So, as previewed earlier, I thithered down to Gillespie Field Sunday afternoon for to take another hack at landing an aircraft what has the center of gravity aft of the mains. Met CFI Dave, a kindly gentleman of a certain age with a lovely hangar set up including the Citabria parked outdoors, a cherry Cessna 310 in the hangar alongside an absolutely gorgeous Stearman.
I hate to leave a challenge go unanswered, but truth be told my experience with that horrible old Champ left me feeling more than a little out of sorts. Was a time on the second hop, maybe three or four wheel landings into it (but before the engine failed) that I felt my legs shaking, just for the adrenaline that were in them. The last time I had felt like that I was a junior lieutenant coming off a night trap on in the North Arabian Sea in the summertime, with a mile visibility, no moon and a yellow shirt who seemed intent on seeing exactly how close he could taxi my nose landing gear to the deck edge without the whole kit ‘n kaboodle going over the side, safe in the knowledge that while my family would no doubt weep bitterly when I was gone, he hisself would still have three hots and a cot when all was said and done.
Well, one hot anyway. And the cot. Being an aviation bosun’s mate after all, and no class of idler.
Dave spoke a good speak, and nothing he had to say came as a particular surprise. Yes, I was aware that the need for right rudder on the go diminished as airspeed increased and the rudder became more effective. Too, I had an intellectual appreciation for the transient gyroscopic precession as the tail came off the ground, calling for a little more right rudder until the effect subsided. What I really wanted to know was how to keep the damned thing tracking more or less down the centerline once I’d planted it back on deck. With a special emphasis on keeping the front end facing frontwards, like. Rather than taking turns with the tail leading the dance, wingtips skagging the ground and the prop churning through the turf.
We had a good day of it, in the event. There was a wee bit of waggle on the first landing when your host prided himself on remembering to plant the stick in his lap but let his feet fall asleep, like. Disregarding CFI Dave’s admonition to keep “dithering them” just a bit to keep her honest. Rather than letting things build up, overcompensating and getting into the dreaded pilot-induced oscillation situation. Because if you’re already active on the rudders – albeit in a very limited sense – then you’ve got a good feeling for where you are at any given time even as the airspeed bleeds off. My next several landings – we did six, all told – were remarkably unremarkable.
It didn’t hurt that the machine held 150 horses under the cowl rather than the mere 65HP of the Champ, and was a dream to fly once airborne, although aileron spades might have loosened the control forces in the roll axis. It didn’t hurt that the machine was well-maintained. It didn’t hurt that rounding out for the flare actually broke the rate of decent, rather than set you up for a heinous bounce on steel sprung wheels.
It didn’t hurt at all.
After flying the machine with your man, my take-aways are these:
- Read The Complete Taildragger
- Spend a little time on the desktop simulator
- Find a qualified CFI
The book makes sense of all the various forces in play. The simulator gets you over the counter-intuitive procedures. The instructor pulls it all together for you in a comforting way.
I’ll be back, and for my certification – which Dave regretted very deeply to tell me was no very great distance away – I’m promised a graduation hop in that Stearman.
He had me at Stearman.
Skagging….. I like that term. Says a lot, it does, and them what knows knows. Much better than prang, especially at the end of the day, all things considered.
Shakespeare knew a great deal about the language, and wasn’t above inventing a word when he needed one. I liked very much his attitude about speech and presentation and all that. What worked worked, and it’s not that much different in an airplane. As it were.
Nice writing. Again. Especially for an old guy worried about the passing of the years. Selah.
Thanks for all your postings. They really make a good day better…..
Concur..Uncle Tim..some of my most enjoyable moments in my day..are spent reading and thinking here..How fortunate we are to have Capt Lex..maybe hit the tip jar soon for an early Christmas brew..for our gracious hoster…
While we are on the subject of fine aircraft; I came across this beauty at the airshow, and it is for a good cause. Never know Lex, you may be 50 bucks closer to owning yer own.
http://www.1940airterminal.org/TheHangar/RafflePlane/
Lex:
My sympathies and jealousy! The remarked upon Citabria on floats is back on her spongy oleos for the winter now; teasing me again that while 3-pointers have been mastered, my wheel technique…sucks.
VR,
Comjam
That reminds me, harvest being in full swing, Lex would you mind expanding a bit on the fun and hilarity that can ensue if a tail-dragger isn’t kept properly damped while rolling?
OK, the harvest bit. Combines, those massive machines that harvest our grain, steer by the rear wheels. At 5mph or 6mph this isn’t particularly dangerous. At 20mph it gets to be a bit hairy. Now think of doing this at 90mph and you’ll get an appreciation. There is no negative feedback on rear-wheel steering. If you’re in your car, start a turn, and let go of the wheel the car goes back to a neutral, straight path. In a rear-wheel steering vehicle, a left turn stays as a left turn and if anything it wants to turn even faster if you let go of the wheel.
Even more fun, with a rear-wheel caster that’s free to float to one side or the other the wheel can start oscillating side to side and actually spin around due to its own inertia. This is not something that you want to have happen when landing an aircraft.
