Training and Safety Tip: Master alternative undercarriages
Some airplane systems are so simple, you hardly think of them as a “system.” Take, for instance, your aircraft’s landing gear.
Odds are your airplane has three fixed wheels, and two of them are below each wing— more or less—with the third wheel under the nose.
The first is a setup like the tricycle gear, only backward, with the third wheel at the tail instead of the nose. The official name for a tailwheel landing gear configuration is “conventional” because in the past it was the most common. The nosewheel of tricycle gear aircraft is generally a little smaller than the main wheels, while the conventional gear's tailwheel is a lot smaller than the mains. It takes specific training to master tailwheel airplanes because takeoff and landing procedures are slightly different from those used in tricycle gear airplanes. So, to fly tailwheel airplanes you need an endorsement from a flight instructor showing you received this training and demonstrated proficiency.
Tailwheel airplanes are especially well suited to backcountry operations, as the design raises the nose higher in the air, keeping the propeller away from rocks and grass at unimproved landing strips. The smaller tailwheel weighs less than a nosewheel, and many pilots also appreciate the old-school aesthetics. However, a slight disadvantage of the raised-nose design is that it is harder to see over the airplane’s nose or engine cowling during taxi; this difficulty can be overcome by making S-turns when taxiing.
Wheels of any size create drag, so some airplanes have gear that can be either fully or partially retracted into the fuselage or wings. Not too surprisingly, we call this “retractable landing gear.” Retractable gear can be tricycle gear or tailwheel. While there isn’t a specific endorsement required for retractable gear airplanes, most also have constant-speed propellers (allowing the pilot to change the propeller blades’ pitch) and flaps, and the combination of all three features makes them “complex” airplanes, which also require special training and an endorsement.
But the variations do not end there. Some airplanes can be equipped with "straight" floats (the term "straight" referring to absence of retractable wheels) for water landings. You will need to earn a rating to fly seaplanes, but many flight schools and instructors offer the opportunity to complete the training and the checkride in a few days, and many pilots find emphasizing the "nautical" in "aeronautical" to be a fun vacation activity. The floats of an amphibious aircraft do have retractable wheels, allowing the airplane to land on water with wheels retracted (extremely important), or on hard surfaces with the wheels extended (equally important).
The last major type of landing gear are skis, which like floats, can be designed exclusively for snow or ice landings, or with wheels protruding to make them ski-phibious—yes, I just made up that word, but you knew what it meant. So many ways to land!
