Tailwheels and Crosswind - Part I

Are you curious about flying tailwheel airplanes? Well, I had it too. I met with Dr. Rosendahl from Mason City, Iowa, who gave me a very good introduction that we will share with you in this video. So Martin, you've expressed some interest in a bit of tailgating, I know you've done a bit of tailgating in the past and I know you're a glider pilot, which means that most gliders are some sort of airplanes with wheels. queue, but a little different, but many of the concepts are the same. Same thing and you know, what I see today in the pilot community is a continued erosion of basic stick and rudder skills and I think tailwheel airplanes have a lot to teach people not just about how to fly the

tailwheels

. tail but about how to fly all the airplanes and how to bring them back to the forefront, some of those basic skills, you know, many of our accidents are landing accidents and most of them can be traced back to a failure in the basic skills of the stick and rudder, which you know, which I learned when I started flying tailwheel airplanes.

I didn't start until tailwheel airplanes, you know, I tell people I got my certificate on a 150, but I learned to fly on a twin beach and tailwheel airplanes, I mean, they discriminate technique very well, so I think that, you know, it's. It's good that we share some of this with people and maybe inspire some people to go out and get some instruction on the tailwheel and just lay a foundation here with some of the basics, so that's what I thought we'd talk about today, yeah, Alright. The first question I would have is why is there a tailbreaker in the tail because the center of gravity is behind the main wheels?

That's right, it's that simple and that brings a lot of dynamics into the equation. tailwheel airplane like in a boat trailer down the runway at 50 miles per hour because the center of gravity wants to be in front of the contact point, so this whole center of gravity behind the wheels is a function that has a lot of the impact in many aspects of tailwheel flight, so here's our center of gravity, it's behind the wheels, okay, if the center of gravity is behind the wheels, we're pushing the airplane down the runway, yeah, the inertia of the plane is pushing it. right and the friction comes at these two points here, that's right, okay, this center of gravity would like to pull the plane down the runway, so there's an inherent if you're perfectly straight, there's no yaw, it's all tendency, but in The moment the plane is fine, this force goes in this direction and that tends to accelerate the plane and yaw, so the plane is dynamically unstable in yaw while taxiing on the runway and it is up to the pilot to use the rudder and the ailerons to keep the plane in a straight line. down the runway to the right, if we allow this yaw to start, and the airplane starts to yaw, this vector will move this way and when this vector moves off that tire, the airplane will turn around and there's nothing on the world you can make. to stop it and that's called a ground loop, so the fact that the center of gravity of our airplane is behind the main wheels has a big impact on why tailwheel airplanes are more demanding and require more finesse to fly than a tricycle, yeah, when that center of gravity crosses the steering line of the tire, okay, now it's here and we press this brake to try to push the plane back and in fact, that will make the plane go still further away, so one of the secrets to flying a tailwheel airplane and keeping it moving down the runway is to never let it go off center, keep it on center at all costs because the further you get off center, the harder it will be and the more likely you are to go overboard. correct and when you overcorrect and go the other direction, usually that's the one that takes you the plane goes one direction and the correction was made the plane goes the other direction and then it overcorrects and then we turn around and we call it a ground loop which is a ground loop and you know, the joke and the tailwheel airplanes are the ones that have and the ones that will do it um and you know I'm not ashamed to say that I've done a ground loop with several airplanes.

I am also proud to say that I have always been in training I was giving training and you know this you just have to let things in the training environment get to a certain level and see that the student can recover and I am also happy to say that I have never scratched an airplane on a dirt track, but I've been there many times, so that's one dynamic that's different on a tailwheel is that the center of gravity wants to be in front of the wheels, okay, so the next dynamic In a tailwheel airplane, here are our wheels, here's our airplane, yeah, and here's our center of gravity, so when we land, we go down, okay, and if we go down, we have downward energy and we don't we stop all that energy as we know sometimes happens and the tires hit the ground, well the main wheels hit the ground, what will happen to the pitch of the airplane when the center of gravity has this downward inertia?

Well, the way you drew it, the tail is We're going to go lower when the main is already on the ground, so our pitch angle increases and then what happens? So we have a higher angle of attack and we create more lift and bounce and we fly well and that's called bounce. and that would be in a wheel landing configuration or a two point landing configuration because we are landing fast enough that the tail wheel is above the runway and then normally on a tail wheel airplane well designed, the plane sits on the ground in the stall. attitude or very close to the stall attitude, so the other type of landing we do in a tailwheel airplane is called a three-point landing and that implies that the three tires collide simultaneously or, better yet, the tailwheel tail hits first, so if the tail if we tilt the plane up and the tail wheel hits first, then what happens when the center of gravity of the plane goes down?

