I'll chime in a little bit here. Before flying my taildragger, I did what Larry did with his KR. I did a lot of taxing up and down the runway. At first I would slowly add power while keeping the tail down. As I felt more comforable, I picked a day when the wind was directly down the runway, and had my thoughts processes directed towards getting the tail up. One thing I will add here is I recommend propping the tail up on a barrel, saw horse, whatever to give you an idea of your sight view with the tail up. Why you ask? You will have spent so much time sitting in your airplane, with the tail down, the sight picture with the tail up can be a little concerning if you are not prepared for the view. Anyway, I progressed from simply tail up to tail up decreasing power and holding the tail up to decreasing the power and holding the stick in one place to driving the tailwheel down. I did this until I could keep the tail up and run it up and down the runway with no problem. When I went for my tailwheel training, the examiner told be we were going to do some taxiing around in his Decath then go do some flying. By the time I had taxied out to the threshold, he could see I had a handle on ground handling so he told me, "let's go. The first couple of landing were not something I wanted the press to witness but all in all it was a non issue. He told me, after and hour and half, we were wasting our time in the Decath it was time for the RV. My point is a tailwheel is just different, it's nothing to worry about. I actually feel it has made me a better pilot. Isn't that what we all want? Tailwheel, nosewheel, it doesn't matter one bit..........but if you go with a tailwheel........remember, it's like the secret handshake....when you get of the airplane and someone asks you what it's like to fly a tailwheel airplane.....uphold the tradition...."it's different, it's.........." Don't let them know the truth.
Dana Overall 1999 & 2000 National KR Gathering host Richmond, KY i39 RV-7 slider "Black Magic" Flying..well sorta, useta, kinda Barrett Precision O 360 A1A Hartzell C2YR-1BFP/F7497-2 http://rvflying.tripod.com/blackmagic.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMi05-WU2D0#GU5U2spHI_4 http://rvflying.tripod.com do not archive _________________________________________________________________ Stay up to date on your PC, the Web, and your mobile phone with Windows Live http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119462413/direct/01/
