I REALLY THOUGHT I KNEW HOW TO FLY AN AIRCRAFT....NOT

There comes a time in one's life when it feels like it's time to re awaken the sparkle and wonder of flight by trying something new. There is nothing quite like the sobering snotklap you get as you begin as a fresh student all over again. I had to try to convince myself that, "you're not crazy, John".

- JOHN BASSI

AFTER ALL, I have been flying for 38 years now, so how hard can it be to fly tail draggers?

That first flight was utter brain-numbing chaos. I simply did not have enough brain, feet, legs or arms to even remotely follow the unfolding event of a take-off and landing.

My brain freeze had begun just taxiing with a fresh cross wind from the left. Andy Kasperson somehow managed to get the little Cheetah to dance along the runway with a running commentary, “left wheel, right wheel, both wheels, tail wheel, stick forward and into wind, rudder..rudder..speed, speed, let her fly”. Well, my brain was still somewhere inside the hangar and way behind the curve.

They say that flying tailwheels is within reach, even for student pilots. Maybe because students have not got polluted by fixed ideas about how to fly and students have not yet gained “muscle memory” to instinctively do things in a set way? (Let’s face it, there was a time when everyone’s first aeroplane had a tailwheel.)

Like most aviators, I took the easy way out. I learned on nosewheels initially, and then moved to rotorcraft, only now getting the courage to pursue the coveted tailwheel endorsement. Let me tell you, flying helicopters is easy-peasy, but your feet become insanely lazy.

I have a long way to go….

Tailwheel aeroplanes require purposeful, accurate inputs and there’s less margin for error. Tailwheels are also more sensitive to crosswinds. You might get away