So the pitch is reduced and we have a little less lift, that's right, and then everything is fine, so those are the There are two types of landings, you know, it's kind of like single versus twin and all those other discussions, but a master, you know, some people are absolutely three point all the time, some people are absolutely wheel and all the time, in my opinion, the master of the plane is proficient in both, there are some exceptions to that rule, some planes They don't suit one or the other well, for example the dc3 can be tri-tip, but if you screw up that landing you could break the plane, so most people don't do tri-tip with a dc3 or a twin beach last model, okay, we'll land those planes there all the time.

There are some people who say that pits should never be landed with wheels, they should have three points all the time and there may be some merit to that three point thing: airplanes were designed to fly, not to drive, so my philosophy is that we should always start flying at the lowest possible speed and stop flying at the lowest possible speed. You have less energy. You have less. problems and that leans towards the three point situation, but there are times when it's windy or something where you might need to use a three point landing or wheeled is a better option, but again, the master of a tailwheel airplane is proficient in both, now we understand why this center of gravity thing is so important as the center of gravity moves rearward, what happens with controllability, controllability is greater stability, stability decreases, okay, so if that means that a small controllability means that a small control input is going to produce a larger OK, so we have to think about OK if I'm going to make a wheel and again I have a serious fcg.

Ok, this downward force of the cg has more and that's why it's going to be like this. I'm going to have to land that airplane on the wheels with absolutely zero, all right, zero downward inertia and uh, and then in the wheels landing situation, when we land on the tires, we do what's called pinning the airplane. and it's not It depends, but normally there should be a very subtle relaxation of back pressure just to lift the tail slightly and eliminate lift so the airplane sits on the wheels. We are in a three-point attitude when the net comes on. or better yet, the tailwheel hits the plane, it falls and then we just pull the stick back to our belly to keep the plane on the ground, so that's the dynamics of the two different types of landings and airplanes with

tailwheels

. queue and there is a time and a place for both and again some planes are better suited to one or the other than the other so they all influence our decision but the plane we are going to fly on the taylor l2 ship , it is very suitable for wheel landings or three point landings and demonstrates them very well, the airplane goes into stall attitude, you will hit the tail first, only if you have the absolute minimum speed, you will hit the tail first without power and the mains power will be on. a few centimeters on the ground and they will hit the runway, they will land on the runway gently and it will be done, it's all over and then all you have to do is give the rudder a little kick, which is why most landing accidents They occur because the plane landed too fast and blew off a tail wheel.

As we master the three points, we will learn how to fly that plane to the ground in the dead stall configuration and, unfortunately, if you go to the airport and spend an afternoon people watching. Taking off and landing is not how people land like general aviation airplanes today, they drive them into the ground and consequently we see this higher than desirable landing accident rate and that's what I think would do some tailwheel flying to help our General GA population is to learn how to fly the plane and land the plane at minimum speed. The other thing we see problems with in GA is

crosswind

s.

I see

crosswind

landing skills continuing to deteriorate as airplanes get simpler and you know, and all this and so on. but there is still reward in a graceful crosswind landing and it is the safest way to do it so I really think we need a focus and the tailwheel aircraft has the ability to teach us how to make a proper crosswind landing because if no Don't do a crosswind landing, a proper crosswind landing in a tailwheel airplane, you're going for a ride, you're going to end up on a farm somewhere, so the first thing people say when we ask them to the low time students on how to keep the plane straight down the runway what's the normal answer crab angle okay, let's crab on final yeah and then what happens uh then we transition to a glide which is just down. the wing and then we come in and land and so when we're in that glide configuration, we have one wing down and the rudder opposite and the airplane is following, so this is the way I teach: go around the base to make the final turn and align ourselves in the center of the court and in training.

We're going to do this very early so we'll have time to experiment and play with the crosswind control to figure out what it takes to solve the crosswind component and so how I teach people is to isolate these controls once you transition al slide your nose along the nose of the plane or slide to your side if it's a side by side plane and the other end of the runway, so we're going to line up those three points, your nose, the nose of the plane and the other end of the runway, you're going to align those three points with the rudder to the right and keep the longitudinal axis of the airplane pointing to the other end of the runway, and then we'll use the ailerons to move the airplane left and right. to get there and keep it over the extended center line, okay, people do well at that, you know, some of them do well at that and fly down and tricycle team playing, some of them make touchdowns very plausible and the plane.

