contactflying wrote:I saw Hyperbipe in another thread and together with Denny's sometimes brakes are appropriate post it threw me into post traumatic stress. Kiman Kingsley and I stopped by Belen, NM (BRG) on the way to visit my son at Ft. Huachuca, AZ. Kiman wanted to visit his balloon instructor. The balloon instructor, on Kiman's recommendation, wanted me to give him a tailwheel checkout in his Hyperbipe. So I looked at this light, side by side, two place, two wing, big 0-360 up front, and the smallest vertical stabilizer and rudder I had ever seen. In the process of trying to get him to rent the Citabria from the FBO, I found out he had already nixed that route. Reluctantly I broke my rule about flying with guys in their just built very pretty airplanes.
He did fine until I said he was ready and he insisted on one more touch and go. I had already explained that we were at the point that if he got into trouble with the very inadequate rudder, I would not be able to recover. He was doing the landing. He got it going a bit crooked, but in the desert where I thought it would be fine for him to just run on out into the dirt. He hit a little ditch and nosed it onto the prop and was very, very upset.
Two things to prevent PTSD, don't check pilots out in their newly built tailwheel airplanes and use brakes in an emergency. Actually, thinking back PTSD style, the course of this airplane should be directed with dynamic proactive braking. It doesn't have enough rudder to counter ground loop and doesn't have enough wing area to get slow enough to not be damaged in even a recovered ground loop.
Pretty much all TG's have that transition point where the rudder is not really effective and the tail wheel is just touching down. A good TD pilot will be very proficient in the use of brakes to keep the nose pointed in the direction they want it to point. Soft surfaces can grab and pull a tire, sudden gusts, landing off camber etc. If you don't teach proper use of all available resources you are just setting the pilot up for eventual failure. If your flying with training wheels on a long asphalt runway then chances are the guy will never even have to think about touching his brakes, but that is not the type of flying this site is predicated on. Tail wheel locks and cams fail, springs get weak or are not adjusted properly and in that event, the only thing you have to keep it lined up is brakes.
I have seen several guys try to put the rudder pedal through the firewall to save it but never once touched the brake to line it back up. Had they been tough properly and actually were proficient in the use of the brakes the landings would have been a non event. If they were not meant to be used they would not be on the plane.
