wrote in message
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snip good story

I've got about 1000 hours towing banners in PA-12's Great airplanes, does
yours have the O-320 conversion? I've always wondered how one would
perform with the big engine, and all the fairings that we left off ours :-)

Back to your question, I've had the same thing happen a couple of times on
landing. It was with a Scott tailwheel, and twice it was because the
steering springs had broken, leaving me with steering in only one direction
(the direction I WASN'T going) Though, I can remember a few times where,
not because of a crosswind (we had 75' trees on either side of our field,
right up to the runway, hence, no real crosswind) but because of a rutted
field, I caught enough of a sideload on the gear to break the tailwheel
loose to caster. Just rolling along, feeding in a little right rudder, then
BAM! Hard to the left.

Get's your attention in a hurry, that's for sure! About the only thing you
can try to do is straighten out with brake (if you're lucky enough to have
good ones; ours didn't) or give it a shot of power, and forward stick to try
and get the tail up and use the rudder to straighten out. Or, if you don't
have room, stomp on the inside brake and rudder and ground loop her before
hitting the treeline that defines the edge of the runway.

Great airplanes though; deadheading ours with the O-320 and a 74" cruise
prop, I could get about 90 mph at 2200 rpm. That's with no door, windows,
no wheel pants and no fabric over the gear. No cowling, and none of the
fairings at the strut attach points or covering the trim jackscrew.