Tailwheel Travails - Lessons Four & Five

I promised more on my ham-fisted attempts to learn to fly a tailwheel aircraft. It's been a while but here we are. In the meantime I've been flying tamer aircraft - ones with the third wheel on the other end. I've also been doing some time in the right hand seat which is fun. Just as an aside: as I understand it there is no "command" seat in the Australian regulations. You just have to be able to reach all required equipment from the seat you are in. But a big word of warning: some people find it relatively easy to fly from the right hand seat and others don't. So until you know and until you are confident in a range of conditions, don't try it without an instructor. I've done a bit now in a range of aircraft and I like it, but I still want more time with an instructor.

So to the tailwheel. This time we've been flying a slightly different version a Zlin Savage Cub, rather than the Classic we were flying before.

First lesson back was a brush up on 3 pointers and general handling, just getting my hand back in really. For those of you new to tailwheel flying the 3 pointer is where all three wheels land at the same time, it's sometimes called a "full stall" landing (though as Langewiesche points out it isn't necessarily stalled on landing). That's because you are doing what you would normally do in a nosewheel aircraft - holding off in a nose up attitude. With a tailwheel aircraft they are basically finished flying when they settle and they have very little tendency to want to bounce or start flying again. They're also generally flying quite slow. That means if anything goes a little squirrelly - as it can - it does so at a slow speed. That's kind of comforting.

The problem is that because you are going so slow you are a bit susceptible to crosswinds. You don't have the lateral control to stop the aircraft from weather-cocking into wind and you may also be a bit prone to wind shear - stopping flying before you planned to!

Langewiesche on this subject says: "The three point landing is not the only way to get an airplane down. It is not even the best way."

This is where the "wheel landing" comes in. The late Pip Borman once told me - in typically blunt Pip style - "If you can't do a wheel landing you can't fly a taildragger". So we moved on to wheelers.

How do you do a wheeler? Not to bore you with the mighty Langewiesche, but he says it better than me:

Coming in with a good deal of speed, break your glide so that the airplane shoots along level, half a foot or a foot above the ground. Then, when the spot arrives at which you want to make ground contact, simply push over forward and "plaster" the front wheels on. Then as you feel the ground, keep right on pressing forward on the stick so as to hold the ship on.

Sounds easy doesn't it? Well it is and it isn't. We started by choosing a higher approach speed and first stage of flaps. That means that the aircraft is in a high lift, modest drag configuration. We came in and did just as the master suggested - flew along level just above the ground using small amounts of thrust as necessary to keep the aircraft airborne. As we reached the end of the strip we powered up and went around. The idea was to learn to control the aircraft in the attitude in which it would land - a flying attitude, and to learn to visualise the actual height we wanted to fly at. It also gave us a chance to judge the inevitable 90 degree crosswind.

Having done that a couple of times we then came around for real. This time the idea was to minimise the sink rate and to kiss the ground. Unlike Langewiesche our idea was to let it settle and then to pin it by pushing the stick forward. The problem of course is that when you do a three pointer you progressively pole back to arrest the sink rate. You can't do that in a wheeler. So instead you have to very finely judge your height and very gently fly it on. That's counter-intuitive to all of us pilots who are used to flying tricycle gear.

So the inevitable happens - you bounce. Not much but you bounce. Here it's a case of just letting it settle again and getting that stick forward. With the stick properly forward, even though you have flying speed, the wing is at zero or negative lift angle of attack. It is "pinned" to the ground. You can get on the brakes quite hard and then slacken off as you slow down.

After a few of these the bounces got less and my judgement improved. Now it was time to go for a full flap wheeler. This meant that to keep the aircraft flying a fair bit of thrust was needed - we were behind the curve. So we came in with plenty of throttle and just held off the ground a few inches. Closing the throttle slightly allowed the aircraft to sink onto the ground and then I just poled forward to hold her there. You can use thrust at this point to maintain control and keep the tail up.

That's the thing about a wheeler, you can just keep pushing forward as the aircraft slows. You need to do that if you want to keep the tail up. As you slow you eventually lose elevator effectiveness the tail gently settles into a three point attitude.

These were fun landings. I really got a kick out of them and I can't wait to do a few more.

The other thing that's happened is that my tricycle undercarriage landings have improved as well. I reckon everyone should have to fly a 'dragger at some point in their training.

Note: Stick and Rudder: An explanation of the art of flying. Wolfgang Langewiesche, McGraw-Hill Inc, 1944, 1972. A book every pilot should read.

