My First Tailwheel Lesson

[Rick6a]

Danny,

Oh yes, the protective vinyl is most certainly removed from all areas where it needed to be removed. For instance, the vinyl on all skins was removed one rivet hole at a time using a blunt tipped soldering iron and fingernail while sitting in my Lazyboy with the skin on my lap watching the 46" flat screen LCD TV. Some may ask "Why?" To them I say "Why not?" I doubt the average quickbuilder could possibly understand.

[N8RV]

Heck, I thought you had just painted the plane a transparent shade of blue.

[CNEJR]

I thought I had left the plastic on until the end, but you take that honor. I am ready to plug in the wings and have polished the airplane. What a pain.

[RVAddict]

[quote=Rick6a;286613]That was then and this is now. Grass landings tend to be forgiving of less than perfect technique and it has been humbling to occasionally screw up wheel landings on hard surfaced runways in the stiff legged Citabria, some salvageable and others not. Sheer necessity has improved my go-around skills.[quote]


I hope I dont have that problem in the Citabria I'm going to get my tailwheel endorsement in.... The "no bounce" gear on the early models seems to help some people keep from hopping down the runway. We'll see.
Now, I've just got to finish my PPL up. Only about 5 hours to go plus the checkride!

[Low n Slow]

[quote=RVAddict;292172]That was then and this is now. Grass landings tend to be forgiving of less than perfect technique and it has been humbling to occasionally screw up wheel landings on hard surfaced runways in the stiff legged Citabria, some salvageable and others not. Sheer necessity has improved my go-around skills.

I hope I dont have that problem in the Citabria I'm going to get my tailwheel endorsement in.... The "no bounce" gear on the early models seems to help some people keep from hopping down the runway. We'll see.
Now, I've just got to finish my PPL up. Only about 5 hours to go plus the checkride!

The Champ I sold to buy my -4 had the ?no-bounce? gear. You really have to work hard to make a bad landing with them. There was a video passed around the Champ forum of an L-16 dropping in from 10-15 feet then taxing away with no apparent damage. They?re well named as they just won?t bounce, period.

Good luck on your check ride! You should do it in the Citabria and forget about the tailwheel endorsement!

[the_other_dougreeves]

Originally Posted by grantcarruthers

For x-wind practice try going out and just fast taxi ~ 40kts down the length of the runway with the tail up.

Also helps if you have an instructor that will occasionally STOMP on one of the rudders for about 1-2 sec and make you recover. Very educational. Just make sure you hit the bathroom right before your flight because the first time they do that, it will scare ... well, you get the idea. (Particularly when they laugh and howl with delight as you recover)

TODR

[allbee]

and if you don't recover that means he has to, and then he cXXXs his pants. hehe.

[Danny7]

Originally Posted by Rick6a

Danny,

Oh yes, the protective vinyl is most certainly removed from all areas where it needed to be removed. For instance, the vinyl on all skins was removed one rivet hole at a time using a blunt tipped soldering iron and fingernail while sitting in my Lazyboy with the skin on my lap watching the 46" flat screen LCD TV. Some may ask "Why?" To them I say "Why not?" I doubt the average quickbuilder could possibly understand.

you must of had good ventilation and a cold beverage for each session.

[RVAddict]

Originally Posted by Low n Slow

The Champ I sold to buy my -4 had the ?no-bounce? gear. You really have to work hard to make a bad landing with them. There was a video passed around the Champ forum of an L-16 dropping in from 10-15 feet then taxing away with no apparent damage. They?re well named as they just won?t bounce, period.

Good luck on your check ride! You should do it in the Citabria and forget about the tailwheel endorsement!

I wanted to do all my primary instruction in it but my instructor decided I should stick to the 150 & 172 because they had all the equiptment (gyros,ect) in it. I can't wait to transition to it. It's sexy and dirt simple!

