Tailwheel endorsement

Well, I finally got my tailwheel endorsement this week, and today was my
first solo tailwheel flight. I took the Decathlon, since I need to practice
my landings. With my previous instrcutor I was struggling, in the Citabria,
but my acro instructor took care of me and within three lessons I did ten
good wheel-landings straight off, so I guess he must be doing something
right.

The Decathlon is a real fun plane to fly. It's great for acro, much better
than the Grob I've been flying until recently. Landing is a bit of a
challenge, because the symmetrical wing means that lift drops off very
quickly at lower speeds. It hardly floats at all, in fact if you don't keep
speed up on final it drops in like a brick.

Solo, it has pretty impressive performance. The take off run is over before
you know it. On LVK's 5000' runway, I just about managed to get it to
pattern altitude before the opposite threshold, using a Vx (58 mph) climb.

It's fun. It has been a struggle at times, especially when I was trying to
conquer wheel landings with my first instructor. But in the end it's been
worth it.

John

How much an hour did you pay for the endorsement, John? And how many hours
did it take you to do?

cheers...pix
who is thinking of getting a TW End.
"John Harper" wrote in message
news:1070762767.667218@sj-nntpcache-3...
Well, I finally got my tailwheel endorsement this week, and today was my
first solo tailwheel flight. I took the Decathlon, since I need to
practice
my landings. With my previous instrcutor I was struggling, in the
Citabria,
but my acro instructor took care of me and within three lessons I did ten
good wheel-landings straight off, so I guess he must be doing something
right.

The Decathlon is a real fun plane to fly. It's great for acro, much better
than the Grob I've been flying until recently. Landing is a bit of a
challenge, because the symmetrical wing means that lift drops off very
quickly at lower speeds. It hardly floats at all, in fact if you don't
keep
speed up on final it drops in like a brick.

Solo, it has pretty impressive performance. The take off run is over
before
you know it. On LVK's 5000' runway, I just about managed to get it to
pattern altitude before the opposite threshold, using a Vx (58 mph) climb.

It's fun. It has been a struggle at times, especially when I was trying to
conquer wheel landings with my first instructor. But in the end it's been
worth it.

John

In article , pix
wrote:

How much an hour did you pay for the endorsement, John? And how many hours
did it take you to do?

Pix... the better question is,
"What are the minimum insurance requirements?"

"EDR" wrote in message
...
In article , pix
wrote:

How much an hour did you pay for the endorsement, John? And how many
hours
did it take you to do?

Pix... the better question is,
"What are the minimum insurance requirements?"

I live (& fly) in Oz (also known sometimes as Australia ;-), where that is
less of an issue; what is more is the cost of hiring the aircraft (where I
guess insurance is built into the price).

I am thinking of getting a tailwheel endorsement when I come over to the US
in Feb/March - just for the fun of it. Where I would like to end up is in a
C-185. One of the major reasons for getting my T/W endorsement is to
increase flying and landing skills, and to get into the Citabria for aeros
etc...

Any real good instructors in the Jackson/Orlando areas??

cheers...pix

In article , pix
wrote:

Any real good instructors in the Jackson/Orlando areas??

St Augustine, Florida... Aero Sports... aerobatic training

Pix... the better question is,
"What are the minimum insurance requirements?"

Ridiculous, that's what they are!

A friend of mine, a CFII with lots of time in trikes, bought a Cessna
140 a couple of years ago.

His insurance co. requried 20 (twenty) hours of dual before they'd
insure him.

In the old days, students cusomarily soloed a J-3 Cub in 8 hours or
less!

And in 1949, when I arrived at Pensacola, the Navy was putting kids
who had never been in an airplane in an SNJ, and soloing them in 12
hours.

vince norris

In article , vincent p norris wrote:
Ridiculous, that's what they are!

A friend of mine, a CFII with lots of time in trikes, bought a Cessna
140 a couple of years ago.

Depends on the insurance company.

His insurance co. requried 20 (twenty) hours of dual before they'd
insure him.

Our club insurance only required a checkout (no minimum hours,
instructor discretion) when I got checked out in the C170.

My partner in the C140 taught his first student to fly from zero hours
in our aircraft. Again, the insurance company didn't specify a minimum,
just that the requirements of the FARs for soloing were met. This was in
2002. His student did his first solo off a grass airfield. IIRC, he had
on the order of 12 hours.