So, Lex and you T6 pilots, aside from the pitching forward to get the tail-wheel off the deck when taking off, what’s the real skinny on keeping one rolling down the runway rather than spinning about herself? And if it’s this difficult, why oh why were so many warbirds tail-draggers and manned by pilots with all of 30 hours of flight time? There must be some advantages.
– Max
Max:
I don’t have a proper scientific explanation but the bottom line is if you just stay on the rudders and keep the nose within, say 10 degrees or so (maybe 5) of straight, then things don’t get exciting. Have the nose stray much beyond the straight and narrow and things start to get interesting as the amount of rudder/brake required to get things going back the way you intended (if indeed you are able) will most likely produce an over-control to the opposite direction leading to a oscillation back and forth quickly growing in amplitude. Best option on takeoff at this point is to hope you’ve got enough airspeed and to yank the thing off the ground. Fact is takeoffs are easier because with the increasing speed, control effectiveness is ever increasing as more airflow occurs over the control surfaces and lessening control inputs are required to get the thing going where you want it to. On landing, the opposite occurs until the only thing you’ve got helping steer is the brakes (and/or tailwheel steering on aircraft so equipped – the Citabria is not).
The key to all this is in Lex’s title to the post: Have Happy Feet. Keep them moving and you will stay “in front of” the airplane. Fall behind and even an expert Naval Aviator, Combat Veteran, and all round good guy can be brought down a peg by a lowly airplane with 65 Hp as we have seen. In all fairness to Lex and anyone getting their tailwheel endorsement the skills just aren’t experienced and can’t be in a tricycle gear airplane whether a Cessna 150 or a 747.
I suspect that, had the infamous Champ Lex first attempted this with not looked and acted like it was ready to fall our of the sky, our man would have had the rudder pedal dance steps knocked cold in no time. Now moving up to Stearman or, hopefully the SNJ at his weekend employer, adds just a bit more requirement for being on top of things, the penalty of inattention due to the large mass residing behind the CG and all, being less margin for error before inertia overcomes control authority leading to the airplane wanting to swap ends on the runway. But as you correctly point out guys just off the farm with 15-20 hours learned this back in WWII and, with perhaps a couple hundred were landing Hellcats on carriers and taking it to the Japanese.
It was always explained to me to “walk the airplane down the runway” by keeping your feet moving – if you pushed one way follow immediately with the other, etc. After a awhile you just don’t think about it.
You asked what advantages a tail-dragger brings, particularly to warbirds. I’m aware of two major advantages.
1) Ditching the entire nose gear assembly can drop some significant weight. You don’t just omit the strut and wheel, but also the nose brake, raising/lowering mechanism, door, and so on. All much heavier than the tiny, simple tailwheel.
2) Ever-increasing engine output led to ever-increasing propeller diameters as designers strove to harness all that horsepower. Pointing the nose up isn’t good for ground handling, but it sure makes it easier to fit a huge prop.
The Stearman looks a blast–enjoy!
My God people!!! He thithered!!!! He is absolutely shameless.
Sorry Lex, I could not resist. thithering…..?
Let us hope that, when you saunter out to your Stearman ride, that Dave has properly outfitted you with a parachute, that being a requirement per the Federal Aviation Regulations to be worn by all “other than essential” crew when engaged in “flight with greater than 60 degree bank or nose more than 30 degrees above or below the horizon” or in lay terms – aerobatic flight.
While you might not being referred to as “non-essential” crew in this case it might be worth it.
Long awaited commentary, Lex. As for some of the other comments in the thread IMHO, getting back to airplanes with the dinky wheel at the back end is stepping back thru time to when every neophyte aviator learned in them. Many of them wrapped their training bird into a ball when the nascent airman wanna be didn’t stay up on the rudder pedals. I have the books for my Tcraft back to its birth in April ’46 and the engine came from another that had suffered that fate.
Lex, the technique you mentioned on the rudders on roll out we call around here: “walking the rudder” just as if you are taking small steps each way just to keep them the nose in the envelope. Power will also get your butt out of trouble if she wants to swap ends and there is plenty of runway. Also you will notice that her manners are much better on the roll out when the mains touch down at as close to stall as possible. Grass is also a lot more forgiving than pavement.
Whilst you were enjoying the Citabria on Sunday I put another hour in another Classic of the by-gone post WWII era in the Stinson 108-1. Unlike the lighter taildraggers, she has good manners on the rollout. Best,
Ah, the Stearman. Being a white-knuckle flier it still shocks me that I’ve flown in one. With my FIL as the pilot on a bright autumn day, taking lazy turns over a reservoir, enjoying the most beautiful fall colors. As afraid of flying as I am, I would happily climb into a Stearman again.
