Mostly it has to do with lack of forward visibility in flare/roll rather than how good you are in kepping the tail behind?
I may try to sharpen that first skill by landing a C152 eyes closed or looking at the sky, then move on to the real thing 
Ibra wrote:
Mostly it has to do with lack of forward visibility in flare/roll
If you wheel land a taildragger, the forward visibility will be at least as good as landing a tricycle. I fly a 172 tricycle, and a 172 taildragger, the the taildragger is easier to see ahead during a wheel landing. I avoid three pointing taildraggers as much as I can.
Do NOT land a tailwheel or taildragger.
My landings deteriorated after soloing, and my instructor didn’t waste time. He chopped the lesson and passed me on to a more experienced guy. He had me do a few bad landings, then told me not to land.
1700+, mainly solo, tailwheel hours later I try not to land.
The problems with tailwheel aircraft are not with landing – they’re with keeping straight afterwards. And nil wind seems worst for the inexperienced, as the speed is higher and there’s no clue as to which direction the aircraft will swing.
Do NOT land a tailwheel or taildragger.
Appreciate the humour, but that needs a in case someone takes it literally. Conventional gear is different from tricycles but no more “_difficult_” overall. In many respects it is much easier.
If only as a proficiency exercise, I think every t/w pilot can benefit from learning to operate a trike, and vice versa.
Peter wrote:
If you want to teach landings, it is better to depart the area for say 15 mins and then come back. Then your brain has had a chance to absorb why the last landing was crap and work out what to do next time, plus you practiced the circuit arrival procedure. But this would make a PPL cost even more so nobody does it…
I try to kill two birds with one stone – EPKP – EPRU – EPKA – EPKP – each leg is just above the 50nm requirement for a XC and the whole lot takes about an hour and a half, two hours if I do a touch-and-go, circuit and another touch-and-go at EPRU and EPKA. The second one is usually better. I’m lucky with the locations working out that way, but perhaps others can find something similar in their areas. I’ll add slow flight between EPRU and EPKA to the mix, the TMA for EPKK gets in the way of going higher on the other legs.
Talking of slow flight being worth X landings…
What I’ve done on my last two BFRs (at Texas Taildraggers, where there is always a crosswind) is we do an exercise where we roll on the upwind wheel for virtually the whole length of the runway, both on the first takeoff and subsequent touch and goes. It’s a valuable handling exercise (division of attention, control) as you’ve got to do it without swerving and also without inadvertently taking off, and it gives time to practise keeping the tailwheel aircraft running straight despite inevitable wind gusts as you roll down the runway at around 35 mph. KAXH has a pretty long runway so you can get a decent run of it on every touch and go. It’s kind of like slow flight but done with a wheel in contact with the ground :-)
Joy, who runs the place, has been flying since the earth cooled so I dare say it’s proven to work well as a training/currency exercise :-)
alioth wrote:
we do an exercise where we roll on the upwind wheel for virtually the whole length of the runway,
Yup! This is one of my training points in taildraggers. If doing it in still air, or into the wind, there will be some tire sliding, so better on grass if you can. I practice often on ice, where there is no tire wear. I like to put one down, go along for half a mile, and pick it up, without the other main ever touching. If there’s a skiff of snow, I can circle back, and check my work. This can be done in a tricycle too, though it can be a bit more challenging, and really does slide the tire!
Pilot_DAR wrote:
This is one of my training points in taildraggers.
I have flown tailwheel a little. Extra and Zlin 526F. I was never taught main wheel landing. Only three point. I remember that touching down with the main wheels often resulted in a bounce, so I prefer to touch slightly on the tail. As I read your posts about touching down with one main wheel and continuing like that along the runway, I begin to wonder if I have been trained correctly. Also, never had problems with the plane spinning. Is it some locking mechanism on my plane or maybe because I fly from grass?
Maybe safer in a high wing tailwheel, but I don’t fancy a wingtip close to the ground for a long time, in a low wing.
@loco, it’s easy to bounce if not paying attention. I think we all do it, and feel suitably ashamed. One cure is to touch down with almost zero vertical speed, but that can waste a lot of runway.
Better to apply forward stick and moderate braking just before touchdown. Don’t worry, you can’t nose over at the start of the ground roll, no matter how aggressively you brake and push forward.
You most definitely can nose over after the airplane has slowed, which is why this is a technique to learn by yourself in small steps as you get to know your own airplane.
I wouldn’t blame any instructor for not teaching this. If you brake too hard towards the end of the landing roll there’s nothing an instructor can do to help – unless, perhaps, he or she could somehow connect the brake pedals to the magnetos
