Scudrunners

Defelectionshot:


Absolutely, repetition and currency are a great way to learn a subject.


Can't really add anything, without being there.  I'm sure I have a plethora of bad habits too.


Despite the theatrics I present at the local aerodrome, haven't died yet.

Budd Davison taught me that an hour of driving a
taildragger up and down the runway, will teach you
10x as much as pounding out circuits.

See, the problem is that at first, you will be 'way
behind the airplane when it touches down.  Not so
if you are taxiing, and the instructor can slowly
increase the speed as your feet wake up.

Raise and lower the tail, esp with a metal prop.  Tail
goes up, nose goes left.  Tail down down, nose goes
right.  Learn to deal with that.

Expect to burn off a set of main tires, brakes and
use up a couple of tailwheels.  It's the cost of building
skill, just part of doing business.  I think I still have
two complete spare tailwheels built up in my hangar
for the Maule.

I used to tell people that bought a Pitts, to go and
do 300 to 500 landings in as short a period of time
as possible - no more than a month. 

That will take them up to the plateau of the learning
curve.  Or, they will crash their airplane.  Either way,
problem solved.

[img width=500 height=375][/img]

Once you build skill, the problem is maintaining it,
because if you let too long go by, your feet will forget.

Build skill, then try to keep it with frequent practice.

I know it's not easy, but you can actually practice in
a taildragger when it's IFR and you can't even see the
other end of the runway.

And, you don't even need 1000 feet of ceiling for circuits -
500 feet is plenty.

[quote]
And, you don't even need 1000 feet of ceiling for circuits -
500 feet is plenty.[/quote]


Exactly:


When I was doing PBY check rides I had them do the three and three circuit.


300 feet above the surface.


And three minutes per circuit.


The only reason I had them climb to 300 feet was because the wing span is 104 feet so it was a bit of a mental safety factor for them until they got comfortable with flying the thing.

Incredibly, I see wankers arguing that anything other than a 1000 foot
circuit is illegal.  When you ask them for a CAR reference, they change
the subject - because there is none!

In fact, sometimes the CARs [i]require[/i] circuits other than 1000 feet.

I fly my circuits at 800 at home. At 1000 I need to talk to people.

Around my neck of the woods, we fly our circuits at 1300 AGL.


To not do so will get you:


1.  Yelled at by others in the circuit including me
2.  Cautioned by the airport manager
3.  The subject of noise complaints
4.  Nose first in a hill


Even saying "Conflicting Traffic" won't spare you...  (;>0)

I should have mentioned that the three hundred feet above the surface and three minute circuits were training flights on the water.


The last training I did was in Holland on the Zuiderzee and there was no problem with complaints from the local birds.


However when I had the flying school here in Nanaimo I occasionally had students that wanted some advanced airplane handling skills training and we did our short and low circuits early in the morning when thee was no traffic or FSS at the airport.

Chuck:


And students should be exposed to the low circuits to get them used to the sight picture, especially if they're forced to stick one in Farmer Brown's field under conditions of low cloud, low viz, etc...


Which airport were you flying from in Holland?  During international competition, I flew for a few weeks out of Leeuwarden which would be north and east of the Zuider Zee, methinks.

An instructor that took students up for low ceiling / low vis
circuits would almost certainly have their instructor rating
revoked, even if the wx was legal VFR.

You don't want students receiving realistic training, after all.

TC wants students to experience less than 1-2 miles vis for
the first time by themselves, to maximize the probability
of an accident.

[quote]Which airport were you flying from in Holland?  During international competition, I flew for a few weeks out of Leeuwarden which would be north and east of the Zuider Zee, methinks.[/quote]


I spent my first year in Leiden flying out of the old navy airport that was closed that winter.




Then I flew out of Lelystad for three years.


Holland was a great place to work.