Scudrunners

How to Look Less Worse When Tailwheel Flying
Paul BergeNovember 10, 201920

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all pilots should take their primary training in tailwheel airplanes, preferably without radios, and all should learn how to wheel land a taildragger, meaning touching on the main gear wheels before the tailwheel. By contrast, less flashy full-stall landings occur when all three wheels (mains and tailwheel) touch roughly together.

Additionally, all primary instructors should be geezers (male or female), half-deaf from 40 years flying such machines. Full confession: I learned to fly in a Cessna 150 and delayed the transition to tailwheel until eight years later. By then, I’d ingrained poor landing habits deep into my marrow, relying upon the CG being forward of the main landing gear to keep the airplane running straight on the ground. Decades later, I’m nearly deaf and mostly fly and teach in tailwheel or what’s properly known as conventional landing gear.

There in the regs,  61.31(i), it says in part, that you need a one-time tailwheel endorsement from an “authorized” tailwheel CFI before acting as PIC of a tailwheel airplane. Not so in 1982 when I had zero tailwheel PIC time and bought my 1946 Aeronca Champ. Back then, I just needed $5000 for the purchase, but nothing for training. After paying, I took off between the runway lights, cleared the hangars and turned on course for home. It was easy, but, then, takeoffs usually are. It’s getting the tangle of tubing, cloth and wheels to meet the runway at exactly the right pitch and track that takes some skill. Not much, just enough.

The seller, a non-CFI, advised me to “always full-stall land,” meaning close the throttle and pull back on the stick until my investment dropped to the pavement like Sydney Greenstreet falling off a bar stool. He was wrong. The Champ and most small tailwheel airplanes wheel land just fine; check the POH or local pilot’s lounge experts for details.

Many tailwheel airplanes have control yokes, but we’ll use the control stick for pitch and roll discussion here. For days, I proudly flew my 37-year-old two-seater around the pattern, slamming full-stall onto the runway, until Ed, a real CFI who had taught in Navy SNJs (advanced taildraggers) during World War II, stopped me on the taxiway. Expecting praise of my newfound skills, I was surprised when he said, “I can’t stand it anymore. I gotta teach ya how to land this thing.” And he did. Mostly. He also told me not to call them “taildraggers” unless they had tail skids instead of tail wheels. 

Wheel landing techniques vary among types, but the basics run like this: Establish your final approach and pick your landing spot plus which wheel (mains only) will touch that spot first. Look outside at the wheel. Imagine that wheel is your foot, and you want your heel to ever so carefully touch the runway without breaking all your bones.

Picture your wheel landing approach on short final being slightly flatter than the full-stall approach. You may need to carry power. Not always. With a left crosswind plan to touch the left main wheel first, opposite for right crosswind. Point the airplane’s nose down the runway and keep it straight with rudder. How much? Whatever it takes, and it will vary throughout the landing. Point the control stick into the wind, bringing the upwind wing down. How much? Whatever it takes to keep from drifting, but not so much that you turn or scrape the ADS-B antenna off the wingtip.  Keeping this cross-controlled slip going, begin increasing the pitch as you might for a full-stall landing. Then, hesitate.

This is where the wheel landing is all art and no academics.

Timing is key. Anticipate the upwind wheel (one beneath the lowered wing, where the control stick is pointing) skimming the runway, just enough so it begins to spin. As it does, gently—but firmly—reduce pitch to transfer weight from wing to wheel. Move the stick forward to keep the single wheel on the ground, while momentarily holding the downwind wheel and tailwheel off. Without a crosswind you can land on both mains simultaneously.

As speed decreases (and it does so quickly, especially on tall grass) allow the opposite main wheel to drop. Gently. Now, you have two choices: Hold the stick forward and let the speed deteriorate until the tail drops onto the ground or, gently, pull back on the stick—without ballooning—to bring the tail down. Once all three wheels are on the ground, keep the stick back, with increasing crosswind aileron correction as you slow, and you can log the landing after coming to a full stop.  Can’t count the landing for currency unless it’s to a full stop, but if no one’s looking, we won’t tell.

