August 2006 Cover Story:
Tailwheel Checkout

(Editor’s note: The following article is not meant to provide instruction about flying tailwheel-type aircraft. It is presented solely as discussion of one pilot’s experience. Any reference to regulations, insurance or training requirements is anecdotal and printed here to entertain and inform our readers. Your best source for additional information about learning to fly a “taildragger” is a Certified Flight Instructor that specializes in such training.)

Story by Tom Unger

After having my private pilot license for six weeks, and exercising the privileges thereof, I am ready to return for more lessons. I have visions of buying a tailwheel airplane,
in particular a Maule, so I decide that I had better find out if I can fly one.

Tail Lesson 1
I meet my instructor, George Kirkish, at Boeing Field. We go through the preflight procedure for the Maule, then get in and start up. In addition to being a tailwheel airplane, the Maule is also a high performance airplane. It has a 235 HP, fuel-injected, 6-cylinder engine and a constant-speed propeller. This means a couple more gauges: manifold pressure is the measure of engine power; RPM is adjusted by the prop control lever.

On take-off the Maule rolls down the runway for a short distance and then lifts off from the three-wheeled stance. It climbs and flies much faster than I’m used to. I like the way it flies: a little less vibration, a greater sense of power.

We fly west and George has me practice “Dutch-rolls” at progressively slower speeds. I do fairly poorly with the nose wandering from my target point.

We do some stalls. Stalls in this Maule are more benign than in the Cessna I have been flying. A stall in a Cessna seems more abrupt and more likely to drop one wing first. The stalls we do today are very gentle.

We fly to Sanderson for some landings. I find that I’m having difficulty with simple things like holding a steady speed with attitude. I can do it in a Cessna. It is not so different in this Maule, so why am I unable to keep a steady speed? It is like learning the first lessons all over again.

Tail Lesson 2: “Moose” Stalls and More Landings
George reviews stall/spin awareness:

• “Moose” Stall: If you want to look at something on the ground, such as a moose, the best view is had by circling at 500 feet. If you let the airplane slow down, and are not paying attention, you can end up using aileron to keep the inner wing up. This has the effect of increasing drag on the wing. You might then apply inside rudder to keep the airplane straight. If you get slow enough, the inside wing will stall and you’ll enter a spin.
• Base to final: When you overshoot the runway on your turn to final, you use inside rudder to bring the nose around faster. The inside wing drops so you apply outside aileron. If the wing stalls you enter a spin.
• Power-on Stall: On take-off you lose reference to the horizon, or are just inattentive, and let the airplane climb too steeply and too slowly. Right aileron to counter the left turning tendencies. Left wing stalls.

For all of these situations one remedy is to use rudder to steer the aircraft when flying at low speeds.

We find a hole in the 2,500-foot cloud deck and climb to clear air at 6,000 feet. Dutch rolls toward a point. Better. George demonstrates the moose stall by setting up a tight circle with insufficient power until the wing drops. Center the ailerons and recover with rudder. I practice three or four of these. I am a little slow on the rudder, but do fairly well. This seems like something that deserves lots of practice.

George also has me steer the airplane through a series of 90-degree turns, just above stall speed, using just the rudder. This is fairly easy and gives me a great sense of how powerful the rudder is at slow speeds.

We drop through another hole in the clouds and head to Bremerton for some landings. I’m beginning to get a sense of how this airplane works:

• Take-off: After take-off reduce flaps to 0, power back to 25 inches of manifold pressure, prop back to 2500 RPM. Climb at 100.
• Cruise: Power back to 22 inches, prop back to 2200 RPM, mixture to 14 GPH.
• (When we stay in the pattern, I learn to slowly reduce power a couple turns of the vernier throttle at a time. Any faster and the digital cylinder head temperature gauge warns me that the cylinders are cooling too rapidly.)
• Landing: Full prop RPM and rich mixture. One notch of flaps on downwind. Speed 80. Turn base sooner than I’m used to. Power back to 1500 RPM. Second notch of flaps on the base leg. Speed not below 70. Power off. Flare lower than I’m used to. Hold it off the runway until stall and touch down. And most important of all: keep it going straight at all times.

Well, that’s the theory anyway. I’m not smooth yet. Nor am I that good at keeping it going straight. At least once George saves his airplane from a ground loop with a far quicker application of rudder that I’m able to muster yet.

A couple of days later, to restore confidence, I take a friend flying in the Cessna and have some of the worst landings since I soloed. Now I don’t know how to land any airplane. This is a brutal process.

