Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.
Issue link: http://experimenter.epubxp.com/i/323139
26 Vol.3 No.6 / June 2014 TAILDRAGGERS IS THERE ANYTHING WITH more of a love-it-or-hate it reputation than a tailwheel airplane? If so, I don't know what it is. To hear some people talk about taildraggers, you'd think you risk injury just untying them because they instantly ground loop while you're in the process of doing so. The mystique surrounding taildraggers is nothing short of amazing. And it's totally unde- served. Mostly anyway! F IRS T, A F E W R A NDOM T HOUGH T S Until the nose wheel became common in the early 1950s with the Tri-Pacer and Cessna 172 (C-172), no one talked about how difficult a tailwheel airplane was to fly. That was just the way airplanes were and had been almost since the beginning. The nose wheel was developed as part of the "If you can drive, you can fly" marketing push at the time. It was a good idea and expanded aviation, but just because a nose- wheel airplane was easier to fly didn't mean the tailwheel was suddenly a devil in disguise. A good reason to learn to fl y tailwheel aircraft is that there is a whole bunch of airplanes you'll never get to fl y if you don't, such as a J-3 Cub or a P-51 Mustang and thousands of airplanes in between. You don't need to be a super pilot to fl y a tailwheel airplane. Just get a few hours of good training. For the fi nal word on how hard a taildragger is to fl y, read "Amputee Pitts Pilot: Peter Loef er" available online here , where Pete talks about his training to fl y a Pitts. Pete's right leg is amputated above the knee. That's right. He's a one-legged pilot fl ying an unmodifi ed Pitts. Kind of knocks the stuf ng out of the mystique of a taildragger, doesn't it? S T R A IGH T W I T H NO DRIF T What is it about taildraggers that supposedly makes them dif- fi cult to land? There are three major reasons why tailwheel air- planes have a bad reputation. By far the most important thing one must understand about taildraggers is the need to make a touchdown that is straight (the tail wheel is lined up behind the nose on the same line of travel) with no drift. If most tailwheel aircraft accidents are analyzed, at least 80 percent of the time the incident got its start in a bad touchdown. Put the airplane on the runway straight with no drift and any tailwheel airplane will roll pretty much straight ahead. If the center of gravity is on the line of travel, the airplane has no reason to turn. Put the airplane on crooked or with a drift and the center of gravity will do exactly what Isaac Newton said it would do: Bodies in motion tend to stay in motion. The center of gravity, which is no longer lined up with the nose, will do its best to continue go- ing in a straight line taking the tail with it. However, landing an airplane straight can be a challenge, if the piloting basics aren't right. This is actually a huge challenge for many. Why is making a straight touchdown such a challenge? Because it requires the pilot to make a really good approach that enables him to put the airplane in the sweet spot in fl are where you know the airplane is in a perfect position. When that happens in any airplane—and every airplane has a sweet spot in fl are—you know before it touches down that it is going to be a good landing. It has a feeling that says you're in the right spot, at the right attitude, and at the right speed. The simplest cure for runway problems is if the sweet spot feeling isn't there and you know it's not quite right, just push The T-6 helped taught many military pilots to fl y Taildraggers. E A A E X P _ J u n e 1 4 . i n d d 2 6 EAAEXP_June14.indd 26 6 / 3 / 1 4 8 : 4 0 A M 6/3/14 8:40 AM