My lumbar decompression surgery reduced my chronic pain from 4 to 1, but did not take all the numbness from my right leg. I am still without dynamic proactive longitudinal axis alignment finesse. I realize that many pilots use static reactive rudder control, but I am not comfortable with that in somebody's tailwheel airplane. I am not comfortable waiting flat footed (numb footed) for a misalignment to occur so I can correct it. I am not comfortable with being late to the party. I am not comfortable with starting behind the airplane.

So I could apply dynamic proactive rudder with a touchy feely left foot alternating with a dumb static right foot, and might balance rudder dynamically. But would the right foot sense the need for slightly more or less movement in it's dynamic cycle? Would the numb right leg be able to apply slightly more or less movement in it's dynamic cycle?

Those of you with two finely tuned and dynamic feet, think about me while you walk the rudder constantly on short final, touchdown, and roll out. You are capable of staying ahead of the airplane and need not wait to stab a correction. And then a correction for the correction and so on. Static reactive becomes dynamic reactive that way. You know that walking the rudder continuously to bracket the centerline extended keeps the wing level as well. You are automatically aligned and level because you are already moving to prevent the nose getting a chance to stray. If the nose is continuously ruddered straight, the wing is fixed level or in a stabilized anti-drift bank. You are controlling longitudinal axis alignment and not just reacting to misalignment. You are not creating longitudinal axis misalignment by using the ailerons to bank for a turn or return from a gust dip. If we use dynamic proactive rudder to cage the nose straight, there is no longitudinal axis misalignment. If we use rudder to yaw the gust dipped wing back up, no adverse yaw occurs. No turn occurs. We don't want to turn, just yaw the wing back up to prevent a turn.

Don't sweat it when the DPE or review pilot calls you a tail wagger. Tell him you are not a wing wagger because that disrupts good longitudinal alignment.

You get to talking about airplanes, or flying them, and things come up. You have to be careful about what you say about airplanes because they tend to do what they like to do or what conditions cause them to do. Rich, the turn doctor, says that elevator is the turn control. OK, what about when we don't want to turn, as when on final? A gust gives one wing more or less relative wind than the other wing. That wing rises, causing turn, or drops, causing turn. This is turn, not yaw. So I say use the anti-turn control, the rudder. If we keep the rudder active, the gust caused turn does not happen because we are already moving the rudder to make (not wait to correct but to make) the nose stay on the centerline extended.

Rich could say this turn is because we have elevator dialed in with up trim. I don't ever have that as I don't use the trim except to set for 1g cruise. Yes, I decelerate with full flaps requiring lift component of thrust. Yes, I use a lot of throttle to balance the descent with power, but I stay at 1g. Again, I point to the horizontal stabilizer which is sort of like set trim or up elevator just to keep the airplane at 1g level flight relative to relative wind. So when the wing is banked does the airplane turn without elevator because it has already got some up elevator like trim with the fixed horizontal stabilizer. I know MTV and the trim doctor are right. Those math and science guys are always right. I just don't want my students to automatically pull back on the stick to stay level or in the appropriate climb pitch angle or in the appropriate descent pitch angle. Yes, pull if it will not stall us. No, don't pull because staying up or staying level in the turn is primary, more important, or whatever. Not falling all the way to the ground before recovery can be accomplished is more important. Every, every time. Staying on the centerline extended with dynamic proactive rudder keeps adverse yaw and turn from becoming part of the problem.

When appropriately slow, more than no wind slow groundspeed, on short final in strong gust spread, aileron can easily become an airplane eater. When a wing goes down, the student almost always applies opposite aileron. The down aileron on the down wing pulls that wing back unless the opposite rudder is on the floor. The right way to mitigate this problem is dynamic proactive rudder. When the wing goes down we keep the yoke rock static and put the opposite rudder well down to keep the nose pointed down the centerline. Sure, coordinated rudder (must be lead) and aileron will work. This almost never happens so I train by exaggeration. Exaggerate the rudder to the stop. Take it back out if you don't like what happens. I guarantee you will like it, however.

I was a 300 hour Cherokee pilot when I had my first tail wheel lesson. Before it I read everything I could find about how to fly a tail wheel airplane. Most if not everything I read said to "Walk the rudder", on the ground and in the air.

We used my instructor's Stinson. The first thing we did was taxi about a mile to the other end of the runway. I concentrated on "Walking" the rudder". I must have been over doing it a little because after a couple minutes he looked at me and said, "Boy, you're going to get tired".

A pilot friend from a long ago Contact Flying Clinic is going the help me put together a training type video. We also have the help of his friend with a Just Highlander in N. Carolina. When I questioned how safe maneuvering flight techniques might be masked by the slow flight capabilities of the Highlander, that pilot said he has worked on some of my stuff and we can operate normal airplane STOL. So I watched a bunch of videos of the Highlander. Some scary stuff.

When operating a very light and powerful airplane with long ailerons and Fowler flaps and high tech slats at very slow OGE (out of ground effect) flight, some helicopter like things are going to show up. In normal airplanes we only have to worry about rudder for directional control, elevator for speed control, and throttle for let me down easy and exactly where I wish to touchdown slowly and softly control. Now lets look at the helicopter in OGE hover and at the unicycle on the ground. Every control in the helicopter and every muscle in the unicycle pilot is moved dynamically and proactively all the time. Otherwise the helicopter or unicycle flops over on its side and crashed. Again, with the normal airplane we have the advantage of fairly stable relative wind. Standing on a beach ball, however, there is no advantage of fairly stable relative wind.

So Highlander and other super STOL pilots help me out here. In an apparent brisk walk rate of closure approach, just a normal deceleration to touchdown slowly and softly on the numbers, will the aileron that I never use (he will be flying) be effective? Will it have more or less adverse yaw. If I ask him just to dynamically and proactively walk the rudder to keep the nose down the centerline extended and keep the wing level, will he be comfortable with that?

I just thought of something. These super STOL airplanes are generally demonstrated with a solo pilot. My 190 pounds added to such a light airplane with PIC will dampen that crazy climb crap somewhat won't it. BCP pilots have brought Savage and other Cub types here to fly with me and they were somewhat normal. Am I overthinking this. Yes, even in a jet airliner, I am scared going up so steeply.