....for those iron men in their wooden planes!
I've started flying a Citabria in order to get my tailwheel endorsement. For those who may not know, the Citabria is a, pretty, fabric covered, high wing tailgragger. It's also airbatic, which happens to be Citabria spelled backwards, and visa-versa.
This makes flying a tricycled gear airplane such as a Cessna 172, look as easy as riding a bicycle.
My instructor said that this was going to be a humbling experience. To say the least!
This airplane has nowhere near the torgue of a Camel, and yet, if you aren't paying attention, absolutely every second, you'll ground loop it. I was dancing on the rudder pedals like Fred Astair!
We went to Alliance airport which has a wide runway (they handle airliners, there) and I'm glad we did. I would have been in the grass at my little airfield. He obviously realized this.
How did they fly those 150 horsepower kites!? How did they keep a rotary powered triplane heading in a straight line for takeoff? They did, though, and often with very little flight time.
Once I'm signed off, I'm heading out to find a place where I can take up an open cockpit biplane. That's next on my assignment list.

People don't realize what taildraggers are like until they actually fly one. Most people never could figure out why I complained about the ground handling in IL2 so much.

Think of taking off in a 1500+hp taildragger.

Do you have any grass runways around that you can use? Taildraggers are a little easier on grass, they can slide some instead of gripping so well.

Some people take to it right away and some people never can learn it. My dad had a total time of 50hours all in Cessna 150's when he bought his first plane, a Taylorcraft. The guy he bought it from gave him three take offs and landings and sent him on the his way. He never had a problem with it. I know other guys who just can't get the hang of it.

I know one old time pilot that has never flown a tricycle plane. He still flies now, but he refuses to fly tricycles.

ROF isn't perfect on it, but it does a better job than any other sim.

We need pics, and videos next time your out.

Richard, as soon as I think that I can take a video that won't embarrass me, I'll do that!
Really, though, my instructor, Charlie, said that I didn't do badly at all. He had me heading down the center line at Alliance, in slow flight, just a few feet off the ground the whole length of the runway, and wouldn't let me put it down. We'd go around and do it again. Fun, but when we got back, I was sweating!
Did some spins, too. A fun couple of hours, but I was working hard.
I'm not going to feel like a real pilot until I master this!
The 172 is gonna seem awful boring, now.
And yeah. RoF is as close as you're going to get, right now.

Many a year ago now I did my first solo in a taildragger. When I started my training my instructor asked me " can you dance ?" A great experience have fun !

Cheers
Lfox

If you want scary just watch this.................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_kDgRYQFMs

Just think of the load on the main gear as the things going sideways, The Lanc has to be one of the ultimate tail draggers.