Tail Wheel flying

[TJay 1041]

Hey guys I took my first two hours of tail wheel lessons today with an instructor, we were in his Kitfox 4, 582 3 blade warp, you guys are right these birds are a bit squirrely at first, but I would say by my 5th landing I was nailing it, pretty happy about that,  did all wheel landings today, got about 20 of them down, next time he said we can do a few 3 point, super impressed at how well these birds climb, easy 1000 fpm with both of us 200 pounders in there,   How many hours do guys normally take to get the endorsement,

[akflyer 1427]

you only have to show proficiency.  That said, get some training in various wind conditions.  if all your TO and LD were with wind right down the runway, your going to have a rude awakening the first good Xwind landing you have.  Better to do it with a good TW instructor first.

 

 

[tcj 150]

I was a 300 hour Cherokee pilot when I started tail wheel training.  10 hours dual in a Stinson then 4 more in a J3 cub with the same instructor to get the tail wheel endorsement .  Almost all the dual was takeoffs and landings.  I then got 7 more hours dual in a model 4 Kitfox before I tried to fly my own.

I get my flight reviews from the same instructor in his J3 or a sport cub and it always feels like driving a truck.  Everything happens a lot slower in the Cubs than in my kitfox.

Edited 2 Jul 2016 by tcj

[TJay 1041]

you only have to show proficiency.  That said, get some training in various wind conditions.  if all your TO and LD were with wind right down the runway, your going to have a rude awakening the first good Xwind landing you have.  Better to do it with a good TW instructor first.

 

 

Roger that, It was pretty mild when we went up, only had a 7mph direct cross wind which is nothing, Nice thing about taking lessons in this guys kitfox is it has the stock narrow bungee gear on it, when I fly my with the big gear on it, it should be a breeze.

[LSaupe 123]

It varies, but 6-10 hours is common.

[LSaupe 123]

I think (hope) you will be amazed by the wide gear.

[allonsye 85]

I get my flight reviews from the same instructor in his J3 or a sport cub and it always feels like driving a truck.  Everything happens a lot slower in the Cubs than in my kitfox.

I hadn't been flying in years until I got the Avid and pretty much checked myself out in it after making it airworthy.  Only recently did I do my BFR (for the 1st time in years) in a 65hp Tcraft (which I've 150 hrs in).  It was clearly going to take me more than 2 hrs to get up to speed sticking the landings in the Tcraft. I was kinda shocked, I thought it'd come back to me real quick but I found myself constantly getting behind it. The instructor signed me off because he'd seen how well I've been managing the Avid on my own on our field.

Edited 5 Jul 2016 by allonsye