eavila1

eavila1

Well Known Member
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Thought I would pass along a gem to get your tailwheel endorsement since it is sometimes hard to find a good location where the stars align. No affiliation at all with them and i highly recommend. Very laid back and they will mold the 2-3 day program for your needs. Sensory overload the first day and by the third day you are having a blast.

I just came back over the weekend from getting my tailwheel endorsement.............such a Blast!! I switched my forever build 9A to a 9 halfway through the build and now I am so glad I did. If anyone wants some fun excellent tailwheel instruction I would recommend Flight Fundamentals Inc out of Willcox AZ,https://www.ffiaz.com/. Make a trip out of it and see Chiricahua Nat Monument, Bisbee, and Tombstone for some history. They have three 180 hp American Champion Citabrias and if you request a third day they will take you on a round robin obstacle course over mountains, windmills, deadstick landings on a narrow road, cropduster farm dirt runways, and they have a dead lake bed where you straffe for miles 6" off the ground prepping for wheel landings. Excellent.

Again, Tailwheel endorsement is like an instrument rating....it only makes you a better pilot stick and rudder and you fly more coordinated because you have to. So glad I did it. One other thing is that the final approach speed on the high country citabrias is 65 Knts, similar to most all RV's, so it makes a similar learning platform and the roll and pitch rate is similar as well. Sweet birds. Makes me want to own a Phat tire something in the future and keep the RV for fast longer trips. Also, stay at the AZ sunset Inn https://arizonasunsetinn.com/, since most everything else is ratchet. Super clean and they make you breakfast every morning.
 
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WOW great write up. Thanks. I already have my tailwheel endorsement but the extra exposure to off airport landings and high horsepower sounds like a great present to myself! Piper cubs are NOT RVs for sure
 
JoeSeibert said:
WOW great write up. Thanks. I already have my tailwheel endorsement but the extra exposure to off airport landings and high horsepower sounds like a great present to myself! Piper cubs are NOT RVs for sure
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Absolutely Joe. I plan to go back again to knock off any rust right before my first flight. This place is unique because they do expose you to off airport and dirt/gravel/farm strips and my instructor cut my power 4 times in the three days and we windmilled down for emergency landings. Good stuff
 
I’ve gone a lot of places to collect a lot of training, and the trips are always amazingly fun….and at the end, there is usually a bonus of a new rating (or endorsement). Perks of being an aviation journalist of course….but yeah - getting to fly in a new area with interesting challenges is great - and this place sounds cool! We frequently fly to the many dry lakebeds in Nevada - very unique for someone who lives in the east…
 
Ironflight said:
I’ve gone a lot of places to collect a lot of training, and the trips are always amazingly fun….and at the end, there is usually a bonus of a new rating (or endorsement). Perks of being an aviation journalist of course….but yeah - getting to fly in a new area with interesting challenges is great - and this place sounds cool! We frequently fly to the many dry lakebeds in Nevada - very unique for someone who lives in the east…
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So many fun lake beds out in NV. Starting to explore them in 7.
 
I say this thread and thought I would give everyone my input and who I went to! I have had about 35 hours of tailwheel in various airplanes from a Cub to a RV-8 with the only real instruction was in a cub years ago and a 1938 Fairchild Ranger (at least i think that it was) the rest was sort of a passenger that was ghosting the PIC. Well as some of you know I have been preparing to fly my RV 3A so I went out and did some training with Patty Wagstaff to do some aerobatic flight training. I got some more experience with tailwheel but my trainer was Ryan Marracino who also had a Citabria and did do tailwheel training. After the aerobatic training I went to him for my endorsement. He was amazing and I received my endorsement. Since then I have flown the RV-3A and so far all has been well. I highly recommend him and his contact number is 386-747-4828. He is one of those instructors that stays calm and lets you work through the issues. I remember commenting a couple time, “DID I SCARE YOU THAT TIME”.
 
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