Tailwheel Aircraft Landings

Landings in a tailwheel aircraft are different animals than in a tricycle gear aircraft. For most tailwheel operations there are three basic types of landings. These include the:
  Three-Point Landing: All three wheels of the aircraft touch the ground at the same time and backward stick pressure is continually as the aircraft settles to the ground and begins the rollout portion of the landing.
  Wheel Landing: The two main wheels of the aircraft are allowed to touch the ground with the tailwheel elevated off the ground through the run out on landing until all the tail is no longer able to maintain lift.
  Tail-Low Wheel Landing: The tail-low wheel landing is a combination of the two previous types of landings and is particularly useful for gusty conditions or strong crosswinds. In many cases, the upwind wheel and the tailwheel contact the runway at the same time then the downwind wheel contacts the ground as the aircraft slows down.
In general, threshold speed is more important in a tailwheel aircraft than in a tricycle gear aircraft. This means that a normal approach is a powered approach. By maintaining a powered approach, positive control of the descent angle and the flight path is maintained. Along with this control, the engine is kept warm which lessens the chance of carburetor icing, more elevator pressure is maintained, keeping the slipstream for flare alive so the airspeed can be lower, and less change in attitude for flare is necessary for the glide approach. The tailwheel aircraft is designed to land at the stalling speed angle of attack, so there must be enough elevator pressure at the minimum airspeed to still pitch the nose up at this point. The descent rate is then controlled not by the attitude, but the power in the approach.

One noticeable difference in a tailwheel aircraft is the position of the nose and the visibility that the pilot has over the nose. In many aircraft, visibility is limited directly forward due to the high nose position. For visibility on landings, many tailwheel pilots do not make straight approaches, but instead maintain a constant arc or an angular approach. This is more useful when performing three-point landings, and is less necessary when performing a wheel landing which affords the pilot a better view of the landing.

A couple of common landing difficulties that are encountered are the:

Bounce (Under Rotation) This happens when the pilot allows the nose to not be raised sufficiently or quick enough for the flare to land. It is a firm contact of the mains or the three points with the ground and the momentum of the CG will cause an instantaneous increase in the angle of attack. The pilot should never allow the aircraft to bounce more than twice without doing a go-around.

Balloon (Over Rotation or Float) The balloon results from too much nose up and a slight climb instead of flare. After one of these bounces is a good time to transition to a 3-point landing or go around. It may result in a ‘tail hook’ landing where the tail actually contacts the ground first then the mains fall to the ground as the angle of attach exceeds stalling characteristics for the aircraft. If this occurs, either maintain full back pressure to keep the mains on the ground and stop them from bouncing, or if possible perform a full go-around.
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