Taildragging on hold

I started my new job in Peterborough with visions of leaving early once a week or so and training on the Cub to gain my tailgdragger rating, then taking evening bimbles on the long summer evenings just for the sheer joy of flying. Needless to say, it didn’t quite work out that way.

Although I have about 350 hours of flying time logged (which while still modest, probably takes me out of the ‘beginner’ bracket), I had no illusions that getting taildragger sign-off on the Cub would be easy and so it wasn’t – for me at least!
Now it is late October and the clocks have changed, the ‘late afternoon’ window has firmly closed and unless I actually take holiday time off work (and I have already planned most of them), I will have to ‘shut-down’ my taildragger training until next year.

So I don’t actually have sign-off (although I do have a couple of hours solo). Without actually counting, I guess I did six hours dual and two hours solo – and lots of landings! But no sign-off – and quite rightly so as I don’t seem to have mastered consistent landings in gusting crosswind conditions.

I was trying to get one lesson in a week, but actually, mainly due to either instructors being fully booked or the aircraft itself on loan or in maintenance, it probably worked out more like one every 3 weeks on average – not ideal.

To add to my list of excuses, I did also have three different instructors. The first instructor was unconventional but excellent and I got on really well and learned a huge amount. My last instructor was quite different – although he was hugely experienced and undoubtedly an excellent pilot, and I didn’t particularly enjoy flying with him and felt ‘on edge’ and didn’t relax into it. This may in part have accounted for my poor handling in blustery crosswinds – at least I got a lot of practice in go-arounds. I don’t normally have an issue with instructors, I have only requested NOT to have a particular instructor once before, and thinking about it, he was the same – vastly experienced, critical, jumped in a lot and generally made me feel small – so perhaps there is a common theme here!

Anyway, enough of the excuses. It wasn’t a race and I will go back to it next spring when the evening are lighter and this time stick with my preferred instructor – I am paying the bills after all!

Meantime, I will have enough to do revalidating my IMC and getting a few landaways in on the Arrow – and of course planning for the ‘big trip’ in 2007! I’ll wait to see what Flyer Forum comes up with then decide whether to go with them or do my own thing. I have my erstwhile regular flying partner who has since returned to Canada wanting to come over specially for the trip and he is pushing for a ‘Nordic’ trip (which I have been thinking of for some time.