Solo Taildragging

Since I now work away from home during the week in Peterborough, I decided to give taildragging a try at the Northamptonshire School of Flying based at Sibson. So far I had managed three lessons, followed by an enforced break for the last three weeks while the Cub was on loan to another school and then for a further week due to a 28 kt crosswind.

On the last lesson I took three weeks ago, it really didn’t click. I arrived still stressed from work and frankly fought the aircraft around the circuit feeling it was a mortal enemy. I really should have known better and not gone up. As a result, my landings weren’t great except of course for the last one when I began to relax a little. It doesn’t matter how many hours you have, you can still screw yourself up! Anyway, I went away and thought long and hard about that. I swore that no matter how busy the day at work, I would relax on the way to the airfield and look forward to meeting my cuddly yellow friend, the Cub.

Well, I did just about managed that and was in a good and confident frame of mind and looked forward to feeling the aircraft and being part of it rather than at war! James was his usual self and gave me a thorough ‘remember this’ brief. Although there were CB’s about and a big one had passed half an hour earlier, they were easy to see looming up and the air was quite still, so we decided to go from the short runway 15 (at 550 m).

The first take off was OK, the run was not perfectly straight, but I caught it and James corrected me and got the nose further down, but I felt it was OK and off we went. James carefully directed me around the circuit to avoid any of the villages as most of the villages around Sibson obviously have residents who have lived there for 50 years or more and pre-date the founding of the airfield, so have every right to complain about the noise :-o. I have to say I felt I was ‘feeling’ the plane and got some reasonable co-ordinated use of controls.

The approach was good and I kept 70 mph on the way down and 65 mph over the hedge. As a result, I floated a lot, but held it off fine and didn’t balloon it for a nice landing. That reinforced my confidence and we trundled back for another take off. James encouraged me to approach at an even slower speed and blip the power if we were sinking too fast. This I did and the next landing was good. Two more and James (and I) was starting to believe that maybe this wasn’t a fluke and sent me off on a local. He said to bimble around Morborne TV mast area and experiment with the aircraft for a bit then come back and do two circuits. He wanted to see me stopped by the intersection – probably 150 metres or so – no pressure then!

So out he hopped and off I went. Of course the plane was very much lighter and far more responsive, so the tail was up quickly and before I knew it, we were flying. Hold it low to let the speed build and the wing start to work, then up into a climb to the south. I couldn’t resist a childish ‘wooo hoooo!’ on the radio – ‘Glad you’re enjoying it’ came the response. I climbed to 1200’ (funny how that seems high in the Cub, but low in the Arrow!) then tried some sustained slow flight on the back of the drag curve. This seemed to work well nicely nose high with power at 50 mph. Then I tried three stalls. Power off and nose up and up to sustain height, then at 40 mph, it mushed down and the height dropped off – no wing drop at all. Power on, nose down and recover. I was surprised at how little height was lost after the recovery.

I bimbled around where my wife used to live when I first met her (in Folksworth), the picked up the A1 and avoiding the dreaded villages, tracked it north back to Sibson. As I joined downwind for 15, another aircraft was due to take-off on 06. So I called as I passed through his extended centreline as I saw him start the take-off run – so civilised these ‘Radio’ fields and pilots seem to try so hard to make them work!

The first approach was nice, this time slower at 65 and 60 or slightly less over the hedge for a nice flare and a fairly long hold-off. I was light and obviously still a bit fast. Even so, I was amazed to see myself stopped at the intersection. James congratulated me on the radio and gave me a very generous 9/10 and said do it again. Off I went again and this time tried hard to park it on the numbers. Perhaps I tried a bit too hard as I came in at the low 50’s with a bit too much sink – a blip of power would have served nicely. Nevertheless, it was firm but fair and I was stopped pretty quickly and taxied to the hangar.

James was very kind and encouraging and remarked that he knew I was ready for a ‘proper’ solo when I was taxying out and that I was far more relaxed and in tune with the plane – high praise indeed.

Anyway, I marked up the logbook and was relieved of about £100. While James has not formally signed me off, he said he wanted me to go up again very soon by myself to consolidate today. So I agreed to tomorrow afternoon weather permitting. He said he would be happy for me to fly solo in light winds but wants to do one more lesson on crosswind and wheelers, then will sign me off ‘proper’.

I now have a total of 3.5 hours on the Cub and I am feeling good about it. Once signed-off, I’ll do a few locals and general handling then take up some of the braver work colleagues. I did comment on the Tiger Moth in the hangar and said that once I was signed off on the Cub, I fancied stepping up to a go in that. James surprised me when he said ‘If you can fly the Cub, the Moth is easy’. I certainly wouldn’t be that cocky about it, but I will give it a go – something about a biplane with an open cockpit and a sheepskin jacket really appeals!

I thoroughly enjoyed myself today and again learned the lesson of the value of relaxing into it while still concentrating.

Yours truly is a very happy camper tonight!


PS - My instructor made the local papers the following day because earlier in the day a nasty cell came over and a tornado touched down in nearby Baston. He was of course airborne at the time in the Tiger Moth and did a precautionary landing in a field and waited for the strom to pass.