Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

[McRay7ac]

Well I been told over time once you learn to ride a bicycle you never for get.
That not whats happen to me getting back to tail wheel aircraft, I have had
2 hrs instruction in a Citibria and I am back to the basic seem I have for got
everything I remembering about flying a tail wheel after not flying 20 years
and getting recurrent in nose wheel, and getting my by annual check ride out of the way.
I have my 1945 Taylorcraft ready to fly and recovering my champ7ac
what it going to take to get recurent a lot practice to fly my Taylorcraft any tips or tricks I need to know, I have about 20 hrs years ago in a tailwheel aircraft Ray

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

I NEVER had a problem getting back on a bike, even after decades of not riding. That is NOT true for flying, especially in a tail wheel and VERY ESPECIALLY in a Taylorcraft! I went out and got the best tail wheel instructor I could find after my dry spell and told him to treat me like a fresh, green, never flown before student. One day I fly like Bob Hoover and the next like Jerry Lewis. With only a few flights it starts coming back, but I could have killed myself on the first flight. Get confident and some practice with someone who is a GOOD tail wheel pilot! It will come back.

Hank

[otrcman]

Re: Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

I have my 1945 Taylorcraft ready to fly and recovering my champ7ac
what it going to take to get recurent a lot practice to fly my Taylorcraft any tips or tricks I need to know, I have about 20 hrs years ago in a tailwheel aircraft Ray

Ray, first off let me commend you for having the awareness to know that you need some recurrent training before flying your Taylorcraft. Not all pilots have that insight or humility.

I'd like to cover one aspect of your tailwheel training for your consideration. What should your curriculum entail and what standards should you meet? We can discuss the attributess of a good instructor in another post if you wish.

As a CFI who specialized in vintage tailwheel airplanes, my view is that most of your intellectual learning happens when you are not in the airplane. You develop an UNDERSTANDING of tailwheel operation by verbal instruction and by reading. You develop SKILLS by flying the airplane. I preferred to treat an instructional session as an hour or so of verbal instruction, followed by an hour or so of flight to demonstrate and practice the skills that had been previously discussed. The student also needs some time after the flight to ask questions and process his experience for reinforcement. Now, down to some specifics regarding the curriculum.

You should receive a solid explanation of how your specific airplane works. Is the tailwheel steerable; does it unlock and swivel; is there a locking feature ? How do the brakes figure into the overall control strategy ? What special procedures do you need to follow ?

You should do some slow speed taxiing with your instructor to demonstrate and develop skill in using the tailwheel and brakes.

Your instructor needs to explain to you the blending of tailwheel steering and aerodynamic rudder control as a function of airspeed and propellor blast. He/she also needs to explain the difference in control between having the tailwheel on the ground and having the tailwheel off the ground. And you should learn the difference in control response between having the tailwheel lightly rolling on the ground versus having it firmly planted.

Your next lesson in the airplane should consist of mostly taxiing at various speeds. The best location for taxi practice is an unused or lightly used runway, as long and as wide as possible. It's nice if there are no lights or other hazards bordering the runway.

My personal view is that a student learns most fully if the overall task is taken apart into individual pieces, and then reassembled once proficiency is gained in all the individual pieces. As an example, you would be taught to use the rudder pedals without having the additional workload of using the stick. If you just go 'round and 'round the pattern doing touch and go landings,, you will put about 5 minutes in you logbook per landing, but you will only gain about ten seconds worth of time in the flare, and another ten to fifteen seconds rolling on the ground. For every hour in you logbook, you will have only about two minutes practice with flare and touchdown and another two or three minutes rolling on the ground. A total of five minutes tailwheel training per hour flown ? Not exactly a productive learning environment.

Your taxi lesson should be viewed as an opportunity to demonstrate and practice what the instructor has previously lectured about. At this point, his primary function is to keep you from hurting yourself or the airplane, while reminding you of what has been verbally taught. An excellent instructional technique is for you to operated the pedals only while the instructor manipulates the throttle and stick so you can concentrate on keeping the airplane straight. The instructor can tell how well you are "getting it" by how quickly you correct for deviations and how frantic your pedal motions are. The more adept you become, the less pedal motion will be felt through the instructor's feet. Once you've "got it", the pedals will hardly seem to move at all. During the taxi instruction, the instructor should give you the experience of first taxiing slowly with the tail firmly on the ground, then a little faster with the tail still on the ground, and then with the tail in the air. After a few passes up and down the runway with you on the pedals, you can trade functions with the instructor and let him keep the airplane straight while you adjust speed and raise & lower the tail with the stick. When you instructor judges you competent on each individual skill, he will have you take full control of the airplane and taxi at whatever speed he requests, tail down and tail up.

I have been questioned on the wisdom of taxiing at all speeds, up to and including takeoff speed. My view is that you have no business flying a tailwheel airplane unless you are competent to taxi it anywhere in its speed range. People who view a wheel landing as a harrowing experience to be gotten over as quickly as possible are just an accident waiting to happen.

