Flight Training - August 2019 - 8

UNUSUAL ATTITUDE BY DAVE HIRSCHMAN

Editor at Large DAVE HIRSCHMAN compared
wheel and three-point landings-and debunked
some myths about wheel landings-in a video
on AOPA.org (aopa.org/ft/threepointlandings).
dave.hirschman@aopa.org

TAILWHEEL TEST

More bounces, swerves, and go-arounds, please.
Tailwheel training has long been one of my favorite flight subjects. It's dynamic, challenging, and rewarding. For pilots aspiring to fly vintage aircraft, warbirds, backcountry
adventurers, or aerobats, a tailwheel endorsement is the coin of the realm. But what's the
best way for an instructor to give new tailwheel pilots the foundation they need?
That question seldom occurred to me during my first few years of providing dual
instruction. The flight school where I taught had exactly one tailwheel airplane-a
Super Decathlon-and most trainees were aspiring aerobatic pilots who simply wanted
to meet the FAA requirement and get Decathlon checkouts as quickly as possible. We'd
grind around the airport traffic pattern until they made consistently smooth takeoffs
and landings, had confidence in their abilities, and I felt good about their prospects.
That process generally took about eight or 10 flight hours, at least 75 takeoffs and
landings, a pair of Goodyear Flight Custom IIIs, and a set of brake pads. We'd spend
most of our time and effort on wheel landings-those tricky touchdowns in which the
airplane's two main wheels contact the runway first, followed by the tailwheel.
More recently, however, teaching mostly in backcountry airplanes has fundamentally changed the way I teach tailwheel flying. Tailwheel students who learn in
a Piper PA-18 Super Cub, Cessna 180 Skywagon, or Aviat Husky, for example, often
have a great deal to learn about the operational environment in which these aircraft
are meant to fly-and simply showing them how to make wheel and three-point landings on hard-surface runways doesn't prepare them to meet their flying goals.
Instead of making endless circuits in the local traffic pattern, I now take them to a
variety of grass runways in the area (see "Sod Season," p. 34). And instead of empha8 FLIGHT TRAINING AUGUST 2019

sizing wheel landings, I now focus on the
three-point variety because they're better
for short, rough, or obstructed airstrips.
The culmination of the training is a
three-airport "tailwheel final exam" that
tests their ability to handle real-world
challenges. First, we drop in at a short,
lumpy farm airstrip that blends in with the
surrounding countryside. Just finding it can
be difficult, and it requires flying a curved
final approach because of trees and terrain,
overflying a power line, and missing a mud
bog. The actual landing and takeoff are the
easy parts.
Next, we fly to Clearview Airpark, a rite
of passage for pilots in the mid-Atlantic for
its 1,840-foot long, 30-foot wide, paved runway with a 2.1-degree grade (see "That One
Airport," May 2019 Flight Training). The
unusual sight picture confounds pilots and
leads to a high percentage of go-arounds.
Finally, we return to Frederick, Maryland, where backcountry pilots must fit
their airplanes into the mix of faster traffic
and deal with air traffic controllers.
A successful tailwheel final exam puts
an exclamation point on the training cycle.
But as an instructor, my definition of success
differs sharply from that of my students.
They want perfection. But instructors get
far more useful information from bounces,
skips, and swerves because that sort of
adversity shows how trainees are likely to
respond to such events in our absence. And
no pilot makes perfect landings every time.
It gives me comfort when a tailwheel
student adds a blast of engine power to
counteract a swerve, or executes a timely
go-around. That's proof they've internalized the key survival instinct of tailwheel
flying-and they're ready to go it alone.
Also, I tell them to make three-point
landings for the first 100 hours after
getting their endorsement. If they want to
perfect wheelies after that, come back and
we'll fly some more.
During a recent tailwheel final exam
on a particularly blustery day, a trainee's
first two approaches to Clearview ended in
go-arounds. After that, he decided to skip
the troublesome airport entirely. During the
debrief, he was deflated and apologetic and
said it was obvious he had failed the test.
I drew the opposite conclusion. The
student had made timely and correct
go-around decisions, and his choice to
forgo landing under those conditions
showed sound aeronautical judgment.
That's what I call success. FT

http://www.AOPA.org http://www.aopa.org/ft/threepointlandings

Flight Training - August 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - August 2019