First Solo , First Ground Loop

We have a 200' wide main runway, and a 60' wide parallel. Sixty is plenty wide, but they have all these signs, and if you hit one in a Cub it is curtains - easy for new td pilots to get a little crooked here and there.

28 L is indeed narrower, but not shorter.
 
I'm with the rest of the old timers here in that wheel landings are over hyped. There are airplanes in which they are necessary but Cubs and Champs and Citabrias aren't one of them. The only reason for a wheel landing in these planes is to keep the tailwheel off on rough ground for protection, no good reason on pavement. I think it's good to practice it but it seems there's often too much emphasis put on it when people do the training for the endorsement.

Now as for short landings with Champs and Citabrias it comes down to speed. You don't have flaps but I find it's rarely necessary to slip the Champ. If you are high just pull back and slow down, when you get down to 55 or so these things come down like an elevator and since you have lots of excess altitude it's very easy to safely do this because you have all the control right there in the stick, no need to even touch the throttle. Another thing is to put in nose down trim because this greatly increases your elevator pitch up control authority and gives you a more positive feel.

Those are my suggestions anyway, give it a shot it works for me.
 
I seem to be better at wheel landings than three pointers. I'm bouncing on occasion in the three point attitude . I think I'm brining the stick too far back and hitting the tail wheel first.
The wheel landings seem much easier to me at this point. I do occasionally "force" the plane onto the runway but even then it feels much smoother and more solid
just need more practice.
And yes, less speed. I did manage to exit the runway at Taxiway M this last practice instead of rolling down to 23 to exit
 
Therefore you should practice only full stall until you are good at them. No more wheel landings for a while.
 
Yeah, my problem is the opposite. I can 3-point my 7ECA all day long, but have trouble doing "wheelies" without maintaining what feels like way too much airspeed. And, yes, I'm going back up with my CFI to do some more practice soon...
 
I wouldn’t worry about it too much, eventually you are going to get comfortable enough that you’ll be able to do 3-pointers and wheelies interchangeably on the fly without really thinking about it. I think a lot of instructors make too big a deal out of it. When we bought the Maule and were getting checked out at the Factory by Ray Maule he said “Never do wheel landings in this airplane” of course we did eventually but not in front of him. Lol
 
Try this: about halfway through your flare, ease in just a hair of forward pressure. A wheel landing on the back side of the mains. If you are good at full stalls, this will be surprisingly easy.
 
kcabpilot said:
I wouldn’t worry about it too much, eventually you are going to get comfortable enough that you’ll be able to do 3-pointers and wheelies interchangeably on the fly without really thinking about it.
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and
Bob Turner said:
Try this: about halfway through your flare, ease in just a hair of forward pressure. A wheel landing on the back side of the mains.
Click to expand...
Funny story about this.

Tuesday dawned severe clear here in the PNW which caused me to develop an eye problem (can't see going in to work). I figured it was one of the last clear days around here until, oh, July. I went to the airport with no plan at all other than aviation. Eventually I decided to fly up to Arlington to see if they could repack the Softie parachute that came with my plane. Long story short, my chute was too old but they'll give me a great trade in when I have money falling out of my pockets.

On the way home I made a nice full stop and taxi back at Langley (W10) which is a great strip if you want to see how well your butt cheeks gather up a seat cushion.

Then I made my way back home to Tacoma where I asked for some closed traffic. On my third lap of the pattern I decided to quit before I messed up my record of five greaser 3-point landings in a row.

"There I was.."
Short final and looking at 65mph indicated, which is about 5mph too hot for a good 3 point in my plane. A perfect time to demonstrate my ability to convert to a wheel landing spontaneously. So I got there exactly as described above, in a flare and all I had to do was ease off on some back pressure and land on the "back side of the mains" (a strange expression but it describes what it feels like perfectly).

Damn if I didn't flare about a foot high, and my 8.50x6 tires bounce like a basketball. I went from Cool Hand Luke to yard sale in one bounce after that nose pitched up. I rescued it with just enough power that I chose to log the second bounce instead of the first.

I laughed at myself all the way to the turn off.

So I guess I'm not there yet.
 
Well, I'm progressing a bit. I do ok on calm wind days. usually around half of my attempts are ok. Now I have to clean it all up and get confidence at any time of day. typical costal weather....calm mornings turn to wind mid day and then usually lay around sun down .
So Saturday and Sunday mornings are fun, just laps around the field with a few bounces.
But, just like today I will go after work and it will most likely be around 10 knots . Down the runways is ok but 10 knot crosswind is a no go at this point
Its going to be a slow process but my goal is to be able to fly to the next High Sierra Fly In. I have until next October to get my skills there and find a plane I can take up and land on a dry lakebed.
I'm actually starting to look for a plane. After I do my taxes in January I will be looking hard. Hope to find a Kitfox someone wants to part with
 
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