Tamed by the Tailwheel

The Maule doesn't like it from what I can see. My technique in all
conditions, especially on a rough surface, is to hold the TW on until it
can be lifted. Then lift it positively to 'level', then rotate when
flying speed is reached or wait until it hops, then lift off on the 2nd hop.

I see the Cub guys just pick the TW up a little bit and lift off from
there. The Maule will start hopping and bucking if you try that on a
rough surface. If I remember correctly, it will even bounce between the
TW and mains.

Cub Driver wrote:
On Sat, 15 Jan 2005 21:02:18 GMT, Maule Driver
wrote:


What do I mean
by squirrelly? On grass, it hops when rolling on the mains.


Gosh, the Cub does that! Every once in a while, in fact, a bit of
gasoline will splash on the windscreen. I minimize it by keeping the
tail low.

When I flew the Husky at Andover NJ, Damian Delgaizo insisted that I
fly it off the ground three-point, but I hate to do that with the Cub.
The engine is 65 hp, and I can't see over the nose!

Are three-point takeoffs recommended for many taildraggers?



-- all the best, Dan Ford

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Warbird's Forum: www.warbirdforum.com
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"Maule Driver" wrote

I was pretty proud of the landing. Tower was impressed too. Then they
told me that a Malibu groundlooped earlier that day and damaged the
gear. I'm sorry that I smiled.

No you weren't! g
--
Jim in NC

Maule Driver wrote:

I'm sure you have a typo or 2 here - just want to be clear... You are
saying that the Maule likes to handle xwinds with less or no flaps - right?

Yes. What I meant was that the limits of my ability with 40 degrees of flaps is
about 15 knots. These days, I use 24 degrees or less with anything over about 10
knots. I also tend to do that if I have passengers who are not regular aviators.

My xwind high point was Key West. 30G35 directly across. I cranked in
full forward slip controls turning final. Turns out to be beyond the
ability of the rudder to maintain a proper forward slip.

That's what I found. We were attempting landing at 47N (Manville, NJ). Trenton
ATIS reported 28 knots when we went by. John checked the sock when we made our
first attempt - "straight across and straight out."

But even with
the relatively clear boundaries of Key West airport, the wind gradient
reduced the xwind velocity just enough to allow me to get it straight
during the flare.

I didn't get that far. I guess I was still 100' up when I aborted the second
attempt.

(By backup plan was a return to my departure point
where I had an into the wind runway).

We ended up at Trenton.

George Patterson
The desire for safety stands against every great and noble enterprise.

Well, yes and no - I kind of did a lot of what Patterson describes when
I was first training. My 'picture' of a 3 point attitude and my
altitude above the runway weren't fully formed yet. So I would get down
to where I thought I should be and if I didn't touch, I would just keep
flaring and would make more tail first landing than not. Problem was
that if I had the airspeed low enough, I would stall on, then I learned
to feed it some power, then I would hang and keep pulling back, etc. So
I never slammed the mains as you described but I did stall it on and do
some other sloppy looking stuff.

In the Maule, if you get the short final apporach speed right, you don't
have enough elevator to land tail first unless you keep some power.

I recently did a night landing where I really focused on getting a
smooth landing. Kept a little power on, flattened the approach, nailed
the speed, etc. We kissed the ground so nicely that there was no bump,
no squeal, just the tailwheel spinning up for a few secs then a bump as
mains came down. My wife and I looked at each other and smiled. She
said, you did it! except it was the TW.

dave wrote:
Mauledriver, I don't know why you would do that but I don't see how you
could land with the nose so high that the mains slammed down. Have you
done that? At any rate, I do my best to three point it. Sometimes the
tailwheel hits a fraction of a second before the mains, sometimes it's
mains first and sometimes it's all three at the same time. Lately, it's
been one main and the tailwheel. Seems like I've been landing with a
crosswind a lot lately.

Dave
68 7ECA

Maule Driver wrote:

In the Maule, the tailwheel first thing eliminates bounce completely,
at least if you airspeed is close to right. But it's always seems
sloppy to me. If you can tailwheel first, you can 3 point it. If you
TW first on purpose all the time, when you miss, you are going slam it
on a few times. Why do that?

dave wrote:

Someone else pointed out here or maybe on the citabria group about
the advantage of hitting the tailwheel first. That is, if the
tailwheel hits first, when the mains drop the angle of attack lessens
reducing lift. Is this significant? I suppose that if the landing
speed is as slow as it should be, it really doesn't matter.
Personally I like landing as slow as reasonably possible. Less wear
and tear on the tires and it's more fun.

Dave
68 7ECA
vincent p. norris wrote:

Believe it or not, it's okay to roll the tailwheel first.





There was no better way to get a pat on the back from our Navy
instructors at Pensacola than hitting the tailwheel first. That was
back in the days when airplanes had tailwheels, of course.

vince norris

Even if you are legal and hanging on the front end of the envelope, it
helps to throw a few things in the back. In practically any a/c, the
controls will be a bit more sensitive, especially in terms of elevator
control in the flare. A case of Champagne does it perfectly for us.

wrote:
You need to get out that POH and do the weight and balance
figuring for that airplane, especially if solo. It's easy to be out the
front of the envelope in these airplanes.
We use 40 lbs of ballast in some cases to get the CG legal and safe.
Dan