An Aviator's Field Guide to Tailwheel Flying

Practical skills and tips for flying a taildragger

Jason Blair

• Publisher: Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc.
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781619545908
• Topic: Tecnología e ingeniería
• Subtopic: Aviación

In "An Aviator's Field Guide to Tailwheel Flying, " author Jason Blair shares his experience in a variety of tailwheel-equipped aircraft. This book describes major phases of flight and considerations that transitioning or tailwheel pilots may find useful as they look to increase their proficiency. The discussion goes beyond the physical flying skills into other tailwheel aspects, such as operational differences in makes and models and ages of aircraft.Pilots of aircraft such as Cessna 180s, Cubs, Champs, Maules or other aircraft of similar type and size will find this content helpful. This book is the author's result of years of instructing and taking notes previously passed on to his own students, now compiled and shared with the broader aviation community.

Chapter 1

Finding the Right Tailwheel Instructor

Before we dive into the details of what you will personally do as a tailwheel pilot, with my experience as both an instructor and examiner, I believe it is important to start with a discussion of how to find the correct tailwheel instructor. The “right” instructor does not just mean one who is tailwheel endorsed or even one who has flown the particular make and model of aircraft you will use in the training.

As you consider potential tailwheel instructors, key questions to ask include whether they have ever flown the particular make and model before, if they have flown tailwheel aircraft recently, and if they have previously taught someone in a tailwheel. Many instructors have flown tailwheel aircraft, but not all have taught someone in a tailwheel or conducted a tailwheel transition for a customer. Flying a plane yourself is different than instructing and training another person and ensuring they develop the competent knowledge, skills, and risk management to safely operate the aircraft.

Don’t be afraid to travel if you don’t find the right tailwheel instructor near where you live. This can even mean travelling with your plane if you have purchased a tailwheel plane. Another option if you already have an aircraft is to pay for a great tailwheel instructor to travel to provide training to you at your home airport. For most pilots, a tailwheel transition will not take weeks or months; with quality training and a little dedicated time, it can usually be satisfactorily completed (with a little cooperative weather) in a few days. This can keep travel expenses to a minimum while perhaps allowing a pilot to secure better training than might be available locally. This investment can be well worth the money, increasing the quality of instruction and potentially resulting in a tailwheel endorsement in an aircraft that is more similar to the one the pilot plans to fly.

When choosing an instructor, it is therefore important to also consider what type of aircraft you plan to fly after completing your endorsement. If you are shopping for a Citabria, getting your tailwheel endorsement with a local instructor who rents out their Cessna 170 for instruction may be fun, but travelling to another instructor who has a Citabria will probably be a better long-term training strategy. Shop around and be willing to travel to obtain the best instruction for your long-term training needs.

It is also important to consider insurance requirements. Many insurance underwriters will require a pilot to have specific experience in make and model of aircraft to be able to solo a tailwheel aircraft and for coverage to be in effect. The same holds true of an instructor who will provide training. This could be a factor in what type of aircraft you seek for your training and how much training you should plan to complete. It can also be a factor in choosing an instructor if you are looking for an instructor for an aircraft you own. Make sure the instructor has the required experience necessary for any insurance coverage to be effective (although hopefully you will never need it).

Although many people may automatically assume it’s the case, it is always worth confirming that the instructor conducting your training has the proper commercial training to meet insurance minimums for the aircraft being flown. And once your training is completed, you will likely have to meet experience minimums to rent such an aircraft alone. The same will hold true if you provide your own aircraft both for you to fly as the pilot and to be used by the instructor. Insurance policies may also require that instructors provide a pilot history form detailing their experience in general, in tailwheel, and in particular make and model aircraft if the insurance policy does not have an open pilot warranty that offers a blanket provision for others to fly the aircraft with experience minimums. Determine these questions prior to actually receiving instruction in the aircraft to ensure that if any unexpected damage happens during the training process, the insurance coverage in place will be effective. This discussion can be a major factor in choosing which instructor is appropriate to engage for your training.

So, with these considerations in mind, let’s dig into more detail about tailwheel flying.

Chapter 2

The Basics

I would be lying if I didn’t admit what the accident records indicate: Tailwheel pilots encounter more accidents, incidents, or—in most cases—minor mishaps with their aircraft than tricycle gear pilots. This is part of the reason that tricycle-gear aircraft are produced in larger quantities than tailwheel aircraft. Tricycle-gear aircraft are more forgiving of actions during takeoff and landing procedures than tailwheel aircraft, so it could be said that a tailwheel pilot must focus on the fundamentals and perform duties as the pilot-in-command with fewer breaks in attention than a tricycle gear pilot.

Flying a tailwheel aircraft requires a greater attention to detail, and that detail must be adhered to for a longer period of time, than flying a tricycle-gear aircraft.

We know that once a tricycle-gear aircraft is on the ground, its natural tendency is to continue to travel forward based on the position of its center of gravity in relation to the position of its gear. Even after landing, a tailwheel pilot must pay greater attention to rudder and brake control, because if the center of gravity is displaced, the tailwheel aircraft is more likely to turn about its center of gravity than a tricycle-gear aircraft.

As many old timers will remind a young tailwheel pilot, “keep flying it until you have it tied down.”