Damned if you do or don’t mistakes: 1) Rushing the wheel landing by trying to stick the main wheel on too soon. Do this, and you’ll drive the wheel on and bounce. 2) Delaying the wheel landing by moving the stick forward well after the wheels have touched. Do this, and the airplane skips like a flat stone thrown across a pond’s surface. Finding that tiny window in which you press forward on the stick to hold the mains on the ground takes practice. Or luck. We’ll accept either, provided you recognize it and accept good fortune with humility and grace, because next time you might not be so lucky.

In the existential struggle over wheel landings vs. full-stall landings, much ink has been spilled with families torn apart. It’s madness. Can’t we all just get along? I mean, some say wheel landings are better for strong crosswinds, while others say that wheel landings simply delay the inevitable. Planting one wheel down first, then prancing down the runway is adorable, but eventually, ya gotta get the other two wheels on the ground.

I’ll leave it to you to decide but consider these truths: We fly because it’s cool. We fly tailwheel airplanes to look even cooler. Utility is rarely in play, so if you’re going for cool, think wheel landing whenever the crowd is watching. Just don’t wave to your admirers too soon, or you’ll become another ground-looped statistic, like the thousands who made the FAA sigh, “We can’t stand this, anymore. Get some instruction!”

Arguably one of the best sticks in Canada, Pete McLeod, whacked the prop
of his G-200 with his tail up in the air.

And with all due respect to Paul Berge, his glaring critical omissions from the
article made it pretty clear that he's a better writer than a pilot.

My experience is that most people who write a lot on how to fly are much better at writing than actually flying.


But I thought the article was a pleasant change from the question baiting and judge technique we too often see here. Which , at the risk of being branded a molly coddler, is really not the best way to get a discussion going..

And before you get your parachute in a knot CS, none of the above is referencing you.  I actually like some of your articles.

Eh?

I have said over and over before, that you should do
whatever feels good to you at the time - 3 point or
wheelie.

No one can tell you if you like tighty whities or boxer
shorts, either.

If that’s judgemental, I’m the Queen of England.

From a technical standpoint, his article is missing
an awful lot of very important stuff, which calls into
question his knowledge.

To be completely honest, I don’t very often know exactly what type of landing I will do until the last few seconds .  Of course with some aircraft there is typically only one way, but for most of the little taildraggers either will work. 
Arguing which is better is a bit of a waste.

With regard to his technical knowledge, I am not defending him.  It was just such a nice change from the way “discussions” are carried on here.

At this time I get to talk to a fair number of young pilots, including instructors.  They dont think like old dinosaurs, and I believe, if we want to share our knowledge we have to sometime revisit how we do that.

Testing is not learning.  And testing before learning is a complete waste of time.
Good for an old guys ego though to ask a question and then pounce on those that dare to respond.
To many instructors forget this...both the young new ones, and the old ones.,
Instead they state that the youngins are just not interested. Never occurs to them that they might be the problem.


Btw...I thought I was pretty clear that it was not about you at all...surprised to read this

“ If that’s judgemental, I’m the Queen of England”

Please  feel free to give your opinion as to his technical errors.  That may be helpful to many

[quote]his technical errors[/quote]

I'm not sure if you're serious, but ok.

The problem with a wheel landing is that if you don't get a greaser touchdown,
the descent rate when the mains contact the runway, causes the C of G behind
the mains to pull the tail down. 

This increases AOA which increases lift which shoots you into the air, converting
what little airspeed you had into no airspeed (and hence no lift) with enough height
to break the airplane when it hits the ground again.

The above is an inevitable receipe for a PIO in pitch which weak pilots struggle
with.  This is technical, and fucking obvious to [i]anyone[/i] who has ever flown a
wheel landing.

The fix is to [size=18pt][i]always[/i] sideslip[/size], even in the absence of crosswind.  [i]Always[/i] touch down
on one main first, so that if you don't get a greaser, the other main plonks on and get
some forward stick to keep the tail up.  Don't let the C of G pull the tail down and crank
up the AOA and hence lift.  You don't want lift right now.  You want to decrease AOA.