It may or may not be quite well aligned with the center line or the longitudinal axis, the plane aligned with the center line of the runway, maybe it is offered to the left or to the right, but people do well at that in a tricycle gear airplane, usually when the airplane hits the ground, the flight is over, I mean just sit back, relax and roll, yes, in a tailwheel airplane, the flight starts when the tires touch the ground, so we have We have to solve this vertical descent, uh, if we're doing a wheel landing, we have to eliminate that angle of attack when the tires hit the ground and in a crosswind we're going to hit the upwind tire first because we're in the slide and we go slack. the lever to actually release the back pressure that will allow the downwind tire to impact the runway, okay and now we're rolling on two tires, let's godown and people know, just keep the plane straight with the rudder now on a tricycle gear airplane and at 172 when you push the rudder, let's say we have a crosswind to the right and you go down at a 172 and you land with the upwind tire and the airplane wants the weather to lift into the crosswind to the right and you're pushing the left rudder to counteract that, okay, that deflects the rudder.

So, what else does pushing that rudder do in a Cessna 172 or your Bonanza? What else does that do? Move the nose wheel to the left, that's correct and now when the nose wheel goes down where it's pointing, uh, left, right. Have you ever felt that kind of unhappiness when you're taxiing after the go-ahead and that's because the nose wheel wants to take the airplane this way, the wind wants to take it this way and you would really like the nose wheel to nose go down? the runway and that's a case where cirrus could be on somethingbecause they're nosewheels and they come straight back, we're not going to fight that nosewheel and unfortunately if you read the crosswind landing section in the knowledge manual pilot's aeronautics, you won't find any mention of ailerons in the book. the pilot's flying hammer doesn't mention ailerons in the discussion of crosswind landing, so when we deflect the aileron when we're coming down the runway, uh, on the runway and we deflect the aileron into the wind, what are we doing with the aileron so we have right crosswind in this situation we place the right stick, what is happening with the ailerons, so on the right side the aileron moves up, on the left side it moves down, okay, so what are we doing with the aileron down on that downwind side when we set?

That below, what are we creating? We are creating more lift and more resistance. That's right, we are creating lift that induces drag, but we are also creating parasitic drag. Well, conversely, on upwind aileron, that aileron is up and therefore the airplane sits on it. terrain with a little bit of angle of attack and that aileron actually hides behind the wing and there's a separate airflow there, so we're reducing drag on the upwind, we're increasing drag on the downwind wing. of the wind and if we have an airplane for a wingspan of about 40 feet that is on a 20 foot lever and that is pulling the airplane and this is the biggest, uh, the biggest thing I see is that people, especially in Cherokees and cirruses, they can do a pretty good job of lining the airplane at landing and by the time the airplane lands on the upwind wheel, they neutralize the airlines, the ailerons, let the downwind wing impact the ground and the plane instantly wants to turn into the wind and they're fighting that with the rudders and stuff. it works in a light crosswind but in a strong crosswind it doesn't work, we have to have that adverse yaw that drags the downwind wing backwards and once all those elements come together and you master crosswind landings in an airplane tailwheel you will never again be able to worry even a little about crosswinds in your bonanza that reach up to and, frankly, well above the airplane's proven crosswind component because it is capable of landing in crosswinds much higher than the proven, I mean, the lawyers wrote that not the fuselage, not the engineers, I'm sure you've landed your bonanza at or above the proven crosswind component and without any problems, that's right, it's very capable, you know, We just put this number in and say this is what we promised. this airplane is capable of doing with an average pilot, quote unquote, the only question I had when you talked about how the center of gravity do you want to push forward if for some reason you find yourself losing control fighting the airplane more than you.

If you're comfortable, would it help to add power and add a force to the front of the plane to straighten it out? Yeah, I mean, if you're losing control of the plane and it's not gone yet, adding power and just circling is the or going back up to five feet, stabilizing and landing again because yeah, at first it increases the authority, it increases, you know that the plane wants to do it, but most of all you know, move it away from the ground and order it again, that would be the Another thing we have to talk about on tailwheel airplanes is the tendency to turn left, okay, okay. , planes want to turn left, why are there multiple contributors to that?

You know the famous p-factor where the propeller blades have a different bite on the up versus down there is a gyroscopic precession, when would the gyroscopic procession be more pronounced on an airplane with teal wheels? When I change the pitch attitude, when I raise the tail on takeoff, it rolls against the speed and when I lower it for takeoff, that's how it is. let's put the tail on the ground the plane is back here okay and then we're on the runway we're adding power I'm going to add power and that's by turning the wheel okay and this is the correct descending blade the plane turns like this and when once we increase the power, I want you to lift the tail, okay, you're ready, here we go, there's the power, now lift the tail, oh, it's going left, can you stop it from going left?

