New to the Taildragger 9-2-2020

[Utah-Jay]

I was 7.3 hours into my training all in a Archer to this point and today was the transition to taildragger. It was AWESOME! Got 2.1 logged in the Rans S-20 with 5 full stop landings. Each got progressively better and the last one was really nice on the “home strip” (24 feet wide) which is UT9 at the moment where I am taking lessons.

Differences:
1) Sight picture out front is very different as should be expected, what looked straight and level was a 150’ per minute climb. Blue painters tape is going up for tomorrow’s lesson

2) The Raven (S-20) is super sensitive on the controls, just the slightest pressure and it reacts. Just took a bit to get used to it.

3) Flaps in the Raven make the nose go down, the Archer was up

4) On the takeoff roll when the tail comes up it looks like the plane is pointed down.... yikes. CFI told me not to worry as the horizontal stabilizer won’t allow the prop to strike as long as there are NO brakes

I will say I was apprehensive about the taxiing prior to the lesson, it was super easy even on the VERY narrow taxiways at West Desert Airpark. With only 5 landings under my belt I am still a bit anxious about the whole “happy feet” thing on the landings, but it went way better than I expected.

LOVED IT!!!!!!

[Utah-Jay]

Day 2
Day 2

Lots of great stuff and disappointing finish to the 2 hour lesson

Practiced power on and power off stalls, recover from emergency situations, steep turns around a point, “S Turns” down a road.

In the image from FF you can see a turn around a point, I did one then he had me come out and re-enter for two full turns around the point then the S-Turns.

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Now the bad... But I have some nice rectangular traffic patterns


The landings.... well more like the roll out after landing. I was using too much rudder input and over correcting. I need to use shorter/quicker rudder input on landing rollout.


It was a VERY disappointing finish to an otherwise great 2 hours.

I have gone over it in my mind and will be ready tomorrow morning to correct today’s mistakes.

[Hambone]

Well done!

It is surprising just how much rudder is needed... happy feet! A technique that helped me is to keep pressure on both rudder pedals and reduce pressure on one side or the other to steer, rather than pushing on one rudder pedal at a time. And to make a correction, and as soon as the correction starts taking effect, take half of the correction out.

Practice on my PC flight simulator helped immensely, too.

Here's a useful instructional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob75R0y-obc

[Utah-Jay]

Today was Day 3/1.7 hours

Did the typical power on and power off stalls, did .5 hours of IFR which was fun and no issue at all. Followed a VERY rural road at about 150’ AGL doing left and right hand slips holding altitude while staying on the road. Those were my first slips so all good.

My CFI changed up the takeoff a bit today, we just let the tail come up naturally with airspeed rather than pushing the stick forward like the past couple of days. This seemed to simplify things as just made everything easier.

Pattern work and Landings.... I was really nailing my speeds on final at 52-55 MPH with 2 notches of flaps. Landings were much better today so that is great as I did not feel good about how things ended yesterday. I got on 9 full stop landings today. Taxiing continues to be much easier.

[Utah-Jay]

Well done!

It is surprising just how much rudder is needed... happy feet! A technique that helped me is to keep pressure on both rudder pedals and reduce pressure on one side or the other to steer, rather than pushing on one rudder pedal at a time. And to make a correction, and as soon as the correction starts taking effect, take half of the correction out.

Practice on my PC flight simulator helped immensely, too.

Here's a useful instructional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob75R0y-obc

Thanks, I will check it out?

[Utah-Jay]

Day four in the taildragger

Didn’t get to fly yesterday due to a massive wind event here in Utah. Today was cold so the I felt like I had an extra 30hp today which was great.

We had about 12-15 mph from the NE today on the ground, a bit more 2000 AGL and my CFI wanted to use that for steep turns around a point. It went very well, did two loops around two different points, here is one

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Then we headed to U14 (Nephi) with a slightly wider runway to work on landings. There was a slight crosswind from the right. Today was the first time I have dealt with wind and/or crosswinds. I also did my first wheel landings, the first one was a greaser and the second one was pretty good as well. I like my nice squared off pattern work too.

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On the flight back from U14 We did some really slow flight at 40-43mph indicated while holding altitude.

Last image is a cross mid-field to a teardrop entry to the right downwind for RWY 35.

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Today was a FREAKING great day, saw massive improvement in all tasks

[Utah-Jay]

Some good stuff today, got in 1.6 hours and my total training time is now 16.2 hours with 8.9 hours in the taildragger

Did some “backcountry” type flying down a long straight 2 track road holding the plane about 1-3’ off the ground for about 3 miles at a time simulating holding off for a wheel landing. Also did some big time slips at about 25-50’ off the ground down the same road. This video shows a nice slip in for the landing after that practice over the road.

https://youtu.be/dh8Ck-DYf-4

Not my best takeoff, but here it is none the less
https://youtu.be/sbkwjxUBbt8

[RTC'83]

Looks like you are enjoying it, nice plane.

[Utah-Jay]

Looks like you are enjoying it, nice plane.

Thanks, having a blast