On Jun 25, 8:00*pm, E Z Peaces wrote:
Yesterday I chatted with a retired man flying a model airplane. *He said
he'd taken lessons in a plane with conventional gear in the 1950s. *On
his third lesson, the instructor had him land. *It was perfect.

After that, every time he landed he would bounce and float above the
runway. *His instructor didn't know what caused it. *A senior instructor
* went up with him and observed that when he touched down, he didn't
continue to hold the stick back. *That caused the tail to rise and the
plane to lift off.

That doesn't make sense to me. *I've always understood that with
conventional gear, excess speed is the cause of bouncing and floating.
With the main wheels forward of the center of mass, your angle of attack
will increase when you touch down, and the plane will rise if you still
have flying speed.

You have to hold the stick back until you tie the plane down in order
to plant the little tailwheel on the ground. Without the stick back
not only do you have less steering but because it has so little weight
it could easily pop back up (if you push the stick forward right after
landing you could pop it up easily). In most light taildraggers one
person can easily lift the tail off the ground (which is how we would
move the plane, no tow bar required).

-Robert