"birdog" wrote in message
...
Is it possible to get a pilot topic going here? For all the criticism of
this guy Max--, the simulation pilot here, at least his posts relate to
aviation, however synthetic. How about we try this, just maybe to get some
on topic comments.

Today, maybe tail-draggers have no legitimate redeeming value, except for
bush piloting, since virtually everyone flies from tarmac to tarmac. But
still, lack of the skill eliminates some planes from the pilots options.
The Citabra, the 170's, 180's, or the smell of dope and gas in an old
Champ. The principal difficulty is in a tricycle, once all three wheels
are down solid, you are done except steering it down the runway. In a tail
dragger, relax and it will swap ends, with devistating results.

In my formative years, I flew safety valve for any number of licensed
pilots trying to transition from try- to tail draggers. A few picked it up
with a dozen or so landings, and a very few never got the hang. Most took
about 3-6 hours to gain competence. To go from tail dragger to tri-gear
normally took about two landings. Compare this to 7-9 hours of dual for
the beginning pilot in eithor type. To me, the hardest thing to master
before soloing was the rudder work required to land a tail dragger.

Does this suggest that training should begin in a tail dragger? Would it
be worth the extra effort? Or is the entire topic outdated?

Yes, it is probably well worth the effort.

With the quest for efficiency, in recent years, most of the newer tri-gear
designs have featured free castering nose wheels. That has certainly
reduced the aerodynamic drag of the nose wheel; but it has done so at the
cost of controllability in the event of a partial brake failure and also
created some brake wear and heating problems taxiing in crosswinds.

Against that back drop, even though I expect to have a lot of trouble
learning to love the high nose position, a steerable tail wheel has a very
strong argument. I would expect the frequency of ground loops due to pilot
error in taildraggers to be no greater than the frequency due to braking
problems in tri-gears; and the improvement in propeller clearance, when
strarting from rest on the occasional loose surfaces, should offest the
annoyance s-turns due to reduced visibility. All in all, the comparison
could be a wash; but is certainly worthy of more discussion than it has
received.

Peter