I must admit, I did watch his student *very* apprehensively during those
first solos in my plane :-)

The funny thing is (and I have it on videotape) is Paul watching his
student on his third solo, at Houston Gulf airport (5000x60, sadly now
closed). Another instructor is standing in the grass with Paul, watching
his student at about the same stage, in a Cessna 150. They are talking
about their respective students first solos. The conversation went like
this:

Paul: Yeah, I soloed him off the grass runway at Anhuac (a 3500 x 300
grass runway)
Other instructor: A grass runway? Is that considered safe!?

Paul then explained that grass runways (especially ones in reasonable
condition, and 300 feet wide) are SAFER, definitely for taildraggers,
and probably for nosedraggers.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

It took me far too long to do it, because I had an instructor who was only
available for one week a month and whose technique, I realised late in
the game, was not really right for me. I'm writing the full story for my web
page. So it took me over 20 hours. A more reasonable time would probably
be about 10 hours. IIRC I was paying about $70/hr wet for the Citabria,
plus the instructor who was about $35 until I started working with my
acro instructor who is rather more expensive (and a lot better).

John

"pix" wrote in message
...
How much an hour did you pay for the endorsement, John? And how many hours
did it take you to do?

cheers...pix
who is thinking of getting a TW End.
"John Harper" wrote in message
news:1070762767.667218@sj-nntpcache-3...
Well, I finally got my tailwheel endorsement this week, and today was my
first solo tailwheel flight. I took the Decathlon, since I need to
practice
my landings. With my previous instrcutor I was struggling, in the
Citabria,
but my acro instructor took care of me and within three lessons I did
ten
good wheel-landings straight off, so I guess he must be doing something
right.

The Decathlon is a real fun plane to fly. It's great for acro, much
better
than the Grob I've been flying until recently. Landing is a bit of a
challenge, because the symmetrical wing means that lift drops off very
quickly at lower speeds. It hardly floats at all, in fact if you don't
keep
speed up on final it drops in like a brick.

Solo, it has pretty impressive performance. The take off run is over
before
you know it. On LVK's 5000' runway, I just about managed to get it to
pattern altitude before the opposite threshold, using a Vx (58 mph)
climb.

It's fun. It has been a struggle at times, especially when I was trying
to
conquer wheel landings with my first instructor. But in the end it's
been
worth it.

John

So it took me over 20 hours. A more reasonable time would probably
be about 10 hours. IIRC I was paying about $70/hr wet for the Citabria,
plus the instructor who was about $35 until I started working with my
acro instructor who is rather more expensive (and a lot better).

From what I've read, ten hours is indeed a reasonable period of time.

Kinda funny when you think about it. In 1946, a Cub dealer in New
Jersey used to travel around New England. He and his partner would
come to a small city with an airstrip of some sort, and they'd grab
hold of a high-school athlete and solo him in an afternoon. Then
they'd say: look how easy it is! And they'd get a half-dozen lawyers,
doctors, and merchants to pool together $2600 for the airplane.

Then they'd take the train home, pick up another Cub, and do it again
somewhere else.

And now we think ten hours is reasonable for an experienced pilot to
transition to the taildragger!

I'm not bragging! It took me 48 hours to solo on the Cub, and 102 to
get my license. But I didn't ca it was the most fun I ever had.

As for costs, the Cub is $65/hr wet and the instructor is $22/hr.
That's Hampton NH. Probably not worth your effort to make the trip,
however, at least not this week.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

Cub Driver wrote in message . ..
So it took me over 20 hours. A more reasonable time would probably
be about 10 hours. IIRC I was paying about $70/hr wet for the Citabria,
plus the instructor who was about $35 until I started working with my
acro instructor who is rather more expensive (and a lot better).

From what I've read, ten hours is indeed a reasonable period of time.

Kinda funny when you think about it. In 1946, a Cub dealer in New
Jersey used to travel around New England. He and his partner would
come to a small city with an airstrip of some sort, and they'd grab
hold of a high-school athlete and solo him in an afternoon. Then
they'd say: look how easy it is! And they'd get a half-dozen lawyers,
doctors, and merchants to pool together $2600 for the airplane.

Then they'd take the train home, pick up another Cub, and do it again
somewhere else.

And now we think ten hours is reasonable for an experienced pilot to
transition to the taildragger!

I'm not bragging! It took me 48 hours to solo on the Cub, and 102 to
get my license. But I didn't ca it was the most fun I ever had.


I took my first lessons in a tailwheel (Aeronca 11AC Chief) and
it took six hours to solo.

The last TW endorsement that I did took ten hours because
the owner's insurance required it. He was ready before this, but
it gave me extra time to "tune" him up on other fine points such
as spins.

Skyking