Once a tailwheel aircraft is airborne, it is fundamentally the same as any other aircraft. This is why the majority of tailwheel transition training focuses on the takeoff and landing procedures. The main difference between tailwheel and tricycle-gear aircraft is the position of the center of gravity. In a tricycle-gear aircraft, the center of gravity is in front of the main wheels. But with the center of gravity behind the main wheels in a tailwheel, the airplane does not naturally tend to “pull” itself straight, a fact which allows the center of gravity to be more easily disrupted and may result in the tail spinning around the main gear. This is predominantly counteracted with right rudder.

For pilots who originally learn in a tailwheel aircraft, they may wonder what the big difficulty is of a tailwheel aircraft for people who transition into them. It is simply based on proficiency and experience. There is no reason that anyone should be afraid to learn to fly a tailwheel aircraft, but they should be aware that they will need to adapt to slightly different techniques and modify their style of flying to match the particular type of aircraft that they are flying. For a pilot with quality training and who makes a continued effort to maintain proficiency, tailwheel aircraft are equally—and in some cases more—capable and safe aircraft to operate.

One area in which tailwheel aircraft are certainly different than tricycle-gear aircraft is operations in crosswinds. A good tailwheel pilot will respect both the aircraft limits and—potentially more limiting—their own experience limits in tailwheel-equipped aircraft. It is not true that a good tailwheel pilot can operate in any wind that a tricycle gear pilot can operate in. The fundamental reason why a tailwheel aircraft cannot be flown in winds as strong as a tricycle-gear aircraft can is related to the aircraft’s angle of attack while sitting on the ground. A tailwheel’s three-point attitude without a nose wheel on the ground, having a tail wheel on the ground instead, allows crosswinds experienced on the tail and empennage surfaces to more easily dislodge the aircraft from a straight travel path down the runway. This results in the aircraft being more prone to yaw in a way that a tricycle-gear aircraft is less susceptible to experiencing. This can potentially result in a dreaded ground loop.

What exactly is the dreaded ground loop? We will talk more specifically about it later, but for the purposes of a basic understanding, it is a loss of directional control in the lateral direction that causes the aircraft to spin around, commonly resulting in a wing strike against the ground or other objects. A simple way to visualize a ground loop is that it occurs when the tail stops following the nose of the plane and instead spins around it. Obviously, you should try to avoid ground loops, but hopefully this description provides you with a simple mental image of what a ground loop is if the concept is new to you. In a later chapter, I will cover ground loops in more detail, including how to avoid them and how to respond if one occurs.

In a tailwheel aircraft, the pilot must cancel all sideways motion with respect to the ground at the moment of touch down. The longitudinal axis of the aircraft must be aligned with the centerline of the runway. The difficulty in this procedure is canceling the sideways drift with crosswinds and in gusty conditions. Most tricycle gear pilots spend less effort working to eliminate side-load and thus develop bad habits that make it more difficult to fly the tailwheel. These bad habits of tricycle gear pilots who infrequently fly tailwheels are some of the most common factors that cause problems when flying tailwheel-equipped aircraft.

A tailwheel aircraft is much more sensitive to pilot error than the tricycle. However, differences between various tailwheel aircraft make some more difficult than others, and some more forgiving of errors. Factors such as wheelbase length, overall length of the aircraft, height of the gear, type of struts, and many others can determine which aircraft are easier or harder to fly for a transitioning pilot. When you are considering your tailwheel training, find a good instructor who is familiar with the particular make and model, and spend the required time to really develop proficiency before heading off down the next runway in a 15-knot crosswind on your own or with family and friends.

Tailwheel aircraft do not have to be less safe to fly than tricycle-gear aircraft, but a strong understanding of the physics behind the configuration is needed to mitigate the problems that many have experienced when flying them. This must include an understanding of the dynamics of aircraft stability, rudder and brake control, and how the pilot can recognize a developing situation and react to it appropriately.

With this in mind, the next two chapters cover the first steps for a pilot operating a tailwheel aircraft: starting and taxiing.

Chapter 3

Getting It Started

I know you are probably wondering why I am beginning with something as simple as “starting” the aircraft, but in older aircraft it may be different than what you are familiar with doing.

Most modern tailwheel aircraft and many legacy aircraft have electric starters or have been upgraded to include them, but if you fly older tailwheel-equipped aircraft, they may not have electric systems and may require “hand-propping” to get them started. Hand-propping is something that many pilots have never experienced or been required to perform, and you should consider strongly whether or not you would be comfortable with this procedure (after training, of course). There is nothing wrong with saying it isn’t something that you want to do!

Hand-propping an aircraft involves obvious safety risks, and a thorough understanding of how to do it properly is strongly recommended for anyone planning to conduct a hand-propping start of an aircraft.

You may even be thinking, “But if I have an electric system, I won’t have to do this, right?” Well, not always. Some older aircraft have small batteries, and in colder conditions these batteries can become weak and not provide sufficient power to start the aircraft, requiring a hand-prop start of even an electrically equipped aircraft.

I humbly share a personal experience of just such a situation. I was once flying a Champ across the country and found myself in Utah on a very cold but completely clear day, and I wanted to get moving. But my battery, after sitting out in the cold for three days, was dead, and the engine was cold. So I found mysel...