Tailwheel Travails - Lesson One

It shouldn't be hard right? I know how to start an aircraft, how to taxi it, how to take-off, fly and land. That means that flying a new type should be a snack! Wrong I'm afraid - much to my disgust.
If gliders qualify as taildraggers then I've got a fair bit of taildragger time. I suspect however in all the things that are important to flying a taildragger gliders don't count. That means that like many pilots of my age I don't have the rare qualification of being a "real" pilot, because I don't fly a taildragger.
I decided that as I did want to be a "real" pilot it was about time I did something about this glaring hole in my capabilities. I'm getting endorsed to fly a 'dragger. As you might have guessed from a previous post I've chosen the Zlin Savage Classic (called the Cub in Australia) as the initial vehicle for my mortification. So from time to time I'll write about my progress - or more to the point, lack of it.
Lesson one: We had the briefing - you know the one about the C of G being behind the main gear in a taildragger, unlike in a tricycle undercarriage aircraft where it's in front. That means that the tail wants to swap ends with the nose, the tail wants to go first and let the nose come along later. So the story is that as a pilot your only important job is to make the tail stay behind the main gear, and not just behind but straight behind please. Why straight behind? Well as you let the tail get out of line the aircraft will start to turn and the line of the C of G will move rapidly outboard on the outside of the turn. Once it gets beyond a certain point you are going to ground loop and nothing is going to stop you. So keep the tail nicely in line behind you please!!
Once we had got over the briefing we climbed aboard and the instructor said "let's go and do some taxiing practice". Taxiing practice? That's the first thing you learn when you learn to fly - you're kidding me aren't you? Not kidding and what's more let's pick an open area away from obstructions and other aircraft. Well even getting to the open area was a series of drunken lurches. Once a taildragger starts turning it keeps turning. Unlike a nosewheel aircraft where relaxing the rudder on the ground tends to see the aircraft returning to straight line progress, the taildragger keeps going round and indeed has a nasty tendency to tighten the turn. So to stay straight you watch the nose like a hawk and use little dabs of rudder to correct any deviation from the path of righteousness - and don't leave the rudder input in will you! The toe brakes can help too but we'll come to the difficulties of those in a minute!
OK we've lurched drunkenly to an open area and on the way avoided any collision with any object. "OK let's just turn to the right here - more power, keep her moving, why have you got all that rudder in?" This as the aircraft performs a perfect low speed pirouette. Without power the rudder isn't so effective so you tend to pile in more rudder to get the aircraft moving where you want it and then as you increase power to aid the process you have way too much rudder and around you go and unless you are very quick you keep going around. As for the frigging toe brakes, I couldn't work out how to hold one rudder pedal still whilst I rocked my other foot forward to use the toe brakes. By this stage the local idlers had moved into a prime position to view the fun. These are the guys who don't need to burn fuel to get their jollies, they just watch idiots like me and gain immense amusement from it.
Slowly it began to make sense: initiate a turn, release the rudder once you are turning, maybe use some opposite rudder to keep things seemly and never use too much rudder. Now lets see if we can taxi to the end of the strip without hitting the fence or making a runway incursion. At the first turn on the taxiway I conducted a graceful little groundloop and stopped only a few feet short of the runway. Over the radio "xyz turning final for runway 11 and I have the Cub in sight (giggle)". Sweating and red faced I encouraged the Classic back onto the straight and narrow and we waltzed to the end of the runway, managed to enter and line up straight and then took a deep breath.
Open the throttle slowly, feet nice and soft, eyes fixed on the far end of the strip, tail up slowly and we're are in the air. Straight, perfectly straight, fuss free! Climb out and wander off for some upper air work - time to understand the beast in the air. After a very benign session we head back to the circuit. The Classic feels great in the circuit and everything falls into place, no fuss on final, sliding down on rails and into the flair. The exhortations from the back seat start at about this point: "keep coming back on the stick, don't give up on her, more, more..." and we touch in the gentlest most graceful landing of my life. Little dabs of the rudder to keep her straight and we slow to turn off the strip and taxi back for another one. Well I managed to get through that without wrapping her up in a ball!!
None of the other landings were quite as good as the first, but my footwork got better and more assured. Of course if every landing was perfect we'd never bother coming back. My daughter is one of those pilots whose landings vary between very good and completely bloody perfect. She's fond of telling me that I have every reason to keep coming back to fly some more - one day I might just fluke a landing that's worth watching!! That's why you have kids.

Zlin Savage Classic - First Impressions

I flew the Classic a week or two ago - it's a copy of the old Piper Cub.

The one pictured was a photo I took in Italy, the one I flew was in Australia. They were initially designed in Italy I believe and are now manufactured by Zlin in the Czech Republic. In Australia this has been called the Savage Cub but it is officially the Savage Classic.