After about 15 or twenty minutes of taxi instruction, you will be bored and frazzled. You will also have the equivalent of about twenty landings under your belt. Your instructor should now give you a break to just fly around and enjoy the view. At the same time, he will be looking at your basic coordination, situational awareness, etc. During the flying part of the lesson, you might do a couple of low approaches in which you fly the length of the runway at modest power and 10 feet off the ground. The point is to let you become comfortable with the pre-touchdown environment and develop better drift control and height control skills. He can probably talk you through a takeoff with your newly learned skills and may even get you through a landing if it's a tame airplane such as a Champ or Citabria.

At some point you will become proficient in taxiing at all speeds up to takeoff speed, and also proficient at flying down the runway.

On your next meeting, your instructor should orally review what you have done so far, and perhaps talk about landing flare and drift control. Then ten to fifteen minutes of taxi practice followed by half an hour of circuits entailing low flights down the runway but not landing. With any kind of luck, you will now be ready to begin putting it all together with full takeoffs and landings.

Whether you first do 3-point landings or wheel landings is a function of the instructor's preference, your prior experience, and the type of airplane you're flying. I've met many pilots who tell me that they only do one type landing. They advocate only 3-points or wheel, claiming that any other landings are inadvisable or unsafe. In most cases, it turns out that the pilot has simply been taught only one type landing and he's reluctant to try anything else.

I'd planned to discuss selecting a CFI, but this essay has gotten too long already. Suffice to say that if the candidate CFI just wants to get in the airplane and get that Hobbs meter running with as little discussion as possible, run the other way. He's going to be wasting your money.

We can talk about crosswinds and specific takeoff and landing strategies later if you wish.

Dick

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

We need a "LIKE" button! I will look forward to your next post on selecting a CFI. I also like that my CFI has been using a very similar technique to what you describe.

Hank

[McRay7ac]

Re: Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

Thanks for the reply on the post I have CFI that been instructing for some time, have 2 hrs with her and she has been follow a lot instruction what you posted. I retired 36 years with airlines still love
working on small aircraft still have lot to learn getting recurrent. I also will be looking forward to your next post on selecting a CFI.

Ray

[dkenney1]

Re: Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

First I would offer that the bungee gear system and if properly inflated tires on a Taylorcraft are MUCH easier to handle on the ground than a spring gear Citabria, especially on pavement. That brings me to the second point, is your CFI having you land on grass or pavement? Obviously you need to be competent with both, but if in your previous life you mostly landed on grass and he now has you on pavement, well..... pavement will occasionally humble an experienced tailwheel junky. Third if the Citabria you are using is in a flight school chances are that poor tailwheel gets pretty hammered and may not be adjusted for optimum. I rented a Citabria for awhile and I liked it when it was fresh out of 100 hour inspections and hated it on pavement when it had 90 hours on it. Fourth, a large part of successful piloting that we under estimate is "muscle memory". After awhile you get accustomed to how things feel and it comes naturally. That's why you can go from one Tcraft or cessna 172 to another of same year and type and not do as well with the other.

Keep at it, think things through, ask questions and if your instructor is very adept ask him to do some landings and you lightly follow on the controls. For some students that really helps put things into perspective where all the talking about it in the world makes them feel like they are being asked to chew gum, run, talk at same time. Hang in there, the switch will flip for you soon and you will LOVE it once again.

[Mark Bowden]

Re: Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

Welcome back Ray! Dick that was well written. I echo your thoughts on high speed taxi, you are doing that as soon as the wheels are on the ground and cross winds don't stop until she is tied down.

Ray, one question, does the Citabria you are flying have heel or toe brakes? One aspect of getting current in the Tcraft will be the difference in feel and foot action. Hydraulic vs. cable-Shinn and heel vs. toe. Your heel is less sensitive and harder to modulate than your toe/ball of your foot.
You have to get used to actuating the heel brake and keeping your foot into the rudder at the same time. One motion can unload the other. Foot position on final and rollout is important too, you don't want to have to move your foot much to get it into position to use the heel brake if needed.

Assuming you have Shinn's dial them in so the force is same L/R. Check cable slack, equal loop length at the heel, bellcrank spring and 2 adjuster nuts on each wheel (assuming pads and shoes are even).

Hope this helps, Mark

[McRay7ac]

Re: Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

after several takeoff and landings with a good instructor I it finely come back to me to be comfortable about flying again, thanks information and support.
I still have a lot of work on cross wind landing I thank it will also come with time and caution.

Ray

[lfries]

Re: Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

You don't need to be in an airplane to practice them in your mind if your technique is correct.

[swoeric]

Re: Getting Retrain in tail wheel aircraft

that was the most comprehensive answer and training I have seen yet.


I had not flown for 3 yrs bought my plane and had 5 hrs of circuit training on a grass field... looking back i had wished i had more driving practice.

recently i have taken 2 isn years off flying.. i was a bit anxious on getting back into my tail wheel. no many of instructors around certainly not proficient. for about a week i ran through my mind every phase of flight begging with pulling the plane out of the hangar, throttle adjustments, feel of the peddles flare etc.. so i jumped in a picked a grassy spot. I drove on the ground som to get a feel for rudder etc again and throttle.. it all came back. i was way more accurate on maintaining speeds.. my pattern was by the books touch downs on the mark. and then i realized how lazy i had gotten before when i flew all the time and just dump the plane in and adjust constantly down a rushed couple hundred foot final. 3rd landing i was back to touch down in 25 ft box and staying on a 8ft wide path


moral for me was the training was performed in the head before ever getting to the plane