I must admit, it took me a long time to figure out how to get a taildragger back on the ground without looking like a complete idiot. The first time I tried was in the Extra 300, and having gotten so used to landing AC with tricycle gear I pulled the stick back to level off for a nice flare before touchdown. Of course, when I hit the ground it bounced straight back off the runway, and after several more of these momentary contacts with the ground the Extra finally lost enough momentum to stay there.It was a great source of frustration for a long time, but finally the penny dropped and I realised that you actually have to hit the ground with the stick in the forward position. I still had to level off before touchdown, to reduce vertical speed to a minimum, but after that it was back to pushing the stick forward so that the nose was lower than the tail.It's still a bit tricky. If you push the stick too far forward then you could go head over heel, or at least touchdown a bit on the heavy side with vertical speed increasing again after leveling off. But, with a bit of practice a taildragger is mighty good to look at on touchdown.Anyhow, my question is this. Is this for real? Is this how a taildragger behaves in real life, or is it just a quirk of FS? I've seen video of taildraggers landing, but I can't tell for sure. Sometimes they look like the tail is lower than the nose, as if they've lost too much airspeed, but then they touchdown rather nicely.What's the sauce on these things?Mike.

There are two types of landing on a Taildragger1. A three point landing: This is similar to landing a Cessna 172. You nose up to almost stall condition at touchdown where all three wheels touch the ground simeltaneously.But such landing is very difficult on windy condition on a tailwheel so you do the next one.2. WheelLanding: You come in with slight speed (+ 10kts against a strong headwind) so you have a reasonable ground speed. and you touch down with your front two wheel and this is important...just as the two wheels touch you have to move the stick forward slightly to kill the lift. The timing is critical. If its out of sync..your prop could hit the ground (its rare) or you will bounce (very common)..but no matter what.. you should not apply brakes or you will nose over.When I got certified on a taildragger. Wheel landing was the most difficult... I never could get the timing of moving the stick forward and I was dang scared that I would hit the prop. Finally I figured it out..that all I needed was an inch or two of forward movement on the stick.. so I braced my elbow on my lap and just flicked my wrist a little as it touched down rather than muscle the whole stick forward.. I also practiced such landing on grass strips (they are more forgiving) than hard surface like in regular runways.But taildraggers are a handful on windy and gustydays....even taxing. Taxying a trailgragger on a windy gust days is no joke either.Mannyhttp://www.avweb.com/news/avtraining/183265-1.html

some land on the front wheels first while others land with a 3 point contact. There's a great bit about it with the Kings in the learning centre. But for example, a Dakota (DC3/C47 etc.) lands front wheels first. On the other hand, if you land a Spitfire the same way (nose level) you'll be in a world of hurt, as the props are long enough to hit the ground. In fact I once read it was the Spit that more or less lead on to the flare on landing.

There is a wonderful section in the help file for FS2004 that goes over flying taildraggers. If you installed to a default location the help screen should be here:C:Program FilesMicrosoft GamesFlight Simulator 9Uireslc01.htm From that screen you can scroll down the "Key Topics" section to the one titled "Taildraggers" and has a shot of the DC-3 on it. I also highly recommend that you use rudder pedals in addition to a good joystick/yoke cause you're going to need the extra measure of control.What you have already discovered on your own how to do is what is called a wheel landing and there are advantages and disadvantages to that technique. You should also learn the three point landing and when and where to use it as well. What becomes especially tricky is landing taildraggers in a crosswind... why do you think the old aerodromes were a large grass covered circle? So far none of the FS aircraft are near as tricky as a real taildragger to fly. You might want to check out the configuration files that Alex Metzger wrote for the Piper Cub, you can find them here: http://homepage.iprolink.ch/metzger/index_e.htmlHave fun flying ;)

Hi Mike,landing a taildragger depends on several things; size of the plane, weather, your own preferences etc. I was at an airshow some time ago, and what I saw there was pretty much how I believed it would be from my FS experience:DC3: This bird (http://www.dakotanorway.no/) landed on the mainwheels, and to avoid jumping it seemed like the pilot pushed the yoke forward imideately after touchdown. Once it even looked a bit scary, the tail litterally raised, and the crouwd sounded a bit terrified.P-51 Mustang: This bird landed with a nice 3-wheel landing, a true art when it is performed well. The aim is to achieve an almost level flight with all three wheels just a few inches above the ground, and then reduce power to put it gently down. Practice with the Realair Spitfire or Shockwave P-51 wan't harm. Also search for some flying guides by Dudley Henriques, he knows how these things work!Some of the smaller taildraggers at the airshow chose to land on the mainwheels, due to heavy wind according to the speeker.Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm not a real pilot!Best regardsEagle

I'm no expert, but when I landed in a TF-51D Mustang, we landed main wheels first. You can see a video of it at my site below!

yup. In fact the C-47 cannot be landed using a 3 point technique as that's likely to overstress the center fuselage.This I believe has caused some damaged aircraft over time.

I can't say that I do any 3-point landings, so I can't speak for those.... The only taildragger I really fly with any regularity is the MAAM-SIM DC-3/R4D-6....But, when I land the DC-3 (which requires a main-gear-tail-high style landing), I typically aim to land with a slight nose-up attitude, in what might be called a very light flare. Not by a lot, but I would say my aim is to have the tail just a bit below the nose. Sometimes I actually end up landing level, sometimes I touch down more nose-up than intended, rarely I might actually end up touching down a bit nose-down, and sometimes I do actually pull it off exactly as I intended. I may not always get what I want, but my preference is the slight nose-up/tail-down (but still far from the point of making it a 3-point landing or tail-first which would be bad for *any* taildragger.. :().In a few cases, landing at a nose-down attitude could be hazardous to the props, as even a perfectly level attitude might be close to a prop strike...So, overall I'd say it's a matter of aircraft design, some amount of pilot preference, weather conditions to a certain extent, and a teaspoon of chance...

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll work through the links and the FS help files.I guess I was mostly wondering how FS compares to real life regarding these birds. It seems that landing them is fairly subtle in both cases, and largely a matter of experience. At least in FS there's no penalty if you stuff up, but in real life it is probably easier to judge where the ground is which gives you a better chance of timing the flare right.Old war birds are probably better looking than AC with tricycle gear, but they sure take some getting used to.Mike.

Amen to that. That said try flying the CLS Stealth, it took a lot of friendly advice from ppl on the CLS forums before I could come close to landing that thing.

Heh heh heh! I use the "basketball" approach. When ya first touch, then bouncy, bouncy down the runway. Taildraggers are NOT my specialty.:D