10 Common Tailwheel Mistakes
In the words of Timmy Failure, “mistakes were made”. Had he seen me flying?! When I started my tailwheel adventure I knew I was making mistakes, but the real problem was I didn’t know what the mistakes were. Now, with more than a few hundred hours instructing in tailwheel airplanes I’ve started to expect and collect my favorite common mistakes. Teaching has helped me see and appreciate them and learn how to help students develop techniques to overcome them.
Sourced from my hours of teaching observations here’s my list of common tailwheel mistakes, my hope is they’ll help you have insights to learn and better your skills.
Disclaimer: these should be taken in context of the airplanes I teach in — mostly small, light weight, under powered training aircraft. Keep in mind your aircraft has its own spirit (aka consult your CFI and POH) and some generalizations may not apply.
Adding abrupt power
When you add power you increase the left hand turning tendencies. When you add power quickly these tendencies happen quicker. Remember, in a tailwheel airplane the center of gravity is behind the main wheels (think pushing rolling luggage) so any sudden increase in force is going to need an opposite and equal reaction (right rudder) to keep the nose pointed at the right end of the runway (you know…the direction you want to actually go). A fun exercise (with your instructor) is to bump the throttle on the runway without rudder input and pay very close attention to what the airplane does. Your mission is to become an expert at seeing and detecting the smallest of left/right movements of the nose relative to centerline.
To overcome this mistake, build a habit of smoothly pushing the throttle in over a three count. Can we be honest? You’re not impressing anyone with your abrupt burying of the throttle into the dash anyway, but I have seen an engine sputter and die because the carburetor accelerator pump said, “nope not today satan”.
Bringing the tail up too quickly
During the takeoff run when the the tail is planted on the runway the world is blissful. But when you slam the yoke (or stick) full forward abruptly to get the tail flying guess what you’re doing? Yup, as soon as that tailwheel leaves the ground all hell is going to break loose if you do this abruptly and are not ready. Without that third anchor point to the earth those narly left turning tendencies rear their ugly head sending your nose suddenly left. It’s like the plane is Demogorgon and the Mind Flayer is mind-controlling it left (any Stranger Things fans out there?!).
But not to worry, there is an easy to fix for this monster, just chill on the movement — bring the tail up smoothly and not so quickly. This diminishes the left hand turning tendency and gives you time to anticipate and react with right rudder.
As homework I recommend reading at least the first few pages of Chapter 8 of Stick and Rudder.
Setting the tail down too fast
Ugh, here we go again…why do you insist on doing everything so durn abruptly? After a wheel landing don’t rush it, let the tail come down when you know the resulting positive angle of attack won’t cause your craft to jump back into the air and before you run out of rudder authority. Simple, right? It’s not simple to always feel the right timing for this transition. Here’s your takeaway: when you do bring the tail down don’t slam it down. Bring it down smoothly. When the tail is lowered it can actually cause a right turning tendency, so setting it down smoothly and slowly will give you appropriate time to react.
Rotating too early (in gusts)
In a tailwheel airplane we start our takeoff run in a positive angle of attack (AOA). After a short run the pilot brings the tail up to level the angle of attack, lowering induced drag and enabling airspeed gain. Unless you are just a total boss and have so much horsepower that you can leap off the earth from the three point attitude. In that case you can skip this one and head right to look-how-much-I-spent-on-my-airplane Instagram influencer hero status. But if you’re like the majority of us, keep reading. If you simply bring the tail up to level your AOA and it’s gusty you are going to be swept off the ground before you have sustainable lift. It can happen so abruptly you find yourself nose high close to the ground and sinking fast and uncoordinated (because in the moment you forgot to correct those increased left turning tendencies). Often the responses are swift, “what the heck just happened?” and “help me Oprah Winfrey…help me Tom Cruise!” Not to worry! This is an easy one to fix — hahaha easy for me because I’m comfortably sitting behind my computer while you white knuckle the stick of your soon to be crumpled classic. Anyway, where were we…oh yes, the easy fix, here it is: keep a negative angle of attack until you reach a safe rotation speed. That looks like pushing the stick forward enough during your ground roll to keep the main wheels pinned to the runway. But can’t a negative AOA cause a prop strike? Aerodynamically unlikely at speed, review chapter 16 (wheel landing section) of the timeless book Stick and Rudder by Lange Wiesche for a good explanation.
