Tailwheel Brag

[extralite]

Things are a bit slow so Il stir the pot. One of Zuck's minions sent another meme along the lines of "Normal Pilot in a conservative tshirt vs a tailwheel pilot dressed in a coloured jacket and crazy cowboy hat doing something crazy because they are a wild and craxy tail wheel pilot. 

 

I'm always perplexed at why some would think being tail wheel endorsed is a personality.  Similarly when you see an advertisement for any nosewheel aircraft, the chances of someone saying "the tail wheel is at the wrong end" is about the same as someone commenting "That will buff out" to a pic of a totaled aircraft.  (Incidentally, has anyone noticed a facebooker "philip" who comments on all for sale ads along the lines of the price is too high. or they are dreaming or the world has gone nuts?.Lovely.)

 

Anyway, back to the rant at hand. Flying tailwheel is not much different at all after a short time to anything else in my opinion. It is not special in any way at all but some people treat it as if they were in the space program.  As someone who swaps between types, there is a lot more different things to keep in mind about handling other than where the 3rd wheel is.

 

Id love to never see another tail wheel meme. (yeah i know, if there are comments here they will be tail wheel memes 🙂 ) Thanks in advance. 

[facthunter]

When there was almost nothing without a tailwheel no one even mentioned it. Some planes were more bitey than other's. A tailwheel configuration is directionally unstable on the ground. If the wheels are well forward and the tail is small give it the respect it requires. There's also 2 types of  Landing Wheelers and 3 pointers.  A 3 pointer is the slowest airspeed the Plane has for landing.  Some people will never be really safe in a tailwheel. It's not usually compulsory to fly one so don't grieve about it IF you don't.  Nev

[extralite]

Quod erat demonstrandum

[Thruster88]

I have had some negative comments about my RV6-A, water off a ducks back. 

 

 

[spacesailor]

Nothing wrong with the tail -wheel, behind the mains , behind the motor .

Long eze  , of course .

spacesailor

[kgwilson]

There are sometimes comments like the nosewheel is a training wheel etc. I don't know why. As FH says the tailwheel is inherently more directionally unstable on the ground so tailwheelers are good rudder users especially in crosswinds. Then the same can be said for castoring nosewheels. 

 

Virtually all commercial and military aircraft are nosewheel types but there is still a lot of tailwheelers in GA and of course they come in to their own in STOL aircraft. Nosewheels are generally the weak point in the undercarriage with wheelbarrow landings causing nosewheel collapses often after a series of porpoises.

 

Horses for courses I reckon and personal preference but one is no better than the other. Once in the air the aircraft fly pretty much the same.

[Old Koreelah]

So far, Extra hasn’t stirred up much debate, but there’s been plenty on here over the years.
Pilots of “real” aeroplanes usually have little trouble converting to one with a trainer wheel, but those trained on nosewheels sometime have a hard time taming the tailwheel beast. 

 

I started with Thrusters and will admit to having never been able to keep one straight after landing. Bluddy horrible things!

It isn’t just the weight behind the mainwheels, it’s how high that engine is above the ground.

My further training in Jabirus was a doddle, which didn’t prepare me for my Jodel. After a couple of ground loops I got the hang of it and much later discovered the advantages of wheel toe-out.

 

This bloke doesn’t mind flying either type into difficult strips:

 

 

 

[facthunter]

Look at the layout of a plane before you fly it.  there are tell tale  signs of how it will fly IF you know what to look for. The tricycle U/c can get you inverted easily if the Upwind wing gets air under it and there's firm nosewheel contact early on.. Nev

[spacesailor]

The only difference,  that make a tail wheel twitchy.

Is the distance between those wheels.

If you come All the way down to 3 Mars between the wheels ,

It Is Twitchy.

spacesailor

[spenaroo]

So what's this classified as?

[kasper]

1 hour ago, spenaroo said:

So what's this classified as?

Tailwheel clearly.  And from the one flight i had in one quite a nice one 🙂

 

[rgmwa]

1 hour ago, spenaroo said:

So what's this classified as?

An afterthought.

[facthunter]

Meta Sokel was similar.  Nev

[kasper]

18 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Meta Sokel was similar.  Nev

Very similar - because is IS a Meta Sokol 😉

 

[onetrack]

WW2 was fought and won largely with taildraggers! Of course, there were a few exceptions. Huge props on performance aircraft dictated the preference for tail-wheel design.

[spenaroo]

ww2 was an immense time of development.
lets not forget that at the start it was common to have fixed gear fabric Bi-planes still in service.
and ended with alloy Jets.

Edited September 6, 2023 by spenaroo

[facthunter]

The great power increases in Piston engines and cabin pressurisation  came from the war effort. Useful jet engines came bit later after the big turboprops that Russia particularly favoured for their range.  Nev

[IBob]

Is this the right place for Microlights Aren't Real Aircraft and Microlight Pilots get their licenses off Kornflakes packets, and shouldn't be allowed?
Or is that a separate p***ing contest???.............

[BrendAn]

5 hours ago, kasper said:

Very similar - because is IS a Meta Sokol 😉

 

there was one of these for sale in victoria a couple of months ago.

[facthunter]

Test flew one  for assessment in the 60's. . That's  NOT yesterday.  Nev

[facthunter]

Did the owner have the Initials SK?  Nev