I know. Taildraggers (and the people who fly them) are museum pieces, and everyone else wishes they'd just go away.
And yet ... Shiny (my favorite Socialist and fellow museum piece) disagrees with me on this, but I think taildraggers are wonderful trainers. See, even if the instructor is weak and forgiving, the taildragger certainly will not be on dry pavement. It will brutally teach the student a lesson about yaw control.
Yaw control. A fundamental stick and rudder skill. Does it matter any more? Well, if you want to land in a crosswind, control an aircraft during a stall, or avoid crashing a twin after an engine failure .... well, yes. Controlling yaw is actually pretty darned important.
Yeah, I know, he's probably left seat at Air Canada now, so does it really matter? I get it. But can I ask, how well did this King Air pilot control yaw after takeoff?