The above is fucking obvious.  I've been teaching it for decades and people ignore
it because they like their life to be difficult, I guess.  They think I'm stupid compare to them.


Onto the next technical matter which the "writer" so badly missed.  Prop blade construction.

With metal blade prop, the considerable gyroscopic precession results in a nasty pitch-yaw
coupling, which is NOT present with a wood or composite blade prop.  Just looking at an
airplane you can tell if it's going to cause you problems in yaw when the tail goes up and
down.  I can do that, because I'm so stupid compared to a Canadian.

See, with a three point landing, you don't have to worry about pitch changes.  But you do,
with a wheel landing.  Sooner or later you're going to lower the tail, and you're going to do
it when you are slow and have ineffective flight controls, so you have very little to oppose
the inevitable yaw produced by the pitch change when the tail comes down.

[size=18pt]With a metal blade prop, you must raise and lower the tail very fucking slowly.[/size] 

This information is guarded like the crown fucking jewels by the @sshole Aviation Intelligentsia. 
I have been ranting about this for fucking decades, and again, it is ignored by people that
presumably want to groundloop and destroy the airplane, because they hate it.

With a Beech 18 - checked myself out, because I'm such a shitty pilot - as the tail goes
up, you twist your right hand clockwise on takeoff.  As the tail goes down on landing, you
better hope you have a good left brake.

All of the above is fucking obvious and has been repeated by me for decades, because
people think I am so stupid compared to them.

It is not subjective.  It is physics.  Physics doesn't care about your feelings.

Fuck, these cry babies should have had my fanged fighter pilot father teach
them to fly.  I'm such a soft, old sweetheart compared to him.  Read this book.

[img]https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compre ... SY475_.jpg[/img]

Your lips will get tired, but at the end of it, you will have a clue.

Just a little foot note. Back in my bush days In the spring all the aircraft had skis removed and wheels installed for a ferry flight to a strip built by salvaging rail siding area from an old roundhouse and strip about 2000 ft long. No breaks installed and standing rule was to fly the CN both ways to check for trains incase of a little directional control issues - trip across tracks, happened just a cpl of times over the years. Cessna, beaver, Norseman and beach 18. Sometime a small chain rapped around the tail ski for all little drag once trail came down. The maintenance guys would gather at that point to help prevent slow speed ground loop but mostly just to hook up the tractor and pull off runway. No breaks on trail draggers on a short runway but it all worked and length was never the issue. Just had to hit the target, pretty basic concept.

The best way to maintain control during a wheel landing is to keep it on the centre line from wheel contact to coming to a full stop or slow taxi speed regardless of the type of airplane.......inertia controlled is your best friend.

By the way Colonel if you ever get the chance to fly a Grumman Turbo Goose don't turn it down!

It was the most demanding of any airplane I ever flew especially on a paved runway with a cross wind.

Hint....

When landing be very, very careful if selecting reverse during the landing roll......

I was checking out a Twin Otter pilot one day in one and we fucking near died when he went into reverse as soon as the wheels touched the runway and one went into reverse before the other......it was the wildest ride I ever had in a tail wheel airplane but fortunately we didn't wreck it but we sure went from pavement to grass to pavement a few times before I finally got it stopped.

All of the Grumman flying boats are incredibly cool.  If I was Jimmy Buffett, I would
have an Albatross.  I am not making this up.

Back onto technical matters that no one mentions with taildraggers .... this isn't really
3-pt vs wheel, but is so fundamental to tailwheel landings ...

At touchdown, [u]the tires do not touch the pavement[/u] (dry pavement is the worst surface)
[u]unless the aircraft is perfectly aligned, with it's direction of travel[/u].

