I've just installed the wonderful de Havilland DH-89A Dragon Rapide by David Garwood...man it's a really nice model too. I went ahead and also installed the autopilot by Jim Robinson. The two together really make for a nice experience but I realized that I've never flown a tail dragger before...it's been nothing but tricycles for me. So how are you supposed to takeoff and land a tail dragger properly? Please advise and thanks!Mark

Push forward and get your tail up a.s.a.p. and keep using rudder control to steer your way down the runway. Then, when TO speed is reached you pull back for TO.And when landing I don

Hello,AFAIKFor this one at least (Dragon) you will make take off and landing (off ground and touchdown) on the main gear.Just need to flare a little before touchdownLet the plane little slowdow by itself before apply brakes and pull little on the yoke for down the tail wheel..It's like I use this good plane.Some tail draggers can make 3 points take off and landing but this is used in extreme short airfields or on aircraft carriers IMHORegards.Gus.

The Dragon Rapide is best landed with a 'wheeler' landing rather than trying a three pointer. I've flown in them a few times and that's the way to do it. The correct method is as follows...Keep in mind that 65 knots is the single engine safety speed, so stay above that until you are certain you are landing. Approach should be flown at about 75 knots, with the turns on the circuit at 80-85, depending on conditions, more if it is gusty. Be careful not to make large rudder movements or aysmmetric throttle adjustments in the lower speed regime as you could easily stall a wing and spin it at that low speed when going through a wind gradient on the descent. Get the speed back to 65 knots as you are over the threshhold and when you are about 20 feet off the deck you can start to bring the control column back to bleed the speed further, closing the throttles as you do so, to let it settle onto the main wheels. Be careful with the brakes, the DH Dragon Rapide is very easy to nose over, to the extent that you have to be careful to load passengers in the rear seats first! It is perfectly capable of landing on grass incidentally, so you can use a grass runway to brake you from the surface drag in lieu of using the wheel brakes.You can find Pilot's Notes for the thing here if you need them, or if you do a search, you can also find the Air ministry version of the Pilot's Notes for about a tenner: http://rareaviation.com/store/cart.php?tar...category_id=914Al

Thanks you guys! That's really helpful. Al, wonderful explanation...I'll give it a go.Mark

Having flown a Mustang, we lifted the tail up at 50 kts and rotated at 110kts. On landing I landed on the mains and slowly lowered the tail to the ground. You can check out the takeoff and landing with these videos.Take off, stall and wing overs

Aerobatics and landing

Here's the preflight and taxi video too showing S-Turn taxiing if you are interested.

Hello,A small video (FS2004) of the Dragon Rapide at take off and landingA very easy flying plane :)Best to download the video instead streaming (better quality)http://www.4shared.com/video/Qp8Oh2KD/Drag...ide-TO-Lan.htmlRegards. Gus.

Hello,A small video (FS2004) of the Dragon Rapide at take off and landingA very easy flying plane :)Best to download the video instead streaming (better quality)http://www.4shared.com/video/Qp8Oh2KD/Drag...ide-TO-Lan.htmlRegards. Gus.

Hey Gus, thanks man...great video! Al's explanation comes to life. And now the blind can see :)Mark

In spite of 'nice video' of TO's/LND's you might notice the absence of any reference to using (up) pitch trim. Why no one talks about this in the explanations of 'keep the nose up', 'don't brake hard it will pitch over', 'land on main wheels', etc is beyond me. And I keep doing 'follow up' advice to perfectly ligit instructions with 'DON'T FORGET TO USE UP PITCH TRIM on approach'. Over and over. And I never get a reply back. Too many simmers have problems taking off, and especially landing, because they don't use pitch trim. They just go merrily along, doing Mach 4, buzzing towers, doing 747 cross wind landings, FL 350 round the world flights, and never use pitch trim. Ignorance is bliss? 'Don't bother me with the details-just get me up in the air'. There are simmers that NEVER, EVER established a LEVEL flight or cruise. They be always climbing, decending, paning in VC, wing viewing, and fighting the controls through out their flights (FUN?). But can they stick a landing? No. Why? They don't realize that it would be SO EASY if they learned to use pitch trim.So for tail draggers you should (hint, hint) use pitch trim to 'set up' that '65 kt' landing on main wheels. Without up pitch trim you will be fighting the controls (IE: elevator) to simultaneously TRYING to keep the nose up and holding aircraft level so it wll land on mains (as it tends to want to do '3 pt landing' if left to it's own devices). Dial in 3.0 to 4.0 of up pitch trim. Then at 10 ft up you push forward on stick, cut throttle, and land. NO FLARE REQUIRED. Pull back on stick after landing and brake, setting tail wheel down at 30 kts. IT'S THE USE OF UP PITCH TRIM that permits this to 'happen'. Tail draggers are not 747's-they don't require 'flare' (you'll just 'bloom' up, stall, and crash). So it is a 'balancing act' and pitch trim helps establish better 'attitute' control than the elevator use alone ever could or will. Pitch trim is the 'secret' to consistantly landing the F-18 on a carrier and catching the #3 wire at 120 kts. PITCH TRIM. Thanks for reading this (although not a video it was meant to be VERY verbally 'graphical' (heehee). I think I might change my username to 'PITCH TRIM'. Ha.CBNapamule

