I've recently done my 50th hour on taildraggers.
So that means I am finally a great tailwheel pilot.
Clear prop!
In this video I'm doing an exercise to practice finer control on the rudder and
aileron coordination with the main wheels touching the ground, at
speed. And then I'm also doing full flap landings which in this type of aircraft
is not the standard landing configuration
because of its tendency to bounce or porpoise very easily.
But before we get to that...
A lot of us sometimes think to think
along the lines of; when I've got 200 500 or 1000 flying hours that I will be
a great pilot. But that is wrong and it's where
complacency can set in, and complacency in aviation is extremely
dangerous. Since I'm now starting to get rather
comfortable in tail dragger I'm actually more at risk than I was when I just
started flying it because at this stage it's rather easy
to overestimate my own abilities. And that's not only applicable to tail wheel
pilots, but all pilots. Does any of these sound familiar to you?
I've got 500 flying hours surely I can best this 20 knots
crosswind. Or I've got 1 000 hours in my logbook,
this 500 feet loud ceiling isn't going to stop me from flying.
I hope that does not sound familiar to you, I'm lucky in the fact that I fly for
fun. This isn't my job so I never have to fly.
I can always say nah I don't like the look of those clouds or
nope that crosswind is more than my personal limit.
I've recently decided not to fly because of a crosswind
that was just about at my personal limit. I was at in an away field so this meant
that I needed to inconvenience somebody to come pick me up by car
and take me back the next day so I could fly the plane back.
But I still made the decision. You may think that I'm a wuss or that I'm
unskilled, and maybe I am, but I'm also alive and I'd rather be
a live wuss than a dead daredevil. Or to say it in a
way that sounds a bit more cool; A superior pilot uses his superior
judgment to avoid situations which require the use of his superior skill.
Okay let's see what I got up to.
Brakes test okay
[radio] Rhino Park traffic, Charlie India Alpha,
right downwind for runway zero nine, touch and go.
Rhino Park traffic, India Juliet Charlie, rolling runway zero nine, will be staying in the circuit
Okay let's go
Full power
Stick forward
There we've got 50 I'm gonna ease back slowly. Okay we're flying.
Back on the power a little bit
Below 65
[radio] traffic delta x-ray now crossing the runway zero-nine active. [me] Look far...
OK
So we're on the left wheel, let's go to the right wheel
Okay that's all good. Now let's go onto the left wheel again
right wheel
And full power
Alright so what I did basically there is an exercise where I'm switching from the
left wheel to the right wheel. And I did it pretty
poorly there but it's supposed to be an exercise that
increases your skill with the taildragger,
to make sure you always keep going straight
I'm going to try it again. And uh please don't do that
if you've never done it before, don't do it without your instructor
Rhino Park traffic, India Juliet Charlie, final approach runway one-one on the gravel touch
okay good
Keep it like that. Keep it like that. All right. Power closed.
Okay, I'm giving about half power now
[radio] Rhino Park traffic, Charlie India Alpha, entering and backtracking runway zero-nine
Okay I that up a little bit
That was pretty bad
flaps up
We just keep that speed at D.M.M.S. No lower
Keep it nicely balanced
Okay let's um do a full stop landing, three-pointer
Rhino Park traffic, India Juliet Charlie, final approach, runway one-one on the gravel, full stop landing
Okay full flaps
[radio] Rhino Park traffic. Charlie India Alpha, right-hand downwind runway zero-nine
nice touch and go
Okay now...
...we'll round out a bit more
Round out, round out! More more!
Ok
Whoa
Rhino Park traffic, India Juliet Charlie, backtracking on runway one-one on the gravel
Okay so that was some proper um
doughnuts there
[radio] Charlie Bravo Lima, base, zero-nine, full stop
So that was not too bad of a landing, um needs some work.
Rhino Park traffic, India Juliet Charlie uhm rolling runway one-one on the gravel
will be staying the circuit
[Radio inaudible]
[radio] Charlie India Alpha, turning finals for zero-nine, touch and go
Rhino Park traffic, India Juliet Charlie, final approach runway one-one on the gravel, full stop landing
Full flaps [radio] Rhino Park traffic, Charlie India Alpha on a right downwind for runway zero-nine , touch and go
speed is fine
maybe a bit high
Get the nose up
Ah no
And now as for the question; when will I be a good enough pilot?