Tailwheel Endorsement?

Skypilot18 · #1 07-15-2009, 04:30 PM

Do us old folks who have flown conventional geared aircraft in our past have to get a "tailwheel endorsemet"? or are we grandfathered?

aviationgeek84 · #2 07-15-2009, 04:38 PM

Hi there,

Here is a good reference on the tailwheel endorsement requirements:
http://www.richstowell.com/dragger.htm

You can be grandfathered in if you have flown a tailwheel aircraft prior to April 15, 1991. That's the law... is it practical?

FAR 61.31 is your best guide.

Skypilot18 · #3 07-15-2009, 05:18 PM

I have the time logged prior to the date given..... Thank you for the interesting link; it was a very good source for the answer and good information a well.

John Clark · #4 07-15-2009, 05:23 PM

Those are good reads. Remember, tailwheel skills, like a lot of things in aviation, are all about currency. If you have been trained properly in the past it will come back fairly easily but you will get rusty. I had a reasonable background in tailwheels, C-140 through DC3 but when I was ready to fly my RV8, I realized that my last encounter with a tailwheel was 20+ years earlier. So looked up an instructor to get current. His comment was, "Well, your feet haven't atrophied to badly!" Thanks.. I think.

John Clark
RV8 N18U "Sunshine"
KSBA

aviationgeek84 · #5 07-15-2009, 05:36 PM

John makes a great point. Currency and what you are "allowed" to do are two totally different animals.

Fly safe -

Captain Sacto · #6 07-15-2009, 10:05 PM

I just had my first tailwheel instruction last week.

I read ahead, and thought I knew what to expect; however, there is definitely more of a "practised knack" involved than I forecast.

I left the airport feeling a mite humbled, with a greater respect for conventional gear pilots, and with a feeling that when I get the tailwheel endorsement, I should be a better pilot for the training.

(Still building an -A, however.)

.

airguy · #7 07-16-2009, 09:19 AM

I've had just barely enough time in taildraggers to realize how much you have to pay attention to them on the ground, and to realize that I really like that challenge. Almost all my time is in nose-gear aircraft, and my current 9A build will be almost exclusively for business travel (no dirt strips) so it stays as a 9A - but I've already decided my "repeat offender" status will be earned with a taildragger, currently set on a Harmon Rocket.