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Jerry's 51st Lesson - Is the Grass Greener?As you may know, I've been flying for 68.1 hours, and Still No Solo. So I decided to start looking around at the other CFI's out there. Incoming Email was running 100% in favor of "dumping the current CFI". And about 80% in favor of dumping taildraggers in general, just finding a nice 152 as the fast track toward getting the certificate. I couldn't quite bring myself to give up tailwheel just yet; so I started calling around, trying to find another tailwheel guy. Here on the SF peninsula, the only place with tailwheel A/C is the West Valley flying Club. I called up one of their tailwheel instructors, he allowed as how I'd have to join the club to try him out. Yes, they do have demo flights, but only one to a customer... and I'd taken a demo with another one of their CFI's some six months previous. Somehow, I couldn't see dropping the $60 ( security deposit and first months' dues ) before having actually, myself, decided I liked the CFI. So I put West Valley on the backburner for now, and widened my search. There's an FBO out at Reid Hillview Airfield that specializes in tailwheel. Amelia Reid aviation. The owner, Amelia Reid, is apparently a bona fide aviation pioneer ( I saw a blurb about her in a museum exhibit of "women in aviation" ). She's said to be in great demand as an aerobatics instructor. I called her over and over again, always getting the same message: "We're out flying...." Finally, I got through. Told her my tale of woe. Among other things, she told me I asked her if she could evaluate my progress, give an estimate as to how long I had til solo. They have a Taylorcraft L2 that they use for primary taildragger instruction. She asked "Why do you want to learn in a taildragger!?!" "Why not a 152?". Grrr! At any rate, Reid-Hillview is probably a bit far to drive; it's at the very south-eastern section of San Jose; over an hours drive from home, and over a half-hour from work. Too far to sneak out during lunch :-). Finally, called this guy who instructs with a C140 at SJC. Hmm, that's not too far. Oh, and a C140 is almost exactly the same thing as a C120, only with nicer seats, windows behind the doors, and flaps. I gave him a call: ( We had talked once before, about a month previous ) I drove out and met him at SJC. They have serious security there. We had to go through a power gate. Police cars would drive up and down the ramp, he'd wave at them. We walked around the plane, and preflighted it together. Pretty much the same airplane, and the procedures were the same, too. Only difference was that there were these flaps to check. No biggie. The airplane was prettier than two-four-November ( the one I've been flying ); the paint was nicer, the wing not as ratty. And the interior was very nice too; the seats looked nearly new. Even the door latches worked. Luxury! Before getting started, I had him talk me around the pattern. First I told him how it went in 24N:
Then he told me his version:
Then we set off. He did the radios, so that I could concentrate on handling the airplane. Well, also SJC has a fairly complex radio setup, what with clearance delivery, multiple runways, and heavies coming in all the time. First thing I noticed, was that the plane didn't handle as well as two-four-November on the ground. The whole rear end seemed to be "tipping" from side to side on the tailwheel. He explained that it had a fairly modest "Maule" tailwheel, and ventured a guess that 24N might have a nicer "Scott" tailwheel. Whatever, it didn't feel good at all, and if I ever go taildragger shopping, a good tailwheel will be high on my list! We did the runup - his procedures were different enough to require serious list-reading. Then we took off. "Cimb at 80". Sure enough, we didn't quite make it up to pattern altitude. There was a bit more work to do in the pattern than I was used to; basically, we were doing a complete "inverted L" check on every downwind, as opposed to just checking the gas. The C140 flaps, BTW are controlled by a lever between the seats. Kind of like on a Cherokee. At first glance, this looks like a nice, simple, direct system. The only problem with it was that the lever is really close to your body, and you have to pull it WAY up for full flaps, and I found my yoke arm moving right along with my body and turning the plane, when I pulled up the flaps lever. No doubt that would pass with a bit of practice. Life got interesting on final; he definitely had good stuff to show me in the flare ( I often flare too high ). But we seemed to have differing ideas as to how the plane should be pointed, and our feet fought over the rudder pedals. We came back down after five circuits. Taxied back to parking. On the way back to the spot, I ground-looped the airplane. Oops. Gee, we weren't going *that* fast, were we? I remember coming in, doing a left turn. There was a wind trying to make us keep turning left. I expect it was off our left wing, and we were weathervaning into it. I applied more and more right pedal to straighten us out, and suddenly the tailwheel broke free, and we were going round and round! "My plane!" Luckily, there was nothing anywhere near, and the plane didn't capsize. He explained that I'd carried too much power into the turn, and theorized that 24N's tailwheel probably wouldn't have done that. No harm done, but that old man by the helicopter sure did stare at us. Back at the parking, he told me that my flying procedures were very good, very logical, and that I would certainly "get it" shortly. He did feel that my stick and rudder work could use some polishing, and recommended doing some more ground reference maneuvers. And he recommended staying with my current CFI. I'm not sure if it's because I *am* doing well, or just because he doesn't want his airplane ground-looped anymore :-). - Jerry "69.4 Hours" Kaidor |