Hello,

'PITCH TRIM

Thank's for remind.Of course you can't fly right unless you know use trim.It's so natural (a pilot born with this engraved in his brain) than I forget to verbally warn about ! Usually the buttons on my joystick that are dedicated to the trim are the first to show signs of wear Regards.Gus.

I think the reason nobody mentioned trimming was because the OP asked 'how do I land a taildragger?' and not 'how do I fly an aeroplane?', so one assumes that the OP is familiar with using elevator trim.In the case of the real DH.89, it would in fact be safer to trim it into a slight pitch down for 75 knots hands off at about 1,300 RPM, then hold it off manually for the landing and concentrate on the stick and throttle. The Dragon Rapide is surprisingly light in how it rides the air for its size and very prone to gusts. There are a few aircraft like that, including some fairly oldish ones that I've flown pretty regularly. The reason for not trimming it too slow, is that when you are strapped in it is often impossible to reach some of the controls in a lot of oldish aircraft, as they didn't seem to do ergonomics in the 1930s LOL, and certainly not in British aircraft, which it has to be said might be good aeroplane designs, but not where the layout of the controls is concerned! In the case of the DH.89, since it can easily nose over, and you are perched up fairly high with little impact protection in that pilot's seat, you definitely want to be strapped in tight for the landing!Try reaching some of the control levers in an old British aircraft from that era when you are strapped in, and you will see what I mean, some of those controls are too far away, and some too close, etc, almost to the point where they have done it on purpose to make life bloody hard. I made the mistake of strapping myself in too tight before having the controls set properly once, and I certainly won't do it again - I can still remember that occasion and what it was like trying to fly a climb out, reach the elevator trimmer, undo my straps without accidentally hitting the parachute harness release and reach the radio channel switch all at the same time, and that was in a type that I'd never flown before, and it was a single-seater. Amusing it is to recall it now, but it wasn't at all funny at the time; ever since then I've always checked to see what I could reach once strapped in - before I take off! As wise folks say: Experience is a hard teacher, She gives the test first and the lesson after.Al

Interesting gentlemen! The thing about pitch angles is that I cut my teeth on Carenado's Cessna 182 RGII which doesn't have altitude encoding or hold. So even if you're using the autopilot and GPS to navigate, one still has to maintain a straight and level attitude in order not to climb beyond the ability to breath, or, crash into the side of a mountain.In order to make a proper decent in that aircraft, you also have to learn how to control the throttle, flaps, propeller RPMs, and pitch. That is the only way to land the thing without bouncing or ripping off the landing gear. So I believe that I would have naturally used a pitch angle in order to descend, ascend, or maintain a straight and level flight. But there's no way you could have known because I didn't mention that I must have a couple of thousand hours in sims by now. Ironically, I've never flown a tail dragger before.The technique of bringing the tail up or down, the speeds at which to do it, and just how far you push the yoke forward, seem like fun and takes a bit of time to get the hang of. Also, I had no idea that you should be using the breaks minimally or you could nose forward and break that marvelous model...and your neck :)MarkAl, you really flew some of those old birds...cool!Hey Gus, put some gauges in that aircraft...

Good thing about FS is of course that you are free to try landing the thing as many times as you like, and unlike with real aeroplanes, only your ego will be bruised if you stuff things up. I have to say that although I have indeed piloted a few old aircraft, I was merely a passenger on the DH.89 on the few occasions I flew on one (actually it was two different ones G-AGTM and G-AEML, and I have been in the cockpit of a third one, G-ADAH), although I could certainly gain a good impression of what it flew like from those few flights, since it is kind of hard to not be near the pilot in one of those things as they are what you might call somewhat 'cosy' inside.I do recall that it makes a lovely sound when in flight as well, not at all loud, just really pleasant to listen to and it is certainly a novelty to be in a biplane and actually be in a cabin. Those interplane flying wires twang about a lot on the thing though, I do remember noticing that!Al

Hello,

Hey Gus, put some gauges in that aircraft...

Why ? .. the plane is MEL compliant Regards.Gus.

Having flown a Mustang, we lifted the tail up at 50 kts and rotated at 110kts. On landing I landed on the mains and slowly lowered the tail to the ground. You can check out the takeoff and landing with these videos.Take off, stall and wing overs

Aerobatics and landing

Here's the preflight and taxi video too showing S-Turn taxiing if you are interested.

Those videos are very interesting and fun...thanks for that.Mark