Lesson 3: Left Turning Tendencies
Today George covers the left turning tendencies of airplanes:

• P Factor: When the nose is pitched, up the downward slicing blade (on the right side) has more bite, so the airplane pulls to the left.
• Slip Stream: The prop sends a spiral of air around the airplane which strikes the left side of the vertical stabilizer, turning the airplane to the left.
• Torque: The right spinning engine tries to make the airplane spin left.
• Gyroscopic Progression: When you lower the nose you are turning the spinning engine and propeller. Angular momentum rules say that this will be turned into a force to the left. And there is another one that George says is not much talked about. Pilots sitting left of the centerline will tend to sight toward the centerline and end up with an airplane pointing somewhat left of where they intend to point it.

We fly east. I’m much better at Dutch rolls this time. We slow the airplane down and George has me bring the nose up and down. With the airplane flying slow, I can feel the tendency of the airplane to turn left, and the need for right rudder to keep it straight.

We descend to 600 feet and fly the bends of a river. There are huge goosenecks in the stretch just below us and I tell him I don’t believe I can do it. He demonstrates first by slowing the airplane down and then steering with the rudder. I take over and fly the bends.

Getting the power setting right is difficult. I’m used to a simple push-pull throttle. The Maule has a vernier throttle. I can screw it in or out for fine adjustments or push a button in the center and it acts like the push rod throttle in a Cessna. George insists that all fuel adjustments be done slowly. I try to use the vernier, but it can take quite a bit of twisting to get a power change — more delay than I’m used to.

We go to Renton where I do a couple landings, each better than the last. The final landing at Boeing Field is actually smooth and George compliments me.

Tail Lesson 4
Today we stay in the pattern and try, not completely successfully, to overcome my bad habit of leveling the ailerons (and wings) just before touchdown. This last-minute adjustment cancels out my cross wind correction, resulting in sideways drift just as the airplane is about to touch down. I know this. I have read that many students have this habit. Yet I continue to do it. Another skill I need to drill.

Despite my poor cross wind correction, my landings improve. At the end of the lesson George has me do a couple long take-off runs on the main wheels as practice for wheel landings. He controls the power so that I only have to think about steering. I have to push the wheel forward to bring the tail up (otherwise the airplane will just start flying). We cruise down the runway as I try to keep the airplane on the centerline. I wander and sometimes try to steer with the ailerons. Ah, yet another skill I need to master.

One landing during this lesson went so badly that George took over and made a go-around. I knew that things were going badly, but I didn’t think to go around. I decided to set stricter requirements for approach to landing and to not hesitate to initiate a go-around. One more skill to practice.

Tail Lesson 5
I flew the Cessna each of the past two days. I felt well-practiced and expected to do well during this lesson, but again struggled with the basics. I am, though, starting to put all of these lessons together, albeit often clumsily.

We fly over to Tacoma were I do five landings, then back to BFI for one last landing. I think I am beginning to understand a few things about flying the Maule:

1. Stabilized descent speed: Hold it at 70-75 right to flare. I tend to push the nose down when I'm high and pull the nose up when I’m low. I’m still not as comfortable using throttle in the Maule as I am in the Cessna.
2. Minimal aileron corrections during final: I’m quick
   to correct for perceived drift and tend to overcorrect. George teaches minimal correction, seeking by “halfs” the needed correction for conditions (inputting half of the correction you think you need). I experience lots of wind shifts on final and have trouble finding one stable correction. George teaches that most of those bobbles will correct themselves.
3. Absolute alignment of airplane with direction of motion during flare and touchdown: This is the prime directive and overrides the minimal correction directive. But at this point the airplane is getting so slow that I'm hesitant to use much aileron. Last-second gusts shove the plane off the centerline and throw me off. I don’t know what to do. George teaches: If it is minimal add a little power and realign. If uncertain, go around.
4. Hold the airplane off the runway until stall: Get low and keep it flying until the stick is fully back and the airplane refuses to fly any further.
5. Full back on the elevator to stick the tail: Prevents bouncing. I tend to let go, which works fine in a nose wheel airplane. Make all landings with full back elevator.
6. Walk the rudders to keep the airplane going straight.
   I still have some homework to do.

Tail Lesson 6
We start with some slow flight and stall/spin practice and then return to Boeing where we make multiple practice landings. They are a little better. I’m encouraged.

Tail Lesson 7
We head east to practice slow flight. I play with the “moose” stall in several different ways. George asks if there is anything else I want to do. I notice the river and suggest some river work. I fly at 700 feet, 75 MPH, leaving a good buffer for safety. When I say I’m done, George suggests dropping to 600 feet, and a little slower, for a couple more tight turns.

