Quote:
Originally Posted by Bigtime
The Super Decathalon looks like a lot of fun. The only taildragger time I had was in a Citabria with Doug Jenkins (did you know him? hell of a pilot) doing some extreme unusual attitudes/recoveries and aerobatics at the beginning of my instructor rating.
I also remember Jersey (sp?) who had the Extra 300, I never went up with him but one of my buddies I trained with went for a ride, almost puked his guts out with the way he threw that thing around the sky.
I really loved flying around in that Citabria, it climbed like a pig (just find a thermal!) but I enjoyed the pure stick and rudder flying that it was all about. I think we should teach all new pilots on a taildragger, because I could even see how the Cessna's and Katana's had made my coordination a little sloppy.
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Doug was a great guy and a great stick, our contest in Rocky is named after him in the Doug Jenkins memorial. Every pilot should have some aerobatic experience and know how to fly an aircraft competently through all 3 axes IMO. Most pilot's never see a bank angle beyond 60 degrees nor inverted flight, thats where all the fun begins !! Taildraggers are a lot of fun and those who do their training from the onset with conventional gear are usually better pilots, hard finding a school with an aircraft to train on in this day and age (there is a Citabria in Villeneuve) however. Jerzy is still a very active member of our club and the best unlimited pilot in this country, that is his SU-26 (C-GSUK) in the album I posted. Kevin Hopkins owns the SU-29, they do airshows in their Sukhoi's (Northern Aeros) as well.