First Tailwheel!!

Hi Gang,
Got back from Sumter ,SC about an hour ago. A nice long 5 and a half hour
down Friday night. Met Brett Justus about 8am this morning and had some
ground school time. Now I wanted to fly my you know what off today since I
drove for a while to get down there. But let me tell you 3.2 was all I could
muster ! Flew Brett's 46 Aeronca Champ. The first 1.2 hours was mostly spent
doing some regular flying , with some slow flight and steep turns. I believe
I handled that very well.
But oh boy then the good stuff. Winds were all over the place from
WNW-NE. And I am not talking about 5 knots here. Every great once in awhile
for just a minute the windsock would go limp....let's stress that "every
great once in awhile" part. For the most part it was 15-20 knots. hey what
better time to learn a taildragger right?
Well in the 3.2 hours I ended up with about 23 landings. So needless to
say , we were staying in the pattern and bringing her around again. I had a
few landings that were not bad, and of course I had a few that well ...we
won't talk about those!!! One I knew I wasn't gonna have a chance and went
around, the other we were real close to the deck, and it was real squirelly
, and I told Brett to take it. Dang I hated to do that! But I guess
sometimes that is the best decision to make.
So from fighting with the winds I just got whipped like a Red headed
step child, I tell ya! But for the time I had when I got there, I'd say I
did pretty dern good. (8.5 hours, no tail time) So I got a start on the
taildragger column in my logbook! Brett has his Champ for trade as he posted
to the group alittle while back. If anyone wants a real nice Champ, he has
one.
It was my first Champ experience, and as for the flying part , it is
sweet. Nope it won't win any speed contest, but it is just a fun knock
around and site see plane. I bet it isn't so hard to land when the wind is
calm Hey , I'm a rookie so take offs and landings need work. I did ok at
a three point takeoff, but I need to work on getting that tail on up and
making it a 2 pointer. I liked the heel brakes, and breakaway tailwheel.
Taxi was very easy honestly, I was really expected it to be very hard...just
from those tailwheel horror stories we all hear.
So to sum it up. I had a blast! Brett is a great Instructor, highly
recommend him. I learned alot from him in just that 3.2 hours. And I also
learned that flying a tailwheel can tire you out pretty fast in those
conditions. And yep had that nice long 5 and a half hour drive home too!
Course we did stop in Irmo, SC and have Japanese Steak House. If you never
have flown a Champ go try it, you can't help but like it.


--
Patrick Dixon
student SPL
aircraft structural mech

Welcome to the dark side...;-).

Deb

--
1946 Luscombe 8A (His)
1948 Luscombe 8E (Hers)
1954 Cessna 195B, restoring (Ours)
Jasper, Ga. (JZP)

"W P Dixon" wrote in message
...
Hi Gang,
Got back from Sumter ,SC about an hour ago. A nice long 5 and a half hour
down Friday night. Met Brett Justus about 8am this morning and had some
ground school time. Now I wanted to fly my you know what off today since I
drove for a while to get down there. But let me tell you 3.2 was all I
could muster ! Flew Brett's 46 Aeronca Champ. The first 1.2 hours was
mostly spent doing some regular flying , with some slow flight and steep
turns. I believe I handled that very well.
But oh boy then the good stuff. Winds were all over the place from
WNW-NE. And I am not talking about 5 knots here. Every great once in
awhile for just a minute the windsock would go limp....let's stress that
"every great once in awhile" part. For the most part it was 15-20 knots.
hey what better time to learn a taildragger right?
Well in the 3.2 hours I ended up with about 23 landings. So needless to
say , we were staying in the pattern and bringing her around again. I had
a few landings that were not bad, and of course I had a few that well
...we won't talk about those!!! One I knew I wasn't gonna have a chance
and went around, the other we were real close to the deck, and it was real
squirelly , and I told Brett to take it. Dang I hated to do that! But I
guess sometimes that is the best decision to make.
So from fighting with the winds I just got whipped like a Red headed
step child, I tell ya! But for the time I had when I got there, I'd say I
did pretty dern good. (8.5 hours, no tail time) So I got a start on the
taildragger column in my logbook! Brett has his Champ for trade as he
posted to the group alittle while back. If anyone wants a real nice Champ,
he has one.
It was my first Champ experience, and as for the flying part , it is
sweet. Nope it won't win any speed contest, but it is just a fun knock
around and site see plane. I bet it isn't so hard to land when the wind is
calm Hey , I'm a rookie so take offs and landings need work. I did ok
at a three point takeoff, but I need to work on getting that tail on up
and making it a 2 pointer. I liked the heel brakes, and breakaway
tailwheel. Taxi was very easy honestly, I was really expected it to be
very hard...just from those tailwheel horror stories we all hear.
So to sum it up. I had a blast! Brett is a great Instructor, highly
recommend him. I learned alot from him in just that 3.2 hours. And I also
learned that flying a tailwheel can tire you out pretty fast in those
conditions. And yep had that nice long 5 and a half hour drive home too!
Course we did stop in Irmo, SC and have Japanese Steak House. If you never
have flown a Champ go try it, you can't help but like it.


