Taildragging at Sibson

After my last taildragger training disaster, where I simply couldn’t get it right in what was after all a breezy crosswind, I decided to chill out and turn up and see what happened. Mind you, a one week holiday in Santorini in the meantime to de-stress from work helped as well!

I turned up at 16:00 to be told that the last hour or so was the first flying they had done that day. They had been fogged in until then. I work about 4 nm away from the airfield and I had lovely sunshine all day – isn’t fog a crazy thing!

I was flying with the CFI again so I checked the Cub out and folded myself in. It was stop and go circuits again, but then that is what I need right now. So off we trundled slowly in nil wind to runway 24. On the take-off run I was struggling with the sun which was right in my face, nevertheless, the take-off was pretty good. I commented on this and said I was not happy to land with the sun like that, so Frank said we’ll switch to runway 15. In nil wind it wouldn’t make much difference, except that 15 is 550m, so a fair bit shorter than 24, but still plenty for the Cub.

So I flew an odd circuit and called downwind. I was feeling very relaxed and getting into it. The approach to 15 was good, holding 75-70 all the way and maybe a little high, but a good, stable approach. Well, the combination of a bit fast, a bit high and nil wind meant I was floating down the runway, when Frank calmly called ‘go-around’. This I did immediately and we went around again. He suggested slower and lower next time.

Second attempt was a nice stable 70 decaying to 65-ish over the hedge, but again, not quite on the numbers. I ‘assumed the position’ – three pointer to you – and waited, and waited. We were floating again, and again Frank called ‘go around’. He explained that the hold off was good, but still too fast and of course nil wind wasn’t helping.

Third time, I called on the radio ‘downwind, DEFINITELY for a stop and go this time!’ which raised a chuckle from the back seat. I pegged the speed at 65-60 with a lower and very stable approach and I was pretty pleased with myself. I am sure this has happened to you, but it is one of those approaches where you swear you could let go of everything and the plane would land itself. Anyway, the speed decayed to below 60 over the hedge and I assumed the position and was rewarded with a nice landing. That’s better!

Off we went again for another. Pretty much the same. Good approach. The landing was OK until I hit a rough patch on the runway and got bounced, but I held the stick back and it settled without too much of a bump.

Off again and same again. This time the aircraft landed from the flare with a slight bump, but enough to jog my hand on the throttle and the throttle cracked open a bit. I quickly pulled it back but had to control it back to the ground – lesson learned – don’t rest your elbow on the ledge!

Around we went for a final one and this was also a pretty reasonable landing.

Frank seemed pleased and said that this was the sort of landings he was looking for. So I booked another lesson for next Thursday for the same again. I don’t mind, I am enjoying it.

As I was helping Frank put the school Tiger Moth away, he commented ‘I expect you’ll want a go in this sometime’ – ever the salesman. Yes, I certainly do, but first things first, let’s get the Cub under my belt, then I can play with an open cockpit biplane with a real honest-to-goodness tailskid – wow!

A good lesson. As ever, I learn more from my mistakes than I do from doing it right. You never know, I may be on the road to cracking this – at the very least, my landings in the Arrow are now very consistent and pretty smooth – perhaps taildragging does that for you. People have said this to me in the past and perhaps I am starting to understand what they mean.