TAIL DRAGGER TRAINING

In my opinion the Luscombe is one of the finest little airplanes ever built--and built for stout they are! Here is an original Luscombe factory advertisement showing off the 6.5 negative G strength of their product. They also rated the positive G-load strength at an amazing 9!   

Our 1950 Luscombe 8F is the last model this classic aircraft. Improvements include flaps, wing fuel tanks and dual brakes.

This sensitive airplane will teach you the finer points of tail wheel flying skills. It will prepare you for whatever scary stick and rudder stuff lies ahead for you; crop dusting, bush flying, banner towing or sport flying.

                                                        My first flying job was in a1941 Luscombe - Fire Patrol on the Plumas National Forest.                           

Here's a few other tail draggers I had the pleasure to fly...

       I leased my Cessna 180 to Bridgeford Flying Service, South Lake Tahoe for awhile in 1964 and later flew for Frank Nervino at Beckwourth, CA.

in Frank Nervino's Cessna 180 with crosswind landing gear.

Almost every young pilot yearns to try his luck in Alaska.

Interior Airways, Fairbanks, Alaska 1965, my C-46.  

(Judy and the kids are standing by the wheel).        

Over the Arctic

While in Fairbanks I took a check ride with Richard Wien in Wein Alaska Airways' Cessna 185 just in case Interior Airways laid off more pilots.

I took a leave of absence and returned to California. While flying at Chico I enjoyed aerobatics in a couple of North American AT-6's owned by a crop duster friend.

                                                                                                            Me and my Stinson at H & H Flying Service, Redding, CA during 1966

Enterprise Sky Park, Redding, CA  1968  to '72 off and on...... glider instructor too.

                    "Horrible" Howard Harris, FAA issuing pilot certificates to my glider students.

Enterprise Sky Park, Redding, CA

                                                                           Piper Pawnee -first Ag flying job in the '70's with Chuck Stangle "Mid Valley Dusters," a real "out back" type of job based in Lovelock and covering much of northern Nevada.

                                                                 Mid Valley's Stearman at Lovelock.

Flying Gary Hendrickson's 450 Stearman for "Boomer Bob" Nelson near Esparto, CA 1973. The aircraft was hangared at Vacaville glider port. Hand-propped; no starter, generator or battery to allow for more payload.

 

 

 

                                       Agair at Eagle Field, San Joaquin Valley, CA 1974 to 1977. The duties included night spraying.

                                                             

 

                                                                                                                                              

   Aero Union Corporation copilot in B-17G Fire Bomber shown here at Chester, CA

                                                                                                                          i
                                                                  

Willows, CA Cessna Agwagons and Agtrucks.

           

                                          

                                                                                       Navy N3N-3's, Chico, CA

 

  

Maintenance on a scale of 1 - 10?

    Business card

                                           Finally, back home at Quincy, CA (2O1)

A poster someone made for me!

 

 

 Tail dragging instruction at Sugarpine Aviators                           

 

We owned and trained with a Cessna 140 for awhile--

           

                 

                                                                                        These days its in a Luscombe.

                                                  

 

You get the idea; I have had the opportunity to fly lots of different tail wheel-equipped aircraft. My sense is that the Luscombe can prepare you for most tail wheel-like characteristics. Of course there are many differences between large and small machines, puny and powerful, some heavy on the controls, some very light--but for good reason--when I first tried my hand at taking off a 48,000 pound C-46 from a gravel strip on the North Slope, the captain (Neil Burke) was almost annoyed that I had no trouble keeping it straight!

You might be "good-to-go" in a Piper Cub, but without further training, you would most likely roll a Luscombe up into a ball! A big difference is in the rudder and elevator sensitivities; another is the 8F's long thin wing that stalls quietly and all at once along its entire length as opposed to the "shake, rattle and roll" of most airplanes as various parts of their wings lose lift.

                                                                                    I PROPOSE THE FOLLOWING TRAINING PLAN OF ACTION FOR THE PILOT WITH NO TAIL WHEEL TRAINING:

 10 Hours - then let's see how close you are to an official Tail Wheel Endorsement.

... come and see me and I'll work to bring the bush pilot out in you...    Johnny Moore