel is.
 
Those rules apply to tricycle gear planes with castering nose wheels too. A crosswind from the left will try and push us off the left side of the runway on takeoff or landing. Using the brakes won't tip us on our noses, but it darn sure will flat spot our tires if we apply brakes at speed. Staying on the yellow taxi centerlines is important, too, because some of us can't see well over our noses just like a taildragger can't. Good advice for all pilots!
 
5 Rules

Nice job. I would label it the 7 Rules because Rule #1, #2 and #3 are to keep it straight!

Thanks,
John
RV-8
 
Hi Paul. I think you should take the last two words off your title; the rules are good for any airplane, no matter where the little wheel is.

I have to agree with Jim. I learned to fly in a Cessna 150. My instructor taught me to fly it like a taildragger. i.e. "If it is possible to get the nose wheel off the ground, it shouldn't be on the ground!"

Shortly after solo, I bought a T-Craft. Essentially no transition was necessary.
 
I have to agree with Jim. I learned to fly in a Cessna 150. My instructor taught me to fly it like a taildragger. i.e. "If it is possible to get the nose wheel off the ground, it shouldn't be on the ground!"

Mel, that's good pay-it-forward advice.

I got a flight review in a 152. I'd never flown one before. Third landing, the non-tailwheel CFI exclaimed "You don't need to get the nose that high in the air!". I explained it was less pitch than a typical three point. He was curious, so we went and flew my Cub. That's when I found he had also never flown a stick. It's all new to somebody.

Paul, good rules, although I'd temper the one about brakes. They gotta learn to use them sooner or later. It's just another skill.
 
Hey all,
I agree, these really do apply to tricycle gear, too. Most tailwheel students show up with 152 or 172 time, and none of these habits well developed. As Dan's example illustrates, even a lot of CFIs have never thought about ground handling from this perspective.

Also, a fair point about the staying off the brakes. You're absolutely right, you've got to learn about proper braking at some point. I stress these rules when a new student first shows up, and then we adapt from there.

Obviously, these aren't absolutes, but "the five suggestions to be applied at your discretion" didn't have the same ring to it ;-)

Anyway, it's all good discussion. Any other pointers that you would include when introducing somebody to tailwheel (or teaching ground handling properly)?
 
I was a back seater student on a 172 flight with my instructor and a buddy up front. When the airplane squatted back on the tail and started grinding on the rear tie down ring, my buddy started to let the nose down by releasing back pressure. The instructor swatted him and firmly corrected him to NEVER release full back pressure until the wheel comes down by itself. He corrected to full aft pressure, and the nose didn't come down until we nearly came to a halt on the runway.

I'm still not convinced that he was overkilling the lesson a little, but on every landing we ever did in the C140, he was *always* saying "Full stall, full aft on the stick until it stops flying".

That was 25 years ago, and I still hear him in my head on every landing. He said it would save my life - it must be working :)

Don

Mel, that's good pay-it-forward advice.

I got a flight review in a 152. I'd never flown one before. Third landing, the non-tailwheel CFI exclaimed "You don't need to get the nose that high in the air!". I explained it was less pitch than a typical three point. He was curious, so we went and flew my Cub. That's when I found he had also never flown a stick. It's all new to somebody.

Paul, good rules, although I'd temper the one about brakes. They gotta learn to use them sooner or later. It's just another skill.
 
From old pilot perspective, excellent introduction to flying.
Wish I had seen something like that in beginning.
Good luck developing your training system, it will work for TW or NW.
 
I got my early training in a John Deere 4440 pulling a 9 row lister! The markers left a small centerline mark and I wanted the straightest rows in the county! The outside busters would catch a little more dirt every so often and pull you in that direction just like a crosswind does to the rudder. The only way to keep your rows straight would be to tap that opposite brake to stay straight! I had thousands of hours of training before I ever considered getting my pilots license!
 
After buying a nosedragger RV-12 to learn how to fly in, my first lessons ( in mode C airspace Class D towered airport in So CA) were learning how to taxi, and how to use the brakes, to keep you out of the weeds.

First instructor was very poor in showing me how toe brakes actually work, ie how to physically actuate them. 62 years old an a visual learner. Let that instructor go... finally found a great instructor. 26 year old corporate pilot. Don't tell it, demonstrate it, do it, point it out to us, how it's done. No One is staring at the instructors feet when trying to keep it on the centerline, therein lies the problem.

Learn to taxi, throttle control, brakes and radio work, if necessary, before you even get to anything else.
 
Very good post. I would suggest that #4 “go around” should be rule number one. Consider every landing to be a go around. If you are happy then let her land. The frame of mind should ne go around.
 
..."If it is possible to get the nose wheel off the ground, it shouldn't be on the ground!"...

Or said another way, "The nose wheel is only there to keep the prop off the ground when the aircraft is not moving."
 
Made me chuckle

Old pro told me years ago, "All you have to do is ALWAYS keep the little wheel behind the big ones!"

I did alot of instruction in conventional gear airplanes , mostly experienced nose wheel pilots. What I experienced was that the real threat was pilot would start the airplane crow hopping.

Keeping the little wheel behind the big wheels is more like a goal than a process. Like when the nascar crew chief tells the driver to just keep it off the wall

Cm
 
20 Rules

Paul, terrible video! You need to do it over until you get it right. There's at least 20 rules to tail dragging.. Explain the first 5 over that beach that's a good start but, the next 5 over the Grand Canyon, 5 in S.E. Alaska, and 5 in the Swiss Alps.

I think you've swung my decision over to TD for my 8.

One of the greatest post I've seen

Thank You!
 
I just want to amplify DanH’s point about brakes.

There was a mishap discussion recently in one of the flying magazines. Improper use of the brakes. I don’t remember the details of the mishap, but the gist was that the pilot had been trained to not use them, and then when he needed them, he used them poorly and caused the accident.

I try to treat every landing as if it was a short-field landing so I brake firmly. And yes, if I am a little rusty and I have someone in the back seat, I get a little snakey once in a while as I move my feet up onto the brakes and apply them unsymmetrically. That is good drill-wakes you up right quick.

Despite my frequent firm use of the brakes the pads still last 250 hrs.

In early training certainly the brakes are an unwanted complication. But once basic landing control is mastered it is good to start learning to use the brakes. Once in a while you will need them.
 
practice

Rudder control is like any other motor skill - it requires practice. The challenge is that if you don't have a taildragger yourself or a huge budget to fly someone else's with an instructor, it's hard to practice.

I spent a few aviation money units on a nice VR PC with good rudder pedals and I feel it helped me a lot. I used DCS with the Christen Eagle II, Spitfire, P-51, and a few other taildraggers and it helped train the "foot-eye" coordination. Lots of taxiing, starting down the runway and aborting, and "engine out" with a quick turnback to a landing. I have probably a few hundred landings on the sim. And yes, if you do it wrong, you'll ground loop or end up in the grass or drag a wingtip - but you just start again.

Flying my RV-8, when I think about my feet I'm terrible. When I just let my feet do what they need to do I track straight down the runway. The automatic part comes after lots of practice.

I'm still pretty timid when it comes to braking - something I need to practice a bit more - I had to brake for my landing performance tests, but I certainly could have gone a bit harder. I really don't want to buy a new prop, so I'll work up to hard braking slowly. Also, since all my tests are at MTOW I suspect it will behave differently when empty and the tail is a lot lighter.
 
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