They are sold as a Light Sport Aircraft in Australia. MTOW in LSA config is 560kg which gave about 263kg of useful load.

The aircraft is powered by the Rotax 912ULS and has a Woodcomp wood grain style prop.

The first impression is of a very, very well constructed and finished aircraft that's great fun to fly. It's very simple - a small, well laid out panel, with an XCom radio slung under the edge of the panel.

Stick is central, throttle is to the left, just where your arm/hand fall. Below that towards floor level is the flap lever it's the old "handbrake" style. It requires a little effort to pull flaps on, but the biggest issue for me was being able to reach it. To quote the man at the clothes shop (Henry Bucks for the Melbournians) I have "a long back, short arms and a fat neck". So I found that when the seat was all the way back - which I needed - I had to loosen my left shoulder strap in order to be able to (just) reach the flap lever.

At middle height on the left and back beside the seat is the trim - a toothed quadrant with a lever on it. Pull the lever towards you, pull or push to set and then let it go and it engages with the teeth and stays where you put it. Trim was quite aggressive - one notch at normal cruise made a big difference.

I'm a novice tail wheel pilot so ground handling was an initial challenge. However visibility is very good and after a while it all began to fall into place. The toe brakes are very effective.

Once at the end of the runway it was simply a case of feeding in power, gently picking up the tail and we were flying. I have no idea at what speed - my eyes were fixed on the end of the runway - but I would guess at something between thirty and forty knots. Acceleration was very quick at close to MTOW. First stage flaps were used for take off and Vfe is 60 knots for first stage and 50 knots for full flaps.

Climb after flap retraction was 60 knots and about 850fpm. The nose was sitting just below the horizon and the fun was really starting. This aircraft translates every action to the seat of your pants. Great fun to fly.

Levelling off the first thing that takes some getting used to is the very low nose attitude for S&L. The horizon is well up the screen by the time you are settled into your 85 knot cruise at 4900rpm or so.

Slow flight simply required increasing back pressure until finally the Classic stopped flying with the needle hovering somewhere between 20 and 25 knots. This aircraft was equipped with VGs and they are tremendously effective. I think that the speed was pretty accurate and not the result of positional error at the high AOA.

Wing drop was virtually non-existent and buffet was similarly all but absent. The aircraft is very well behaved at the stall but not telling you too much either.

Turns require a little rudder and very little back pressure for even moderately steep turns. Again the tendency is to climb until you get used to the low nose attitude. Visibility is great with the centre section of the wing having a perspex panel.

Returning to the field the aircraft was remarkably loathe to lose height and we used a couple of moderate descending turns to soak up some height. The Cub showed no sign of wanting to drop its nose or tighten the turn - all very placid.

It was in the circuit that the aircraft showed its true colours. It is docile, highly predictable and well behaved. Approaching base turn we cut the throttle and as the needle dropped past 60 knots we put out first stage flaps. Trim fairly far back - and now the trim is much less sensitive - and the aircraft sat solid as a rock at 60 knots. Easy to manage and not at all busy.

Indeed the one thing that I found unusual was that there was no sense that this was a draggy aircraft - this despite the various struts and bracing wires. It didn't require heaps of height or power to keep it flying.

Turning final we slowed to 50 knots and got full flaps out. Trim almost right back and again the aircraft is highly stable. However there was no sense of high sink rate - unlike a Tecnam in this configuration.

Over the threshold round out, throttle closed and just keep coming back on the stick. My first landing - with some encouragement from the back seat - was an absolute greaser of a three pointer. And that's the only landing I'm telling about!!

Again I have no idea about the speed I landed but the aircraft was easily managed on roll out with little dabs of rudder to keep it tracking. The one thing that got me on a couple of my landings was the fact that you are actually sitting quite high up. I kept thinking the ground was further away than it actually was.

I had the very strong impression that this is an aircraft that would really respond when you wanted to squeeze it into a little, rough strip somewhere. Even on a first flight I felt like I was really communicating with and being communicated to by the aircraft. Just the kind of thing that would inspire confidence if you are near the limits.

Overall first flight impressions: A simple aircraft that's really nicely built and finished. You could have a very great deal of fun in this aircraft. It reminded me so much of the very simple aircraft of the past. No fancy instrument panels, everything simple and manual. An absolute joy to fly.

I'll have one to sit in the hangar alongside the long distance cruiser that flies 40 knots faster. That really is the only downside - unless you count not being able to see your significant other whilst you are flying along.

This is the manufacturer's site: Zlin Savage Classic