I have thought about doing my checkride in it, but right now the right wing and landing gear are off of it because it experienced a HARD landing by a recently checked out pilot. The wheel was broken, as well as both spars in the right wing and the landing gear attachments were bent. I hope he gets it back together by the time I finally finish up my PPL so I can check out in it!

[AirAce]

I haven't read all the posts on tail wheel flying. But here is a comment from this guy, a member of the OFFA (Old Farts Flying Assn)

I have not read that any one has mentioned the idea of fanning the rudder in a TW airplane. If you learn to do that when it is most needed, your blood pressure will lower. What does that do for you?

Answer: Surely everyone knows that a TW airplane while on the ground naturally wants to swap ends and surely everyone knows, or should know, why. This desire on the part of the TW airplane is non existent while flying in the air. But on the ground the desire on it's part to swap ends comes into play. This desire is less as long as something is pulling on the nose, like the cooling fan - er das prop. But when there is nothing pulling on the nose is when the TW airplane really has the greatest desire to swap ends - landing.

When you have some thing that is not naturally stable, like the TW airplane during the landing, there is a very important lesson one needs to learn and learn well.

As you know the CG is behind the CD (Center of Drag). Once the TW plane starts to move toward putting the CG in front of the CD that's when your work load starts going up logarithmically. You may not recognize that instantaneously. In other words if you wait until you recognize what it's doing it already ahead of you, or putting it another way, you are behind the airplane and you are in danger of PIO (Pilot Input Oscillation), and man, that ain't no place to be. In other words there is a lag time between the time you TW decides to swap ends and your recognizing the fact. Then there is another time lag before you can input the correct countermeasures. So, if you want to outsmart the TW airplane you don't let it ever get ahead of you. And on a landing roll out here is how you do it. Fan the rudder. What this does is that you are removing those two time lags. Because when you are fanning the rudder every little deviation of the heading is sensed immediately. Consequently you are right up with the ground looping beast.

Next question is how do you fan the rudder? If too much you aggravate the problem, too little and it's like not doing it at all. Each TW airplane requires a little different amount of fanning and a little different frequency. So, you don't want to tromp on the rudder pedals. You want to do it gingerly like you would pursue the affection of a lady. A little digression here to recall another maneuver. Rolling on the point. You remember that your instructor taught your coordination by rolling on the point. (Surely your instructor did) If he didn't then you should have gotten a different instructor. Anyway when you roll on a point you remember that the heading of the airplane did not start to change until you had established a small bank angle. If the nose did move off the point while you were rolling into the bank then you didn't have coordination between stick and rudder. Once you were able to roll the plane into a bank without the nose moving off point then you had coordiantion. After that the training gets a little more demanding. After you banked the airplane, say 15 degrees and before the nose started to move off point you immediately reversed stick and rudder input to roll the plane back toward level, past level and establish a bank of the same degree in the opposite direction. You worked on this maneuver until you could bank from level to left to right to left to right etc., without ever letting the nose move off point. Once you could do this you had coordination mastered.

Back to the rudder fanning. Once you establish the right amount of rudder input your nose will not move off the centerline of the runway. The frequenty also plays a part in this maneuver. If you fan too slow the nose will start to move off point in both directions. Also if you put too much rudder in your nose will start to move off point. Once you learn your airplane then you can do this and the nose will not be wobbeling as you fan the rudder. Because there is a small time lag between the time you input some small amount of rudder until the nose starts to move. So, what does all this do for you?

Answer: You have established a way in which you can sense IMMEDIATELY that your TW airplane is going to tax your ability. While you are fanning the rudder you are preventing the nose from diviating NATURALLY even though you may not realize it. Because your feet are doing what is necessary to keep the nose from moving off point even though a gust of wind may try to kick it off point. Your rudder inputs will be asymmetrical automatically to compensate for perturbations in yaw. This puts you right up with the airplane. It takes the lag time out of the equation.

This is the secret to successful TW landings. Of course fanning may not be necessary if conditions are perfect, like a stiff no gusty wind right down the runway.

Pardon please my misspelled words. My spell checker is dead.