As a (retired) tow pilot, I have many, /many/ takeoffs and landings in
tail draggers and the vast majority of my glider operations are in tail
wheel equipped gliders, as well.Â* To put it bluntly, I see no comparison
between the two except for those gliders equipped with /steerable/ tail
wheels (mostly self launchers), and in those, the distance between the
main and tail wheels is so great and the steering authority of the tail
wheel so small (and non castering) that there is no need (in my opinion)
to worry about it.

In nose or tail dragger gliders, my best advice is to get onto the main
wheel only as quickly as possible for directional control with the
rudder.Â* With either end of the glider dragging on the ground there is
not much directional control.

Best,
Dan

On 12/27/2018 5:43 PM, Papa3 wrote:
Is anyone aware of a glider textbook or manual which teaches the details of taildragger takeoffs and landings in gliders? I have lots of examples that I've used personally with students based on my power training a Champ and dozens of available texts oriented at the power taildragger training.

Looking back through RAS, I found a couple of old threads but not what I was looking for. I just want to re-use someone else's diagrams and text. Failing that, I'll end up formally writing up my own notes along with those from a couple of other club CFIGs.

Not necessarily looking for a new thread on "why learning in Schweizers sucks" or "how come Americans don't know how to land." But it's Winter in the northern hemisphere, so I can probably predict where this will end up.

Erik Mann (P3)

--
Dan, 5J