On Oct 7, 3:56 pm, "Peter Dohm" wrote:

Just curious, Dan,

Do you accomplish the ab initio training on grass or on pavement?

I have yet to fly a tailwheeler, but I have heard that the grass is much
more forgiving--and that fits with everything I know about physics.

Peter

On pavement, and then some on the grass if it isn't deep in snow like
we get here sometimes. The pavement isn't a big deal if you get the
alignment right, and it'll sure tell you if you're off a bit. One
thing you really DO want: a good, experienced instructor who will keep
you out of trouble. I used to spend some time early on just getting
the student to accelerate to a speed short of takeoff, then pull the
throttle back and let him figure out how to keep it straight. Once he
understands the idea that he has to anticipate the swerve and could
keep it straight, then I'd start shoving the rudder pedals around to
make it swerve and get him to fix it. Lotsa fun. ANd he learned soon
that you used ALL the controls, not just the pedals; aileron and
elevator also come into play on the ground, too. Taildraggers are
flown until they're tied down.

Typical first solo in a 172 will come at around 10-15 hours. Then that
student, once licensed, will have to spend maybe 7-10 hours in the
Citabria to get the taildragger solo. The student who starts from
scratch in the Citabria (and we do a few) will solo it in the same
10-15 hours as the trike student did. There is really no magic to it,
no steel-ball guts required, no special intelligence or ability
needed. But *please* don't tell my trike-only buddies that. Might hurt
my macho reputation:-)

Dan