EAA Sport Aviation - August 2010

daughter was in the cockpit; I had to make small, timely, and thoughtful inputs to keep the plane going straight. Left alone, her little plane wanted to spin around and ground loop.

I immediately started practicing my taxi technique down aisle nine. We held short for traffic arriving from produce, then proceeded to turn right on runway…I mean aisle 10. Each turn required anticipation—definitely a different feeling than “taxiing” the cart forward.

I’ve wanted to get my tailwheel endorsement almost since the day I passed my checkride. There’s something magical about the moment when that tail wheel lifts off the runway, teasing the main tires, and the pilot for that matter, who are still waiting for their turn to become airborne. I’ve had the pleasure of riding in a variety of tailwheel planes, and it’s the same feeling in a Cub, Junior Ace, DC- 3, or even a B- 17.

I took my first tailwheel lesson just a few days before my cereal aisle epiphany.

Ah-ha Moments

Learning to tame a tailwheel

I’VE HEARD A VARIETY of analogies relating to ground operations in
tailwheel airplanes. “Imagine you’re pushing a suitcase on wheels
instead of pulling it,” or “Lead into your turns as if you’re hauling
a trailer.”
These help, but my “ah-ha” moment came on an unexpected
Saturday morning in the cereal aisle at a local grocery store. My
wife was staring at the long wall of choices, and I was spinning
our 2-year-old daughter around in a shopping cart. I stopped
one of the spins halfway around, started pushing her backwards,
and then it occurred to me: This is a tailwheel airplane! My

LESSON 1: SENSORY DELIGHT

Climbing into the small orange and black experimental Cuby required flexibility and even some creativity. I’m sure anyone watching was amused as we turned backward, then twisted our legs into pretzels just to get into our seats.

Sitting in the plane was a different feeling than any I had during my initial training. I felt both at home in the plane and out of place at the same time. I was comfortable with airport operations, traffic patterns, and basic flight maneuvers, but also knew I didn’t even know how to taxi yet. I’d be starting all over, but it was exciting.

The purpose of this first flight was to get me comfortable with the plane, so Jason, my instructor, did all the taxiing, takeoffs, and landings. My job was to follow him on the controls. My feet were exhausted before we even reached the runway. It was a workout just trying to feel what inputs he was making and when.