Now that I have my CFI and am starting to teach TW, I am looking into instruction aids. This one seems to be of good value...

That looks like a good, inexpensive trainer. The AF used a Stearman without wings. That might be more expensive than the $10,000 Stearman I sprayed with in 1981.

Greg,

The “next” thing you should do is to join SAFE (Society for Aviation and Flight Educators) here: https://www.safepilots.org/mobile-homepage/

It is an excellent organization, and there are a number of member benefits. The SAFE Toolkit is a mobile app which, among other things gives you all the verbiage for required endorsements at your fingertips....no more searching the FARs for references. Also, membership offers a significant discount to ForeFlight.

And there are others. It’s a great organization, and they’ve been instrumental in encouraging the FAA to consider stick and rudder skills more, including changes to the ACS.

MTV

Bigrenna wrote: Now that I have my CFI and am starting to teach TW, I am looking into instruction aids. ......

A rolled up chart to swat your student with when he fouls up or doesn't pay attention.
With some students, it helps to have a piece of iron pipe rolled up in there also..

Good luck with the TW instructing - there's not enough of it out there, so well done increasing the pool.

A big challenge you'll face is how much "rope" to give your students -- with the hope they don't hang themselves. Getting the feel for when to step in is hard. Intercede too early / often, and the student doesn't get a chance to learn. Step in too late and you bend metal. Might be good to get some time instructing in non-TW airplanes for a bit to develop your sense of when to step in. Consequences are less severe in those.

FWIW, here's a personal story that hilights a couple of insights:
I had a ground loop/prop strike when instructing another tailwheel CFI who wanted work in demanding crosswinds. After a quick survey of his skills (about an hour in benign conditions), we went flying with direct crosswinds, 8G15. Last landing of the day he ran into trouble, didn't have quite enough aileron in, and started to ground loop. He called for me to take the airplane at the same time I called for it. The ailerons went neutral before I fully got the airplane, and by the time I got them back in, it was fully into the ground loop. I stopped it with (just a little too much) outside brake, and the airplane did a sloooowww pitch over onto its nose. Painful to think about.

Would be good if you don't f&*k things up like I did, so here's a couple of take-aways (YMMV):

1) The most hazardous students will often be those that are already TW pilots. These'll be folks that may not have flown TW since they got their endorsement, or even those that are flying regularly. Sounds weird, but the latter can be more of a hazard if you don't approach them right. The more experienced someone is, the easier it is to put them in more demanding situations without fully exploring where their holes may be, like I did. In my example, the TW CFI (one of the best general sticks I've flown with), didn't have use of aileron in crosswinds fully ingrained. He knew what to do, but it wasn't second nature. I should have figured that out before putting him in those conditions. A more thorough examination of his skills - coupled with a more disciplined work-up to those demanding crosswinds, would've been far better for him, and my airplane. He would've been more ready for those crosswinds. You will know the skills and weaknesses of the students you teach TW "from scratch", so they'll be less of a concern in this way. Nowdays, when anyone approaches me or the other instructors flying my airplane, they've got to work up a demonstration of their skills, even if they're Chuck freak'in Yeager. Better late than never, I guess.

2) No matter what - when the airplane is within striking distance of the ground, be ready to step in instantaneously. Figure out how to have your hands and feet a millisecond away from the controls. If you search, you'll find other folks emphasizing this a lot. This doesn't help with the harder question of when you should intercede, but there's no excuse for being delayed. In my CFI training, the folks had emphasized that "hovering over the controls" can be demoralizing to students, and somehow I'd carried that idea for years. Shame on me. Bending metal is FAR more demoralizing (Although the CFI above bounced right back, and is now flying big iron while doing all kinds of other fun airplane stuff.) Had I followed this rule, that would've been an uneventful day.

As with all free advice, this is worth exactly what you paid for it, but I hope you find it helpful. One little aside: as an instructor, it is illuminating to see what "too far gone to save" looks like. The little taildragger thingy in the video would let folks see that without breaking anything. Pretty valuable.

--Tony

I fear my sarcasm has been severly overlooked....

I got it [emoji849]

I've been through exactly what Tony is taking about, but see a cup half full rather than half empty. Meybe it is the military or old time crop dusting. Ground loop is an incident, the Army has lots of aircraft, spray trainers were dogs that had been rebuilt cheap. A pilot with poor self confidence is a potential fatality, not a potential incident.

I had more than ten thousands play in my pitch change linkage. I was incident prone. But my students were confident.

That said, aircraft maintenance, adjusted for inflation, is much more expensive than it was. I understand the need to protect the aircraft. Just remember student confidence is important too.

A huge advantage I have in my feeble medical condition is that I tell the pilot, before the first takeoff, that I am 100 percent passenger on the surface. I am unable to help, even if I wish. I do calmly state my opinion and will say things like"walk the rudder" or "apparent rate of closure is increasing."

That thing is awesome. We need 2 so we can race...

Flying Dave wrote:That thing is awesome. We need 2 so we can race...

You can make one pretty cheap. You don't need an engine. I saw one once a guy had built out of wood and had the kids push him around the neighborhood. Think three wheeled soap box derby cart with a tail wheel and rudder pedals. The kids had fun trying it too.

I am closing in on 50 and need to drop 25 pounds. I need an engine..... lol