Taildragger circuits

I have had a bit of a break in my taildragger training. Last time I flew was the end of January. Then I went on a one week holiday in Canada and wrestled with Transport Canada to get one of their PPL’s issued on the back of my FAA ticket.

Following all of this, after my return from Canada, I got a nasty cold and have only now shaken it – probably not a good idea to get into taildragger circuits with a snotty nose.

So I had a lesson on Saturday. Check the plane out and of course it needed fuel. That and the ground tug unit had been left bolted to the towbar connected to the Citation jet in the hangar and blocking the exit so I couldn’t pull out the diminutive RV6. So I asked the firecrew if they knew how to move it and they obliged.

The weather wasn’t great. Started off as I was driving to the airfield at about 900’ cloudbase with I would guess 5km visibility and a breeze. By the time I was ready for start-up, the cloudbase had ‘solidified’ and apart from visible shower patches, was now 1200’ with 10km visibility.

So I started up and taxied to the pumps. My instructor met me there and as I started to taxi in, he indicated that I went around the other way – then it dawned on me why – always point the nose into the wind with taildragger, regardless of how they are lined up at the pumps. Lesson well learned.

I filled up and we practiced synchronised breathing to get in the cramped confines of the cockpit and get strapped in.

We were given good old 22 with right hand circuits, so off I trundled, taking great care to keep the stick at the opposite side to the wind (i.e. if the wind is blowing from the front left quarter, stick back at bottom right quarter etc. Especially important to push it fully forward when the wind is coming from behind to try to stop the wind lifting the tail and dumping it on its nose.

We lined up and took off. The wind was about 200/10, not particularly gusty, but keep an eye on the showers as they would be preceded by gusty conditions and variable wind direction.

In summary, the first few landings went pretty well. I still need to anticipate and get right rudder in when lifting the tail on take-off, but I was getting there. The last few were still OK, but I was tending to flare a bit too high (Roly said nothing to worry about, probably only three feet or so too high.

On one occasion, I noted we were descending rather quickly, so I tried to arrest the rate of descent with a pull back on the stick, but of course the powerful pitch control of the RV caught me out and I over-cooked it so that we ballooned a bit. But I just set myself up gain for a second landing and flare and made an OK landing. Roly was impressed, not that I had screwed it up but how I recovered and still did a good landing.

On the last landing, I touched down, got the tail nailed then next thing I knew, we were back up into the air. Handled the second landing and asked Roly what I had done wrong. ‘Nothing’ he said, ‘you got hit by a gust just after you got the tail nailed which sent you up again’. Almost certainly wouldn’t have happened on a nosewheel aircraft because of the level attitude, whereas of course with a taildragger, there is a very nose-high attitude.

There really is a lot to get used to landing and particularly ground-handling a taildragger. My bad habits of ‘switching off’ in a tricycle gear aircraft once the nosewheel is down and ‘driving it like a car’ with perfunctory attention to wind direction and strength (other than in a howling gale) have now been well and truly excised. Don’t get me wrong – I am not trying to say that it requires super-human skill to learn to fly, land and ground handle a taildragger, but it does show up any bad habits you may have acquired flying tricycle gear aircraft. Tricycle gear must have revolutionised crosswind landings and ground handling when it was introduced in the 1940’s.

The thing it has taught me is to have an obsession for wind strength and direction ALL OF THE TIME, especially on the ground. Always check the windsock, don’t just rely on the tower reported wind, check it with your own eyes.

Anyway, Roly now confirms that I have ‘partial sign-off’ and can fly without an instructor, but only with a wind of less than 10kts and wind direction no more than 30 degrees off the runway. Basically, get comfortable with the plane and do a few landings until I fell that I have got it pegged, then come back to him for crosswind landing training and full sign-off.

So next week, solo general handling in the local area. Play with the avionics and back for maybe three or four circuits. I suspect I will repeat this for a few flights, then go back to Roly in April for some really sweaty crosswind landings then full sign off in time for the ‘season’. A few weekends in France now ‘backed-up’ and in need of flying!