Tailwheel PPL near Pittsburgh?

[Mr_Intensity]

Hi Esteve,

I'm with the Pittsburgh chapter (http://www.45.eaachapter.org/). We are based out of Rostraver Airport (FWQ), Southeast of Pittsburgh. If you contact the chapter, they will probably recommend the Little Blue Champ (http://www.littlebluechamp.com/) based out of Finleyville (G05). But, do give Ken a call, and give us a visit. Our meetings are third Friday of the month.

I got my PPL back in 2004 at Allegheny County (AGC) at Pittsburgh Flight Training Center (PFTC). But PFTC is a part-141 school interested in training airline pilots. They don't have taildragger, nor do they have an interest in that sort of thing. I was kind of an oddball just wanting a PPL (Sport Pilot came into being while I was finishing up my PPL).

Good luck. IMHO *ALL* pilots should start out in taildragger. Do you know how hard it is going to be for me to "unlearn" trigear when I go for a taildragger rating?

John

[lnuss]

Do you know how hard it is going to be for me to "unlearn" trigear when I go for a taildragger rating?

The secret to tailwheel flying is precision. In the years when I specialized in those transitions, it usually took in the neighborhood of 10 hours, but it depended a lot on how attentive the pilot was to sloppy flying -- the sloppier the pilot the longer it took. You can help yourself by trying to maintain absolute precision now, even without a tailwheel; that is, don't let your altitude wander even one foot, don't let your nose, even in cruise flight, wander even one degree from the desired heading. Don't let the ball get even a quarter of a ball off center. Learn to feel the sideways push on your butt when that ball isn't precisely centered (you've gotta relax to feel it). Don't let your bank angle vary even a degree or two from what it should be for what you are doing. Of course this is in smooth air -- in turbulence try to average being on target through active correction. Do it with very small corrections caught early before most people would even notice it. If you can get a friend to ride along who will be very critical of you for this project, that will help.

The above being said, don't do this by looking at the gauges -- keep your head outside. Learn to judge airspeed and altitude, even fly the pattern and MCA (Minimum Controllable Airspeed -- that is, right on the edge of the stall), with a coat over the instrument panel (my students learned this before solo). Learn to judge aircraft attitude (in all three axes) while looking outside, but not just over the nose -- even when looking at a wing, when looking behind you, etc. Notice, and correct, even the tiniest variation, whether in flight, on the ground, or in the flare. Learn to see minute excursions off of perfect. Spending a lot of time practicing this at or near MCA (keep some altitude for this -- in many/most aircraft, too sloppy can make a spin) can help you to visualize and overcome the sloppiness.

If you successfully do this, you'll have half the battle won.

Since I don't know anything about your flying, I just related what I saw and what worked in many years of transitioning people into taildraggers.

[chacalextreme]

A couple of days without check the forum, and now that I came back found great answers and a lot of help. This forum is simple awesome!. Eagle six, Bill, Inuss Champ driver, Mr Intensity, thanks a lot for your comments!! And seems like everybody agree what I was thinking, is better start in a tailwheel!! My intention is to start in aerobatics, fist with a S-10 that I recently bought, and then my I want to build a DR109 (already got the plans of it). So I'm absolutely sure that I need to become an expert on tailwheel. This weekend I went to Salem airpark and talked to Ben, they have a Citabria there and and he told me that they can help me with a tailwheel endorsement, but seems like I need to go to a 141 school, since I'm a foreign guy. Then I went to Moore Aviation and Haski aviation asking for a PPL. I'm still deciding what to do, since both schools don't have taildraggers. Mr Intensity, the next chapter meeting is Friday 21 right? If it is at night, I will be there!!

[Mr_Intensity]

Inuss: Thank you for the tips and advice. My weakness in learning to fly was "fixating" on gauges too much. I am an information technology (IT) person by trade, and one of my instructors figured it out:

"You're flying an airplane, not a computer."

Programmers tend to take a problem and break it down into step-by-step solutions. That doesn't work during flying. You fly by multitasking and "feel."

I ran out of money a while back (just short of my instrument rating), and haven't flown in years. I am out of biennial. So, when I go back to start training for biennial, I will probably go the little blue champ route and get the taildragger endorsement at the same time. A freind pointed out that it has been so long, that it will almost be like starting over, so I probably have forgotten the trigear bad habits. :-D

Steve: Yes, March 21 is the next meeting at about 7:30PM at our hangar at FWQ.

Here is the problem: Security has been tightened up around airports, so it is not easy to get on the field to get to our hangar. There is a resteraunt called the Eagle's Landing at the airport, and usually a group of us meet for dinner there before the meeting.

Try to get to FWQ around 6:30PM. Upon entering the airport from Route 51, there will be a split in the road. Bear RIGHT. You will pass a company called Solar Power Industries on the right (I think they went out of business), you will turn a slight bend, and you will come to a stop sign. Straight ahead is the parking lot for the Eagle's Landing. We are (usually) the largest group in the resteraunt, and we are (usually) in the back corner. Just ask for EAA Chapter 45. If I am not there, just mention my name (John Handis). After dinner, we all head over to the hangar.

Hope to see you there.

[lnuss]

...so I probably have forgotten the trigear bad habits. :-D

Don't count on it -- "muscle memory" persists longer than you'd think.

Programmers tend to take a problem and break it down into step-by-step solutions.

Teachers break things to learn down into small pieces and teach it building block fashion -- similar principle, but a different implementation.

Good luck, and hope it goes well for you.

[Sco Deac]

What is the consensus on good tailwheel training options for somone that lives in Butler, PA? I know of the littlebluechamp at Finleyville someone mentioned earlier and Skyline at the Salem Air Park. Either are about 1 hour drive. Am I missing any other options and does anyone have views on either?