I know my old man did his first solo in a tail wheel and I'm sure there are people have taken that route, but I feel like all the cfi instruction these days is in 152s, 172s, Cherokees, ect. Obviously it is easier for the student to learn in a trike but they would probably be a much better pilot learning for square one in a tail wheel. Is it much more expensive to name a student pilot under the insurance of a tail wheel aircraft? Thanks for any insight.

I did my entire private in a Pacer. At least when it comes to renters insurane, AOPA and Avemco didn't charge any different rates based on tailwheel vs. non tailwheel.

I went all the way in my kitfox. Insurance wasn't easy to find for a student in an experimental tailwheel. I think it cost me $1500 with the hull value at $27,000 and now I'm at $1,200 for the same coverage.

I got mine in a Citabria; so did Green Hornet. It was certainly more expensive and certainly limited the number of flight schools. I then got checked out in a Husky 1a, 182, and a 172 in that order. When I waited for my Maule to be repaired from a prop strike, I got checked out in a T6. The most important thing is to get your certificate and get in the air.

My dad bought a Piper Clipper for me to learn in----soloed and never flew it again. The next year he bought a 90 hp Supercub and soloed it and flew a few hours but came back to Virginia from iowa and never flew it again. Then when I started farming, dad thought I should buy a Super Cruiser so I did. It sat around for a while and I finally got motivated to get my private in it.

Man I wish my dad would by me a supercub or a supercruiser heck I'd even take the short wing clipper at least they all have sticks.

I started out in a Citabria & when I was sure I wanted to get my licence we bought a C140. Did about 1/4 of my training in that. Sold it & a week later bought the L-19 @ Oshkosh. Solo'd in that when I was 16, got my private in it at 17. As far as insurance, they required an instructor with O-1 time & was lucky to find one 20 miles away at KHYR, he had flown them in Vietnam. The cost with hull ins wasnt bad & After about 50 hrs they lowered the premium about $500 & it's been there since.

Minus the cost of re-pitching the prop on the 140 & maintenance, sold it for what we paid for it.
A friend's dad finished his PPL on the flight home from purchase with his instructor & My aunt also flew it & solo'd but never got her licence.

I did. I bought a Taylorcraft upfront and then obtained instruction in it. Extremely cost-effective if you buy right and have a cooperative CFI lined up.

I wish I had. Learning in trikes made the transition more difficult in my opinion. It makes for lazier feet.

Currently teaching my boys (13 & 15) in the Supercub. Had to slow 'em down a little as they learn everything so fast!

Cool. All of this comes from my desire to step out of the 182 and hopefully teach in a little more economically friendly Citabria. Maybe I am just frustrated because I have spent 2 grand in the past 3 weeks in maintenance... Now I just found out that my right wing bladder has a leak in it and it was replaced just 6 years ago. Not to say these sort of problems don't happen on the Citabria, but at least I can go upside down at the end of the day to clear my head.

ington6,
Get inside the wing root and tighten the fuel sender gasket screws. No way that a 6 year old bladder should leak. 9 times out of ten I have found the gasket shrinks and tightening the screws fixes the problem.

Thanks, il get in thereand check it out. Unfortunately I'm hearing this from the mechanics in charge of my alternator repair. Either I've got a leaking bladder or incompetent mechanics.

ington6 wrote:Thanks, il get in thereand check it out. Unfortunately I'm hearing this from the mechanics in charge of my alternator repair. Either I've got a leaking bladder or incompetent mechanics.

It could be an incontinent pilot?

I got my license this last march in a taildragger and loved every bit of it! Did my primary, first solo, and checkride in the family pacer. The first insurance quote was a bit ridiculous, but after talking to more agents it ended up pretty similar to any other airplane. For me, learning in a taildragger feels more normal because they're all I've ever really flown in. The lack of all those fancy VORs and navaids became a bit of a challenge for getting the required training, so I did my instrument training (and intro to backcountry flying) in my instructor's aviat husky. The other challenge was finding a qualified DPE, i can tell you now that we found only two tailwheel qualified examiners in the colorado front range area. Bev Cameron and Jack Taylor, I did mine with Jack and it all went great.

On the 182- Ditto on checking the senders first, then get a scope for the holes all around the outside accessed from the inspection plates. I just did this to mine. If it is a leak after so short a time, you can sometimes repair them economically.

Cost me $2600/yr to insure the Luscombe when I was working on my PPL. Its down to $1100/yr now.

I sold half my Citabria to a woman getting her private. If she hadn't done an intro flight with the local club, her logbook would've been free from nosedragger time. At a hull value of $50,000 my insurance was $900-950. When adding her with ~10 hours previous instruction in tailwheel it went up to $1600 with Avemco. It would be $1760 without the "extra" training or wings course info sent to Avemco for a 10% discount.

I did all my initial training including solo and CC time in a PA12. I had to fly a spam can to get the required instrument time, but 99% of my training and flying was in the PA-12 and a few hours in a scout. I did a few hrs in the 180 also for the HP endorsement and a few hrs in the 210 for complex. I would NEVER trade the TW instruction from day one for anything! I would also never trade the instructor I had thru solo as he was an old bush pilot from way back who knew me and the family and knew what type of flying I would be doing. My very first landing was off airport and most subsequent landings were on a dirt strip or beach, other than the final landing of the day back at the airport.