First Tailwheel!!

Hi Gang,
Got back from Sumter ,SC about an hour ago. A nice long 5 and a half hour
down Friday night. Met Brett Justus about 8am this morning and had some
ground school time. Now I wanted to fly my you know what off today since I
drove for a while to get down there. But let me tell you 3.2 was all I could
muster ! Flew Brett's 46 Aeronca Champ. The first 1.2 hours was mostly spent
doing some regular flying , with some slow flight and steep turns. I believe
I handled that very well.
But oh boy then the good stuff. Winds were all over the place from
WNW-NE. And I am not talking about 5 knots here. Every great once in awhile
for just a minute the windsock would go limp....let's stress that "every
great once in awhile" part. For the most part it was 15-20 knots. hey what
better time to learn a taildragger right?
Well in the 3.2 hours I ended up with about 23 landings. So needless to
say , we were staying in the pattern and bringing her around again. I had a
few landings that were not bad, and of course I had a few that well ...we
won't talk about those!!! One I knew I wasn't gonna have a chance and went
around, the other we were real close to the deck, and it was real squirelly
, and I told Brett to take it. Dang I hated to do that! But I guess
sometimes that is the best decision to make.
So from fighting with the winds I just got whipped like a Red headed
step child, I tell ya! But for the time I had when I got there, I'd say I
did pretty dern good. (8.5 hours, no tail time) So I got a start on the
taildragger column in my logbook! Brett has his Champ for trade as he posted
to the group alittle while back. If anyone wants a real nice Champ, he has
one.
It was my first Champ experience, and as for the flying part , it is
sweet. Nope it won't win any speed contest, but it is just a fun knock
around and site see plane. I bet it isn't so hard to land when the wind is
calm Hey , I'm a rookie so take offs and landings need work. I did ok at
a three point takeoff, but I need to work on getting that tail on up and
making it a 2 pointer. I liked the heel brakes, and breakaway tailwheel.
Taxi was very easy honestly, I was really expected it to be very hard...just
from those tailwheel horror stories we all hear.
So to sum it up. I had a blast! Brett is a great Instructor, highly
recommend him. I learned alot from him in just that 3.2 hours. And I also
learned that flying a tailwheel can tire you out pretty fast in those
conditions. And yep had that nice long 5 and a half hour drive home too!
Course we did stop in Irmo, SC and have Japanese Steak House. If you never
have flown a Champ go try it, you can't help but like it.


--
Patrick Dixon
student SPL
aircraft structural mech