Google “a whore is easy to meet gann”. The appropriate excerpt should be at the top. You’ll feel better about your first attempts at flying a taildragger. That said, I’ve flown a lot of different ones and the Champ/Citabria is the friendliest of the lot, a kindergarten teacher. If you want the whole experience, and you can’t get your hands and feet on a DC-3 or twin Beech, see if there’s a Cessna 150 Texas Taildragger around. That’s a conversion of a tricycle to a taildragger. The one I flew was for glider tow with 180 horsepower. With somebody clumsy back on the other end of the rope, there was some question about who was in charge of the tow. On landing with just a bit of cross wind, the thing was technically out of control, since it didn’t have enough rudder to be a taildragger. You keep the upwind pedal on the firewall and steered with the wheel. Landing on grass is recommended. The teensy bit of P-factor coming in on the flare might incline you to choose a right cross wind if there’s an option. The other oddity that I wasn’t fond of was a Cessna 180 with a “crosswind” landing gear. If you were landing with a cross wind, at some point—which it determined, not you, the wheels might “break loose” so they tracked down the runway while the airplane aligned more into the wind. Very disconcerting, like sliding on ice with the car going one way while pointed somewhere else.
“Have the nose stray much beyond the straight and narrow and things start to get interesting as the amount of rudder/brake required to get things going back the way you intended (if indeed you are able) will most likely produce an over-control to the opposite direction leading to a oscillation back and forth quickly growing in amplitude.”
Ditto!!!
Lex,
RE: your comment about the aileron spades (shovels). I was discussing with my CFI last week after having made 8 laps around that the controls were heavy in roll. My right arm was really tired. He said “yeah, we should put the spades I have on it and see how it flys then” *Sigh* I guess thats where they get the term “pattern work” from.
Love that steerman.Just love the flying stories.
I am a lucky man and have time in a Champ, Citabria and Stearman. All of it was dual and properly logged, much of it flying basic and advanced aerobatics with chutes.
My favorite was the Champ. Entering a spin and recovering on a specific heading with a specific number of turns is one of the maneuvers students had to master. It is a little more taxing doing the same spin entry and recovery inverted.
Have fun!
Lex, can’t you get checked out to fly the TravelAirs at Barnstorming Adventures?
For insurance purposes, the owners like their tailwheel pilots to come trained and certificated rather than do the work on the job. They’ve got good reasons for that preference.
I just assumed you could do that on your own and THEN have ample opportunity to fly the taildragers. (I’m not as stupid as I look
, thank God)
Well, that’s a part of the Master Plan. We’ll see what they say when (and if) I get checked out. It’d be fun to fly all three types of machines, but they’ve got folks who know taildraggers and those that know fighter maneuvering, and in the last year or so there has been little cross-pollination.
Several years ago I read about a FBO that handled flight training with Champs (w/electrical systems and larger engines). After two years their insurance company told them to lose the Champs or they would cancel coverage.
I can understand why an aviation company would want people already trained and endorsed. I spent some time in a C-140, and a taildragger can get away from you quickly.
Thanks for sharing. Love the Citabria. Haven’t actually flown one for almost 30 years, but the memories carry on.
Have you read “The Cannibal Queen?”
No, but I just googled it and it does look interesting.
I can’t believe you missed anything by Steven Coontz… but yeah, Cannibal Queen is a fun read.
I can see my father-in-law (who reads this and owns a Citabria) leaning back and smiling when he gets to this post.
Several lifetimes ago I was fortunate to get about 6-7 hours dual in a Decathlon (8KCAB). In my short experience I found that ground handling was the hardest. Maneuvering out of the parking spot, down the alley, onto the ramp & thence taxiway in very tight clearances was an adventure. Had to really stay on top of where that tail was swinging and how much opposite rudder to put in to get it to stop. Made me appreciate the guys who did the same on a carrier deck in an F4U or AD-1 with all kinds of ordinance on board even more.
Does the gentleman have a “Stearman” or an N3N? The picture she is painted up like an N3N.
>>>>I’m promised a graduation hop in that Stearman.
Stearman, N3N, either way: YOU BASTARD!
What was the problem with the Champ? That’s what I soloed in and recall many happy hours and landings on grass strips. I guess a NFO just dind’t know any better about aero, Bernoulli, and things like that.
It’s relative. the WWII guys didn’t have to unlearn the tricycle gear instincts….that’s all they knew. Still tricky though.
Lex,
After you conquer the taildragger, your next challenge should be seaplane. Yet another very different set of skills and instincts. Exciting things like porpoising on takeoff, downwind taxiing, single engine mag checks, circling takeoffs, high speed taxi (speedboat),making a buoy, making a ramp,survivor pickup, blipping the engines, among others. The Nav never let me land on a carrier, so I sorta made up for it on the water…..lotsa fun and a good challenge.
I started in a 7AC Champ 38 years ago. Still want one.
Got a flight last year in a Stearman; I thought it charming that flying downwind to final involved a circling turn to base to final, slipping all the way so as to keep an eye the runway until just before straightening it out for the flare.
Good luck on soonly getting your endorsement. I’m jealous.
“He had me at Stearman”
Hope you’ve got your Snoopy togs for your Dollar Ride, Lex–Leather helmet, goggles and long flowing scarf. (Of course that’s ALL Snoopy wore, might want to include a flight suit & boots–going Commando optional
)