[Rant Warning] Tailwheel Training

In article , Dale wrote:
And about the "super" taildragger pilots. I used to fly a tricycle gear
airplane that had virtually everyone who flew it wimpering in
frustration just trying to get it to the runway for takeoff. It made a
tailwheel airplane seem easy.

I'm intrigued...what was it and what made it so difficult to taxi?

The only nosewheel plane I've found tricky to taxi was the Nangchang
CJ6, and that's because it had vastly different systems to anything
I'd flown. The brakes were pneumatic. The nosewheel was castoring.
The over-the-nose visibility on the ground wasn't very good. To steer,
you pushed the rudder pedal to the floor in the direction you wanted
to steer, then used the stick-mounted handbrake to dab the brake,
and the braking would be applied to the wheel on the inside of the
turn. The brakes were more or less digital (either on or off, very
little inbetween) It just took getting used to after taxiing with hydraulic
toe brakes and a steerable nosewheel (or tailwheel for that matter).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

In article ,
Dylan Smith wrote:

I'm intrigued...what was it and what made it so difficult to taxi?

B-24. It has a castoring nosewheel that wants to turn with the
slightest provacation, expander-tube brakes (slow to react), and a CG
very close to the main gear...get rough on the brakes and you could
bounce the nose off the ground.


The expander tube brakes work off of an open hydraulic system...there is
a slight delay when you press the brake pedal until you get some braking
action..just enough delay that until you get used to them you think "I
need more brake" and mash the pedal a little farther. About then you
find out you now have way to much brake, the nose dives and she lurches
to whichever side you've applied brake to..repeat until your eyes water.
G The airplane can make you look like a spastic idiot in a very short
time...but once you get the hang of it there is a great deal of
satisfaction in being able to smoothly taxi and park her. We used to
joke that if you had the skills to get it to the runway you could
probably fly it. G

By contrast the B-17 was very easy to taxi...she was however a wee bit
more challenging to land in a crosswind than the B-24.

--
Dale L. Falk

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing
as simply messing around with airplanes.

http://home.gci.net/~sncdfalk/flying.html

On Tue, 18 May 2004 19:12:44 -0800, Dale wrote:

once you get the hang of it there is a great deal of
satisfaction in being able to smoothly taxi and park her.

I think you have just hit upon the factor that makes taildragger
pilots so pleased with themselves.

I reckon I spent a thousand dollars just learning how to taxi the Cub.
But once I'd soloed in the sucker, no other airplane seemed genuine to
me. I even got a recreational rather than a private cert so I wouldn't
have to transition to the 172.

Since then I've flown the Husky, Great Lakes, and Super Cub, not to
mention the occasional Colt and 172, and still the only smoke that
satisfies is the J-3 Piper Cub. It's the Lucky Strike of light
aircraft.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

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