Next, George shows me “lazy 8s”, a series of turns where each turn is done by gaining altitude until the plane is slow, then a steep 180-degree turn. Descend and pick up speed, then up and a turn in the other direction. I immediately recognize that this maneuver could be used to turn around in a narrow valley or canyon. A “lazy 8” is pretty easy in the Maule. As we slow to 80, I use some rudder to initiate the first turn. Level out at the entry altitude then climb and enter the second turn, at the right speed. I want to be sure that I can make this turn and come out no lower than when I started, important if this maneuver is to be used in a retreat from a canyon

Landings are better. As we tie the Maule down, George says two things that surprise me. First, when I ask how much longer until I’m qualified to fly a taildragger by myself, he says he would sign me off now. I don’t feel nearly qualified, so I’m startled that he would sign me off.

Second, during our lessons he still occasionally has to save me with quick use of the brakes. I ask about this and he says that I should not be thinking about brakes — when things go bad I should apply power and get out of there, even when the airplane is on the ground. I would never think to do this. Adding power in a bad situation seems like throwing gasoline on a fire. But George says that power will give the rudder more authority, it may allow me to rescue the landing or, if necessary, help me initiate a safe go-around.

I’ve still got more to learn.

Lesson 8: Wheel Landings
We fly to Paine Field and use the large runway to practice wheel landings.

Lesson 9: Inversions and More Wheel Landings
Over Lake Sammamish, George asks what I would do if I found myself flying upside down. I forget the acronym, but the procedure is:

• Power back
• Elevator forward to keep the airplane from diving toward the ground
• Use moderate aileron supported by rudder to right the airplane

He demonstrates by bringing the airplane nose up and banking way over. I instinctively reach for the door to brace myself, but that is not how airplanes work. Just because we are banked 90 degrees does not mean that I am going to slide into the door. The plane is still moving forward, and generating lift, so it pulls up, pressing me into the seat.

Then we fly to Paine Field and practice more wheel and three-point landings on the big runway. I find wheel landings a little easier. I feel like, in a wheel landing, I have better control of the airplane. In a three-point landing, there is a point when I feel like the controls are ineffective. That’s not a good thing and would explain why three-point landings seem a little harder for me to control. Or possibly it is because, in a three-point landing, I have to fly the airplane at slower speeds before touching down.

George gives me my tail wheel endorsement, but I still don’t feel like I’m really ready yet.

Lesson 10: Small Runways, Cross Winds, and Gusts
Clouds and rain have moved in to the Seattle area. I tell George that I had thought of doing smaller runways today. George runs with the idea. We make landings at Apex, Leisure Land, and Bremerton. The runway at Apex is aligned with the wind, but is a narrow, paved strip so I have to be right on. Leisure Land is a grass strip with a variable, gusty cross wind, and Bremerton is a large strip aligned with the wind. I make many mistakes, and am often rescued by George. My landings improve slowly. A wheel landing at Bremerton is particularly good. I feel like I am beginning to know which way the plane is going to swerve and I am able to make the proper rudder correction. There are some bright spots but, all in all, it is a discouraging day.

Lesson 11: J-3 Cub
I’ve done sixteen hours of lessons in the Maule. Insurance will probably require twenty-five. I want to save the remainder to train in a Maule that I am thinking about buying. We switch to George’s J-3 Cub. I had one lesson in this airplane six months ago when I had around twenty hours of total time. It’s parked on Boeing Field and, when George is comfortable with my skills, I’ll be able to rent it.

The Cub is certified for spins, and that is what we do today. Spins are not what I expected. I expected slow descending rotation, with the plane upright. George sets up the first spin. He makes a left turn at slow speed, raises the wing with aileron, puts in inside rudder and WHAM, we’re headed straight for the lake. George recovers by neutralizing the rudder and stick, and the cub stops rotating. George gently pulls out of the dive.

George takes me through a couple more and then I try. I actually have a difficult time initiating the spin. George says this is because he has rigged his Cub with more washout (wing twist), making it harder for his rental clients to inadvertently stall. I manage a sort of roll over, basically going from a poorly coordinated turn to a nose-down dive. It is easy to recover, given enough altitude.

Back at Boeing, there is a six-knot tail wind. We do three landings, nearly ground looping on the second. George calls it a day, seeing no point in practicing landings in a tail wind and maybe tearing up the Cub.

Lesson 12: I’m Not a Hazard
I fly this lesson from the back seat, where I’ll have to sit when I fly solo. We practice the “hand-propping” procedures (no starter in the Cub). I thought that flying the airplane from the rear would be more difficult, but it’s actually easier. I have a good view out of the side and even some visibility forward. I can see half of the instruments half of the time.

First the spin practice. When I stall in a slip the nose drops, as in any coordinated stall. To get the plane to spin, I do a skidding turn, and step on the low wing rudder to stall that wing. When done right, the wing drops and then the nose drops and we’re heading for mother earth. Recovery is simple: throttling back and centering the controls is about all that is necessary. Outside rudder and a brisk move forward on the stick are further recommended control inputs that I’ve not had to use with this airplane. We also do a power-on spin entry. We set up for a climb and pull the nose high. When one wing drops, I put in plenty of rudder on that side, and down we go.

