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
Is your family secure? Are you sure? Your current life insurance policy may contain an exclusion for pilots. EAA's Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance Plan will help fill that gap for less than a $1.50 a day. Take care of the people you love. Get an instant quote and purchase your coverage today at EAAInsurance.org. Personal Insurance Coverage is underwritten by Starr Indemnity & Liability Company, a Texas insurance company, has its principal place of business in New York, NY and is an admitted insurer rated "A" (Excellent) by A.M. Best Company. Administered by Falcon Insurance Agency, Inc. EAA Experimenter 29 However, tandems are easier because you can compare one side with the other. When fl ying a side-by-side, take note of the point where the side of the runway hits the side of the nose in landing attitude and keep it there. 2. Happy/dancing feet or move them when needed? This is another hyper-controversial point. About one out of 10 instructors preaches moving your feet in a rhythmic dance, left and right, the instant you touch the ground. On slow air- craft like Cubs, Champs, etc. that doesn't cause any real prob- lems (other than crosswinds where one foot is going the same direction as the wind). This is because they have a huge dead spot in their tail wheel, so moving the rudder back and forth doesn't do much. In faster, quicker aircraft, like most homebuilt aircraft, every time the tail wheel is moved, the airplane does its best to follow the pilot's foot, and dancing can create problems all its own. Land it straight and react only when the airplane demands it, as indicated by a change in your sight picture. 3. Getting of the rudder is important. One small aspect of the way a tail wheel works is seldom talked about because within the Cub/Champ category, it makes little dif erence. That point is the necessity of getting of the rudder very quickly as soon as it has done its job. If you come of a rudder slowly, the aircraft is still getting rudder energy fed in during the entire time the rudder pedal is on its way back to neutral. It's like pouring sand in a cof ee can that's sitting on a scale: you want to put 2 pounds of sand in it, and as the scale says 2 pounds, you slowly stop pouring the sand. The result is 3 pounds of sand. The same is true of coming of the rudder slowly in a high-speed taildragger. Get of the pedal lightning quick, like you're barefooted and the rudder pedal is red hot. T HE SUB JEC T IS V ER Y COMP L E X A ND V ER Y L ONG Books have been written on landing taildraggers, so we've only scratched the surface here. It would take many articles to cover it all. However, if you take anything away from this discussion, take this: tailwheel airplanes are defi nitely not the Tasmanian devils myth would have you believe. Anyone can master a tail- dragger with just a little fl ight training. Once you can fl y a tail- wheel airplane, there's an entire world of fun, exciting, historic, and high-performance airplanes opened to you. That alone is worth taking the six hours or so of dual required. Go for it! Budd Davisson is an aeronautical engineer, has fl own more than 300 different aircraft types, and published four books and more than 4,000 ar- ticles. He is editor-in-chief of Flight Journal magazine and a fl ight instructor primarily in Pitts/tailwheel aircraft. Visit him at www.Airbum.com. E A A E X P _ J u n e 1 4 . i n d d 2 9 EAAEXP_June14.indd 29 6 / 3 / 1 4 8 : 4 0 A M 6/3/14 8:40 AM