Tailwheel Lesson 6 - Shorts and Softs and Sim Engine Failures

First off, I gotta tell all of yas that are checking out my daily survival posts during the adventurous undertaking I have committed myself to, that Ron Duren has pretty much taken the words right out of my mouth in his posts from a year ago during his tailwheel baptism. His descriptions are alos a bit more eloquent than mine, so feel free to travel to his blog and search under tailwheel training if you need more info about this.

As the title implies, today's mission was more pattern work to cover short and soft field takeoff and landing procedures, and to perform a simulated engine failure while in the pattern. We were about the only plane in the sky except for countless numbers of departing jets on the parallel runway this morning. So no traffic to worry about, just wake turbulence from all those heavy jets, which did not turn out to be much a factor.

What was a bit of a factor for me today was the wind situation. Tower reported winds calm, ATIS reported winds out of the southeast at 4, and my weather briefing from flight service indicated that winds were out of the southwest at about 9 knots. SO what is poor tailwheel pilot to do under such circumstances. Answer - feel the airplane's response and respond to what it tells you during each phase of flight.

I also received an intersection clearance on runway 17L that I had NEVER received before after some 27 years of flying out of this airport. Lots of strange things happening in todays airport environments. Anyway, First takeoff was pretty good, and around the pattern we go. First landing was a 3 point and slightly tail low but a gentle touchdown. SO far so good.

Then John wanted me to experiment with the approach speed a bit and hold my altitude a bit longer before descending to the runway. I ahve normally been using 70 MPH on final and this speed works pretty well for me. The specialty landings always call for a slightly slower airspeed. IN this case the Citabria manual calls for short field landing speed on final of 60 MPH. The second approach required a slip which was giving me a bit a problem because of the changing wind directions all over the pattern. On downwind the wind was out of the southwest requiring about a 20 degree crab to hold my line, then on final the wind shifted to the southeast just a bit - very strange. Then on the roll out it would seem to drop to almost nothing or shift to straight down the runway.

Anyway, the slip and wind and the different airspeed assignment all kind of piled up on me to the point that the airplane touched down the second time and rapidly departed for the runway edge. John let me dig my way out of it, which thankfully I did, but I was fairly disgusted and a bit rattled afterward.  To this moment I still do not fully understand why the airplane did that, but most likely it means that the airplane was probably not aligned totoally down the runway to begin with, or it became that way during my roll out. Either way when the tailwheel contacted the runway off I went. The lesson to learn here was to pay attention to the direction of the airplane immediately adn take corrective action IMEDIATELY to keep it where you want it. RUDDERS RUDDERS RUDDERS!

We did most of these as rolling touch and goes. Next pass I was told to fly at 60 MPH per the manual and aim for the numbers as my touchdown point (a spot or precision landing). On about a quarter mile final we both decided that 60 MPH was way too slow and the controls were way too mushy, so we opted for 65 instead, which was better.

The simulated engine failure was started on downwind. Always love that when the instructor says "you just lost your engine, and I have the throttle!" A quick turn to base and slip and no problem getting down to the runway to land, but the landing went to crap once again. My last landing was interesting in that I executed another 3 point landing but started my roll out a tad too high. The airplane stopped flying and came down on all three wheels without a single bounce. Would ahve been perfect as a carrier landing in a Corsair or something similar. A little to harsh for a Citabria.

So I was not very satisfied with my performance today, nd right now I am still a bit concerned about the occasional problem I keep havng with rapid departures to the side lines. Afterward we discussed this problem a bit, and John reminded me to use my peripheral vision off to the sides of the nose instead of focusing down the runway over the nose of the airplane. 

6.7 hours logged so far, on the way to 10 to satisfy the club checkout requirements, but I may need more if I cannot satisfy myself that I can maintain positive directional control enough to keep from rapidly departing to the edge of the runway every so often.

Anyway, I have a couple of days to mentally prepare, and I expect to overcome my deficiencies on the next flight. All for now.