Letting go of the yoke on a bounce
I repeat this sage advice so often I’m considering having it placarded in my plane, “when you take it back, don’t give it back”. I joke…maybe? We’re often taught in our initial training to go-around if we bounce, rightfully so! However, in tricycle gear (aka conventional aka nose draggers hardy-har-har) planes we soon learn that if we bounce it doesn’t always have to be a go-around. With some practice we soon learn that if we nose over (reduce our AOA) after a bounce we can regain a little airspeed and use ground effect to our advantage to fix our bounce. Then we carry those muscle memory skills with us to tailwheel where it doesn’t quite work out the same. Here’s why, when we bounce in a tailwheel airplane (regardless if it is a three point or wheel landing) we are likely to bounce back up into the air with a high angle of attack at or beyond our critical AOA (stall!). If you then nose over you’re coming back down to mother earth at a rapid rate and nose first. Even if you manage a level attitude your vertical descent is rapid. Your main tires will hit first resulting in sending the tail slapping down and once again increasing your AOA as you then go skywards again but with even less airspeed. It’s a vicious cycle and even worse if you have a proclivity for pilot induced oscillation (PIO). What to do? My first advice is to go-around. But if you must put ‘er down then when “you take it back, don’t give it back”. What I mean is when you bounce do not let go of the yoke (aka hold it all the way back) and the plane will stall in in a correct three point attitude. A few small bounces in the correct attitude is no biggee.
I’ve made generalizations here for illustration purposes. Please be safe out there and keep in mind it varies by aircraft and landing gear design among other things. And please don’t try stalling in a 15ft high bounce — go-around!
Failure to anticipate left/right hand turning tendencies
I’ve become so accustomed to the surprise of a new tailwheel pilot to left hand turning tendencies during the takeoff run that I kind of enjoy the initial excitement. Don’t let them surprise you, be ready for those lefties at the critical phases of flight and you’ll be a step ahead. I suggest a good ground session with your CFI before every flight to bake into your brain (a brain bake? hmmmm) when to anticipate the turning tendencies. An out loud takeoff or landing brief to yourself and whomever else may listen will get your head, a head of the game too (that was one too many heads wasn’t it?). Visualize and anticipate! Remember, if you’re struggling with longitudinal alignment it might be where your eyes are focused — find a row of rivets on the cowling and practice low approaches and don’t let those rivets move off center line.
Forgetting to fly the airplane after touchdown
You’ve just made the perfect approach, round-out, flair and landing. Ah, sweet success! The crowd went wild (oh, it’s just the guy on the mower?). Then just when you get slow enough that the rudder isn’t effective the cross wind grabs your tail and starts pushing it, pushing it real good, oh baby baby (Salt-n-Pepa anyone?) I’m becoming convinced that the most difficult part of any landing is this transition from high rudder effectiveness to steering with the tailwheel. I’ve done it, my students do it every day. It’s a common mistake. Don’t stop flying the plane! Remember your rudder has at best the effectiveness timeline of a politician, when it runs out of money, er airspeed, you’ll need brakes and full rudder deflections to get the desired result if crosswinds are sufficient.
Forgetting to stop the turn
It goes like this, you just performed a landing like none other, so soft the earth thanked you. Surely, no human has ever made a landing this perfect before this historic day. The lineman/woman are so impressed they’re running to you, a news chopper is circling. Tom Cruise himself is giving you a thumbs up. You begin your speedy runway exit and it happens: you forget to stop the turn and weeeeee! you’re now performing an unplanned runway donut. The world spins and you see the disappointment in Cruise’s face as he puts his shirt on and leaves. And you have a fleeting thought that will beleaguer human history for millennia, “why does Tom always have it shirt off?” I’ve enjoyed my share of student conducted runway to taxiway donuts — quit a bit of fun! Of course I’ve never done this, eh-hem. The moral of the story is: in a tailwheel airplane (because it acts like rolling piece of luggage begin pushed) you must stop the direction of the turn with opposite input or it will continue that turn.
Taking off uncoordinated
This seems like it wouldn’t be a thing. I promise you it is. In the early stages of learning tailwheel the stress of keeping the plane correctly pointed down the runway suspends the student’s thinking machine after rotation. When the plane is finally wrangled safely into the air the student finally relaxes, “whew! I got it in the air!” They simply forget to transition to a coordinated crab into the wind to maximize lift. This is easily corrected with a thorough pre-takeoff brief and reminders to “step on the ball”.
Forcing the landing
Unless you’re in the back country you’ve probably got over 5,000ft of runway. So what’s the rush? I’ve seen time and time again a rush to get the plane on the ground. This often results in touching down before the pilot is ready, before he/she feels right about it. If your intuition is telling you the plane is not yet accurately coordinated and or in the proper pitch attitude then don’t land. This rush to land is not intentional, but something tells the early pilot “it’s time to land now”. To fix this mindset, start by telling yourself you’re always doing a low pass — if it so happens that you get the plane stabilized 1ft above the runway only then will you allow it to settle in.
A mistake that often leads to rushed landing is a holdover from training where we’re sometimes taught to close the throttle on short final or even worse chop and drop. I’m not saying these do not have merit, but landing without a little thrust is a technique better suited for after basic mastery of alignment and timing the roundout have been mastered. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how keeping just as little as 1,000rpm of power will give you just enough thrust in ground effect to keep you afloat while you get the plane where you want it.
That’s it! Did you notice what’s not on the list? Ground loops! Contrary to what all the internet experts say they’re not common. Quality training coupled with personal minimums and experience in type and the ground loop is nothing to be feared (respected, yes).
What did I miss? What did I get wrong/right? Leave me a comment!