--
Patrick Dixon
student SPL
aircraft structural mech

Thanks Deb!,
I still look forward to trying out a Luscombe, I sure do like that
airplane!

Patrick
student SPL (who has ventured to the dark side)
aircraft structural mech

"Deborah McFarland" wrote in message
...
Welcome to the dark side...;-).

Deb

--
1946 Luscombe 8A (His)
1948 Luscombe 8E (Hers)
1954 Cessna 195B, restoring (Ours)
Jasper, Ga. (JZP)

There is no justifiable reason to equip any aircraft with a tailwheel -
and no practical reason for owning one.

Sure is fun though!

Did you do it in the grass? Tail is easier in the grass.

Try some grass at night.

W P Dixon wrote:
Hi Gang,
Got back from Sumter ,SC about an hour ago. A nice long 5 and a half
hour down Friday night.

yep, other than the first flight all the take off and landings were done on
grass. Actually the airport in Sumter was set up very nice for taildraggers,
even the main paved runway which was huge had a grass strip beside it.
Winds were awful, but I had a great time! I'm araid I won't get to fly
at night with the sport pilot thing, but hey while training I guess it may
actually be possible. Since I can train in single engine planes that do not
meet the category, maybe a night time trip is feasable?

Patrick
student SPL
aircraft structural mech
"Maule Driver" wrote in message
om...
There is no justifiable reason to equip any aircraft with a tailwheel -
and no practical reason for owning one.

Sure is fun though!

Did you do it in the grass? Tail is easier in the grass.

Try some grass at night.

W P Dixon wrote:
Hi Gang,
Got back from Sumter ,SC about an hour ago. A nice long 5 and a half
hour down Friday night.

On Mon, 09 May 2005 03:21:39 GMT, Maule Driver
wrote:

There is no justifiable reason to equip any aircraft with a tailwheel -
and no practical reason for owning one.

It's true; you don't need the tailwheel, since a skid will do almost
as well.

(And with a skid, you really don't need brakes up front.)



-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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the blog: www.danford.net
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I almost mentioned skids but I thought, "that's REALLY old school". Got me!

Cub Driver wrote:
On Mon, 09 May 2005 03:21:39 GMT, Maule Driver
wrote:


There is no justifiable reason to equip any aircraft with a tailwheel -
and no practical reason for owning one.


It's true; you don't need the tailwheel, since a skid will do almost
as well.

(And with a skid, you really don't need brakes up front.)



-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
the blog: www.danford.net
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com

somewhere in the back of my mind there's the idea that skids used to
tear-up the fields and were unpopular with grass strip operators plus,
wouldn't it he harder to turn the thing? one of the things in really
like with a tw is the ability to easily spin it around one wheel. seems
that with a skid, you'd have to goose it enough to get the weight off
the tail before getting it to turn that way.


dan

houstondan wrote:
somewhere in the back of my mind there's the idea that skids used to
tear-up the fields and were unpopular with grass strip operators plus,
wouldn't it he harder to turn the thing? one of the things in really
like with a tw is the ability to easily spin it around one wheel. seems
that with a skid, you'd have to goose it enough to get the weight off
the tail before getting it to turn that way.

That's exactly how it's done. Kick the rudder, blip the throttle for about 2
seconds, the tail pops up and swings around. Because of gyroscopic precession,
turns in one direction will be easier than those in the other. From what I've
read, it just takes a little practice. Unless you've got a rotary radial, in
which case, it takes a *lot* of practice.

My father used to fly out of an airport near Hickory in the early 40s. He said
there was one guy who came in there for gas all the time in an old mail plane.
He had installed a high-horsepower engine with an oversized prop. Papa said he
had to takeoff and land nose-up to avoid a prop strike, but he could be
airbourne in no time. Papa said he'd land and keep enough power on to keep the
skid just off the ground while he did a high speed taxi to the pumps. Then he'd
drop the skid to stop. When he finished fueling, he'd lift the tail and point
the plane at the runway. He'd start up, raise the tail, do a fast taxi to the
runway, blip the throttle to make the turn onto the runway without slowing down,
and be off the ground in a few feet.

The guy had his own airstrip behind his house. Papa flew over it once. It was an
old baseball diamond, surrounded by trees. This guy could start from home plate
and be off the ground by the pitcher's mound.

George Patterson
There's plenty of room for all of God's creatures. Right next to the
mashed potatoes.

On 9 May 2005 11:51:01 -0700, "houstondan"
wrote:

like with a tw is the ability to easily spin it around one wheel. seems
that with a skid, you'd have to goose it enough to get the weight off
the tail before getting it to turn that way.

Yes, I believe that's exactly what you did: stick forward, blast of
propwash across the elevator, rudder in the direction you want to
turn.


-- all the best, Dan Ford

email (put Cubdriver in subject line)

Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
Piper Cub Forum: www.pipercubforum.com
the blog: www.danford.net
In Search of Lost Time: www.readingproust.com