Niels,
Thanks for this posting. I laughed until I nearly cried when I read your
experiences about learning to fly a tail dragger.
At 700 hours of Trigear, and admittedly 50 hours of sail plane time I
thought I'd better get a tail wheel rating.
I went to our local field where they had a Citaborea and signed up with a
guy who was an ex navy carrier pilot. Honest to god, every time I landed
the aircraft I just thought it was going to explode on the runway. No
sooner had it touched down it immediately decided to head for the weeds, no
matter what I commanded it to do. What used to surprise me even more on
how deftly my instructor could reach over and retrieve what seemed to me a
certain crash. I am pretty sure that the guys in the tower were selling
tickets for the free show.
After 6 hours and much head shaking by my instructor I began to wonder what
was I going to do with my near completed Europa sitting at home, it seemed
to me that I was going to destroy it.
Then suddenly one day I could do it, every time, under the most difficult of
conditions.
So I found your story quite amusing. My instructor never put his hand on my
shoulder and said "Paul I don't think you should spend more money
on this." but I know he was thinking it.
Thanks for sharing the story.
Paul
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