First Day Tail Wheel.........

This morning, I started my "tail wheel" training.  In my short pilot experience, I have only flown Cessna 172's, which have a tricycle gear set up.  On a plane like a 172, there are three wheels, two "main" wheels on struts, that extend out from the fuselage, and a "nose" wheel located under the engine in the front of the airplane.  When landing, the objective is to land on the "mains", then bring the nose down gradually as speed bleeds.  Steering the airplane on the ground is very straightforward.  You use the rudder peddles to move the rudder to control direction.  At the same time, nose-wheel-steering, connected to the rudder peddles, helps coax the front wheel to aim in the direction you want to turn.  Once you have landed, the drama is over.  Other than in heavy cross-winds or on unusual terrain, a tricycle gear plane is pretty easy to control.  Kind of like driving your car down the road at 50 mph, but using your feet to steer.  Very stable.

By contrast, a tail wheel (tail-dragger) plane is like driving your car down the road at 50 mph, "backwards".  Because, on a tail-wheel airplane, the little wheel that rotates in different directions, is in the back.

This morning from 0800-1000, I flew a Champ, tail# 8965R.  See picture below.
This picture was taken on my arrival here last Monday.  The skies today, and for the last 4 days, have been blue with puffy clouds.

My instructor, Lance (same instructor as the float plane), briefed me on the peculiarities of flying a tail-dragger, and the peculiarities of flying the Champ, mostly wood construction and fabric, with a high performance prop.  Lance is the one that offered the analogy of taxiing a tail-dragger is like driving a car backwards at 50 mph.  The analogy really is appropriate.

Lance familiarized me with the plane, the pre-flight inspection, and shared some personal flying stories with me to ready me for the initial challenge of taxiing and flying the Champ.

Heading out to the taxi-way at Talkeetna (PATK) proved to be more of a challenge than even Lance's explanation offered.  My right leg was sore from pressing down so hard on the right rudder, almost all the way to the end of the runway.  Take-off, although different, is fairly straight forward.  We flew out to a nearby practice area and did some steep turns and put the Champ into I power off and power on stalls.  No problem there.  After I performed the maneuvers for Lance, we headed back to PTKA for multiple landings and take-off's.

Very discouraging.....It was embarrassing, even after being advised what to do with the steering, how I sent the airplane scurrying all over the surface of the runway in search of the center-line after touchdown.   We did maybe 6 or 8 touch-n-goes, not pretty at all,  and then returned to the shop (below).

As I walked through the shop after our flight, Drew Haig, the owner of Above Alaska Aviation, asked me how it went.  I just shook my head in frustration and said how difficult it was to taxi, land and take-off, after spending so much time in tricycle gear planes.  He said that was the response most people gave after their first tail-wheel, and reassured me the next flight would be easier.  I headed to downtown Talkeetna for my two hour break before my next flight.  I go to the Roadhouse, drink coffee and eat bakery.  I'll pay for that later.

I'd like to mention here that there is a pretty significant "rescue" operation going on at PATK and I am exposed to it everyday at the airport.  There was a B-17 that crashed in the woods about 9 miles from Talkeetna in 1951.  The plane is rather famous in this area because a local bush pilot from Talkeetna was responsible for rescuing the crew of the plane after the crash.  A group in Ohio has raised enough money, and fought for and received the appropriate permits to recover the wreckage of the B-17.  The helicopter and support operation that flies to the wreckage each day, is based right across the road from Above Alaska Aviation.  The helicopter flys out dragging a 100' "swing" below it to bring back parts of the B-17 being recovered. The parts are being accumulated in a field on the airport.  Once they get all the parts of the B-17 they want, they will put them in a container, send it to Anchorage, then to Seattle and rail the container to Ohio.  The restoration process will take place in Ohio to restore "Champaign Lady" http://ktna.org/

This afternoon (I'll explain how this afternoon's flying went better than this morning's in a minute) the helicopter, with the 100' sling dragging below, took off right before us.  I wish I would have had my camera.  We had to deviate,  not from converging on the helicopter but converging on it's swing.  Strange!

This afternoon's flight's went much better than this morning's.  Flying surprises me in that the learning curve can be fairly abrupt, but with downward swings in between.  I not only improved on normal tail-wheel landings and taxiing, but was able to do several "wheel landings".  Normally, in a tail-dragger, you land rather flat with all three wheels touching down at the same time.  There is more art and finesse involved in doing wheel landings, done at a higher approach speed, and landing the main wheels first, prolonging the dropping of the tail to the runway.  It is much smoother, easier on the pilot and passenger, and looks better all the way around.

I renewed my confidence this afternoon and look forward to tomorrow's flights.

I will blog tomorrow detailing some of the places I have been frequenting in Talkeetna.  For now, I am adding some additional pictures which might be of interest???

Lance and Sarah.  She's been working on the new "office" ever since I arrived in Talkeetna.  I'll get some pictures of the inside tomorrow.....she did a great job on the painting inside and seems really proud of how she's helping organize things at AAA (Above Alaska Aviation).  

Once I get past my check out in the Champ, this is what I get to venture out in with John and land on river beds and remote areas.  Yeah!  The Citabria!