You land with a crab in a taildragger, you've instantly created a problem for you to solve
with your Magic Feetâ„¢.  Try to create fewer problems for yourself.  Touch down, aligned
with your direction of travel.  Always.  If you cannot, your left arm goes straight out.  Get
up into the sky, where you are safe.  Life is treacherous in a taildragger, when the tires
are on dry pavement and you have any measureable speed on.

[size=14pt]If[/size] you touch down aligned with your direction of travel, and

[size=14pt]If[/size] the gear isn't bent from an undocumented previous groundloop (50/50), and

[size=14pt]If[/size] you don't weathervane into a gust of crosswind ...

[u]You will continue to travel perfectly straight with no action from the pilot.[/u] 

Stay off the fucking pedals if you're going straight.  Yes, even though a taildragger is
unstable because the C of G is behind the mains, if you have zero crab on, and the
aircraft isn't bent, it will continue doing that, just like a prop balanced at TDC with
80 PSI on the leakdown gauge, hands off.

This is so fundamental to tailwheel flying, and never, ever mentioned by the Aviation
Intelligentsia that claim to be so much smarter than the rest of us ignorant pilots that
have been flying for decades before they ejaculated for the first time,

Do you have any idea, how many thousands of times, I have sat in the right seat, and
quietly watched an overloaded pilot in the left seat, get behind the aircraft on final and
flare suddenly at the last moment, and his metal blade prop kicks the aircraft right (see
gyroscopic pitch-yaw coupling above) and we touch down in a crab to the right, and
then he uses too much left rudder and we then careen to the left side of the runway?

That's my groundhog day.

[img width=500 height=282]https://consequenceofsound.net/wp-conte ... -31-pm.png[/img]

You can try to explain stuff to people ahead of time, but when someone is trying as
hard as they can, and they're still behind, it doesn't help to crap on them some more,
like people have on me for decades.  They're at 100% CPU, and all you can do is wait
for them to gain proficiency from experience, which allows their CPU utilization to fall
from 100% so they can think about other considerations.

Something I hinted at above ... dry pavement, while strongly desired by the fast crowd,
is the worst possible surface for a taildragger.  You do NOT want traction.  Again, this
is never, ever mentioned by the Aviation Intelligentsia.  Wet pavement is better.  Grass
is better yet. 100% snow or 100% ice is the easiest, especially with a howling crosswind,
because you can land in a crab, which is effortless.  Use power as required to pull you
back to the centerline, as you roll out in a crab, when you get pushed downwind.  As LC
says, brakes are kind of ornamental on most little taildraggers.  They're used mostly
for testing the mags.  I used to fly a PA-11 with supposedly heel brakes that didn't do
anything and it didn't matter much.  Easy on grass.

But what would I know.  I'm such a shitty pilot and instructor, TC viciously attacks me
when I dare enter the country.  That's how much of a threat I pose, to Canadian Aviation
I guess.  You can't have competent pilots and knowledgeable, experienced instructors
with a perfect safety record after a lifetime of flying.  Gotta get rid of that.  Need more
blackface.

Worth repeating:

A technical matter, and not subjective:

Taildraggers are safe in the sky.  When the tires are on the ground
is when shit can go horribly sideways.

If you ask yourself, "Should I go around?", the answer is always YES.

Left arm straight.  Get away from that treacherous dry pavement.

Here's an important point:  pilots always like to point the nose 'way up
at the white puffy things in the sky.  You don't actually need to do that.

Unless you have a very over-powered taildragger, one effect of trying
to get excess altitude too soon, is that your airspeed will be low and your
AOA will be high.  Kinda delicate if there's any wind.  Not a great place
for a weak pilot to be, and if he got there, by definition he is a weak pilot.

All you need is one foot of daylight between your tires and the dry pavement,
and life is good in a taildragger.  Don't try to climb out of ground effect in
some big goddamned hurry in an under-powered taildragger, until you have
plenty of airspeed.  200 mph is good at one foot.  If you can get 300 or 400
mph, even better.  It's a real treat to have lots of smash after takeoff.  You
can do a beautiful chandelle onto downwind, using 90 degrees of bank on
crosswind.  Delightful.