On our way to Vashon, George pulls the power for a practice emergency landing. I choose a grassy patch on the southeast tip of Bainbridge Island and do a good job getting the airplane to it. George has me fly the Cub to within a hundred feet of the ground. Every instructor has a slightly different take on how to make an approach to an emergency landing field. All agree that running out of altitude before reaching the proposed landing site is very bad. George says to aim for the middle of the field, then slip as needed. Bob, who I did my private check ride with, said that too many students come in high and then have to execute a huge slip. He emphasized that the proper technique is to arrive downwind of the landing site one thousand feet above the field and then use “S” turns to lose excess altitude. My strategy is to choose a really, really large field, when possible.

We do two landings at Vashon, two at Wax Orchard, and three at Boeing Field. All of the landings are good, except for some bouncing on the last two. A three-point landing can be summed up: fly it just off the runway with the power off and use the rudder to keep it going straight. Next time I want to try some different maneuvers, more stalls and more wheel landings. For the first time, I feel that I'm not a serious hazard to equipment or life.

Lesson 13: I’m Still Not a Hazard
We practice stalls and ground reference maneuvers east of Seattle. George pulls the power and has me do an emergency landing approach down to one hundred feet over a golf course. On the climb out, I ask George if he ever gets into trouble for flying so low to the ground around people. He says that the regulations say “…[minimum altitude is] an altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing [to be made] without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.” There were no people within five hundred feet and we were lined up on a safe landing spot. Breaking off an emergency landing drill at five hundred feet AGL does not always demonstrate that a student would have made the landing safely. Flying lower, when possible and safe, improves pilot training and promotes safety.

I’m glad to have the practice.

I make three good three-point landings, force a wheel landing, and then make a decent wheel landing. George thinks that the three-point landings are generally safer. He says that in a wheel landing you spend more time with the airplane trying to fishtail into a ground loop.

Lesson 14: Simulated IFR
The weather is bad so George proposes some simulated instrument work. I do fairly well, only blowing past a target course once as I fixated on other instruments. Getting the scan wired is critical.

Lesson 15: Cub Checkout
George has me do everything to see if I’m ready to take the Cub out by myself. We do some really steep turns. We practice landings at a couple of airports. I misjudge the approach to Port Orchard and land further down the runway than I would like. No wind today so landings are fairly easy.

At the end of the lesson George says he wants to see me do some more cross wind landings.

Lesson 16: Cub Checkout II
No wind today so we go up to Paine Field where George has me do an exercise that uses the same coordination as a cross wind landing. On the take-off roll, I bring the tail off the ground then lift one wing, hold it up, and keep the airplane going straight. I then lower the wing then lift the other. I can do three of these before it’s time to lift off. After I lift a wing there is a short delay, then the plane tries to drift sideways. A little rudder yaws it into a mild slip straight down the runway. Putting the wheel back down on the runway causes a yaw to the opposite side. I work at putting the wheel down as gently as possible and preventing the yaw.

George cautions me to not practice these when he’s not in the airplane.

He also has me practice landing “on the numbers.” There are lights right at the threshold of the runway; I’m a little nervous about taking them out on a low approach. On the way back to Boeing Field, and even on approach to landing, I see George nodding off to sleep. I take this as a sign of confidence.

I’m good to go in the Cub. There have been sixteen lessons totaling twenty-five hours. I still have a lot to learn about landing a tailwheel airplane, but now I’m able to go practice by myself.

Flying the Cub
It is a fun plane to fly, though too slow to really go anywhere. It is the best airplane for enjoying the scenery. My first solo practice session was on a beautiful fall day, not too cold, late-afternoon light and fall colors on the trees. I went to Crest Airpark. There is a dogleg in the approach to runway 33. I slip it in around the trees and toward the runway, roll out at fifty feet, then make the gentle turn toward runway about twenty feet off the ground. I feel like a pretty hot pilot until my wheels touch down and the plane proceeds to bounce.

My biggest struggle has been judging touchdown correctly. I am often too low, resulting in the main wheels hitting a little too hard. I then proceed to bounce down the runway. During my last flight in the Cub, I did much better, generally by pulling the stick all the way back, making the plane fully stall before touchdown. I feel a little more comfortable doing wheel landings. I feel like I am beginning to judge position of the airplane better.

Postscript
In February of 2005, I bought a half-share of a Maule 235. I have flown lots of hours locally and as far as Utah twice. My training with George prepared me well for backcountry flying; from landing strips in the bottom of Utah canyons to beaches on the coast of Vancouver Island, places that only a taildragger can go.

I still have my share of bouncy landings, but my skills improve with every hour that I fly my Maule.