Now put the tail. down, it goes to the right, it's very difficult, I can't do it, no, it's going to turn, yes, it goes to the left when I move my tail up and to the right when I move my tail down, that's correct and it's a strong force, right? Don't underestimate that force, so now imagine that propeller that weighs several hundred pounds turning it, you know, fifteen thousand eight hundred rpm on takeoff, okay, so we said the airplane sits on the ground very close to its stall attitude, TRUE? So what is the typical loss? angle of attack of the airfoil ga between 15 and 20 degrees, yes, so if the plane is sitting on the ground between 15 and 20 degrees and the propeller blade descending, that means there is 30 degrees of pitch difference between the ascending blade and the descending blade, right?

And here in a minute we're going to get a protractor and we're going to look at the difference between those props on the ground and you're going to see a very dramatic representation of the p factor, so this is the right side. the tip of the propeller, yes, this is 20 degrees and this is seen, it is minus, so this is vertical c yes, that is zero, so it is minus five, so the difference is 20 degrees between the rising blade and the downdraft and this tip of the propeller is actually pushing forward a little bit. That's why all the work is being done here now, when you lift the tail, the center of thrust moves to the center of the propeller, because if the crankshaft is parallel to the relative wind, then there is no p factor when the plane is in the three. -point attitude, the tail is down, the nose is up and we talk about the p factor, so we are going to have a much greater angle of attack on this descending blade than on this ascending blade, so the center of thrust It will be around here somewhere.

Okay, so if this is the thrust center and it's over here, what is that plane going to want to do? It wants to drift to the left, that's correct and how are we going to counteract that with the right rudder and the left aileron drag over here, yes. so we want the lift to go in this direction from the rudder, drag in this direction from the aileron to compensate for this displacement and thrust plus the slipstream effect that pushes in this direction and as we lift the tail, if we lift the tail, do we have what to lift it? the tail we could just wait until it flies away, that's right, we could take off in a three point attitude in some cases, that's a better option, in other cases, if there are gusts or something, we might want to raise the tail and get some. more speed so we're not four feet in the air with no airspeed and then a gust, you know, we miss the gust and the plane falls out of the sky, so we talk about the p factor, we talk about the gyroscopic effect, is there one? other left turn trends that yes, this pair and the slipstream are the other two, okay?

Would they be different on a tailwheel airplane than on a plane? They will work the same way. They should work the same way. So I'm thinking about all the factors. that makes the plane want to go left on takeoff while we make the crosswind decision. We have a 90 degree crosswind, so the wind is 270 to 15 and we have a runway 1836, whose runway is we are going to choose for takeoff, I want to counteract the left turn tendency, so if I have the wind from the right will push my rudder so the nose goes to the right and that offsets a little left turning tendencies and one of the big story about the mustang p51 is the torque on right takeoff and on those occasional days when you have a straight 15 degree crosswind you can taxi in a mustang and almost put your feet on the ground and add power and the plane will absolutely fly. straight as a rope because about five degrees of redder trim and about 50 to 15 knots of crosswind counteract all left turning tendencies, so in the mustang we always choose a right crosswind for takeoff whenever possible or when we are given that option, maybe we even just favor a little bit of tailwind because your feet will be right in the center and when you hit it a little the plane goes straight as a rope and that is true in all airplanes , but it's especially true because of the extra p-factor caused by the tail being at that 15 degree angle on a taildragger, conversely, when landing, now we have no torque, we have no p-factor, but what we have?

Well, we still change our pitch, so the gyro procession is still effective, so, all things being equal, we want a right crosswind for takeoff and a left crosswind for landing. If we're going to do a wheel landing, it would be otherwise in favor of a three-point landing. pitch change when we land and we are at minimum speed, so these are all things that a competent tailwheel pilot puts into the equation to make a decision and again those skills that are learned by mastering this type of airplane well. I've been flying tailwheels for 40 years and haven't mastered them yet, but flying tailwheel airplanes regularly will serve you well in your cirrus bonanza in any airplane, so those are the basics of the tailwheel experience. stick and rudder flying is flying in minimum landing at an absolute minimum controllable airspeed is arriving at the runway with zero or near zero downward inertia is keeping the ailerons involved in the crosswind landing when you put all those pieces together you find a fancy tailwheel pilot and when you take a fancy tailwheel pilot and put him on a nose gear airplane it's a completely different experience and I think many, many, many of our friends on YouTube could benefit from it.

I know I couldn't, that's what we're going to do and that's what we did after this shore school session. We boarded Doug's Taylor L2 craft to begin the flight portion of my tailwheel training, which we are also sharing here on YouTube Doug and I look forward to seeing your comments on this video as always I appreciate your support of this channel by subscribing by sharing this video with your friends or through patreon from here you can see how my l2 flight was by clicking on the top left Image to access my flight school playlist with other training videos like the excellent multi-engine training with darkness or my Lean of Peak course, click on the top right image thanks for watching and I'll see you soon in another video.