Tail Wheel Flying

Flying a tail wheel airplane is apparently like an afternoon at the driving range. You make a good shot, and tell yourself, “Hey, I can actually DO this!”.

Then spend the rest of the afternoon unsuccessfully trying to duplicate it.

I don't play much golf. Meaning it's been ten years. I figured out the bait-and-switch game that makes people crazy, and realized that golf has no end other than to make you a little better at golf.

I have 1.2 hours of time in a Aeronca Champ, and I figured out the secret. Tailwheel flying is a little like a golf swing... But a LOT more useful.

If you are a pilot, flying a tail wheel airplane is a way to make you better at everything.

My instructor, Bob, got rated in the champ 60 years ago. He's a flying octogenarian. He's a former Navy pilot. And he does one thing, and one thing only. He teaches tail wheel flying in the Champ, and I gotta tell ya.

There is no better way to spend an afternoon...

On your check ride, to earn your pilot's certificate, they ask you what the minimum equipment is required to legally fly. Flying any other airplane, you can recite the answer from a mnemonic about burning tomatoes.

If you are doing your check ride in a Champ, you can simply point at your airplane. The minimum equipment list is sitting outside on the ramp. My instrument scan included three instruments, two of which will eventually become irrelevant.

Altitude, airspeed and the slip indicator. The latter is simply there to teach me to use the rudder pedals. Bob didn't need it, and apparently considered the rest of them frivolous as well.

Altitude is a biggie. The tower will ask you to state your altitude. There's no transponder, so it's a legitimate question!

The airspeed indicator seems to be simply a navigation tool. The slip indicator is used to teach a guy like me that he's cross controlled.

So all that's left with this airplane, is the airplane and you.

Airplanes like the Champ are demonstration models for the principles of flight. “Dutch Rolls”* slap you in the face with adverse aileron yaw... P-factor is starkly evident in an airplane made of steel tube and canvas, even at 65 horsepower. Full rudder deflection is your friend when turning the airplane on the ground.

And you're not done flying the airplane until it comes to a complete stop. On the ground. The Champ will do you no favors. Making it look easy, isn't.

So, how does this make you better at everything? Flying what seems to me to be the ultimate aerodynamics laboratory, even once, makes aerodynamic concepts REAL. Our first responsibility as pilots is to fly the airplane, be it a Cessna or a Boeing 777.

Beyond that, it's about stick and rudder skills... Flying the wing, as opposed to the numbers. Or as Bob puts it, 'Seat of the pants flying'. I'll agree with that, if for no other reason than... I'm not qualified to disagree.

Tail wheel flying will teach you that sometimes 'finesse' sometimes requires you to stomp on a rudder pedal. The control coordination can save lives by keeping you from making that cross controlled turn to final. It give meaning to control inputs that modern aircraft sweep under the rug. It forces good habits.

Even in that 777, you may, one day, look at your instruments when things aren't going right, and disable the auotopilot to sort out an emergency. FLY what is, at the end of the day, an airplane with a wing.

You can wear four stripes and fly left seat in a Boeng or Airbus without a tail wheel endorsement. I met a charter pilot on a ramp when he admired the Gobash 700 I was flying. I said he should take it for a spin.

“Can't. Never flown a single engine. I got all multi engine turbine time. Maybe someday...”

I was speechless.

He looked at the sleek, sexy little thing wistfully... We shook hands and he walked to the terminal. I couldn't fathom that HE, a multi-thousand hour commercial pilot, could look at the little Gobosh and WISH he could take it for a spin.

Do F-18 drivers look at Steerman biplanes that way? Or slow Piper Cubs, Citabrias and Champs, and think with a little trepidation “I gotta fly one of those someday”.
Bet your ass they do.

I know that this can only sound like the ravings of the recently converted... But you owe yourself a spin in a classic. You won't regret it!

Unless you ground loop it, like I nearly did while a senior citizen laughed at me. Then you might.

But I haven't stopped smiling since.