What makes the best pilot?

My initial reaction to this was, “C’mon, Budd. What have you been smoking?” This is because the Pitts has a reputation for being a particularly difficult airplane to fly, especially—I would think—for a student pilot. I ordinarily would discount such an outrageous claim, but Davisson is an extraordinary instructor. When he talks about training pilots, people listen (or at least, they should). He has that kind of credibility.

A few weeks after reading Davisson’s article, I coincidentally discovered an astounding statement made by Marci Veronie, senior vice president of Avemco, a leading aviation insurer. She said that “Avemco’s data tells us that pilots who learn to fly in taildraggers have loss records [accidents] that are 2.5 times better [safer] than those who learn in tricycle-gear aircraft.”

This statistic suggests that the skills obtained from learning to fly in a taildragger tend to carry over and make these pilots more competent—and safer!—when flying tricycle-gear aircraft. It also implies that trike pilots who later earn a tailwheel endorsement may become somewhat safer as a result. It looks like Davisson was right.

What is it, I wondered, that makes a taildragger pilot safer when flying a tricycle-gear airplane than a pilot who has never flown a taildragger? After all, the only apparent differences between a taildragger and a trike are ground operations: takeoffs, landings, and taxiing. When airborne, there are no significant differences.

A clue was provided by the General Aviation Joint Safety Committee, a government and industry partnership, of which the AOPA Air Safety Institute is a part. This group determined that the number one cause of general aviation fatalities has for many years been aircraft loss of control (LOC). LOC occurs when an airplane unintentionally departs from controlled flight, the most common type being a stall that is often followed by a spin. More than one-fourth of GA’s fatal accidents occur during the maneuvering phase of flight: turning, climbing or descending close to the ground. Of those accidents, about half involve stalls and spins.

The foregoing leads to the inescapable conclusion that pilots trained in taildraggers are less susceptible to LOC accidents. This might be attributable to several factors:

• Taildraggers are less stable when operated on the ground, especially during takeoffs and landings. Pilots must be keenly aware of crosswind components and skilled at crosswind landings to avoid a ground loop.

• Most taildraggers exhibit stronger adverse yaw effect than most tricycle-gear airplanes. You can roll in and out of a turn in a Cessna 172 or a Piper Warrior with your feet flat on the floor and you’ll hardly notice the adverse yaw. Not so in a taildragger. You must pay careful attention to the slip-skid ball and be more adroit with rudder usage to keep the airplane on an even keel.

• Because of these taildragger idiosyncrasies, pilots learn to become more engaged with their aircraft; they are more connected and in tune with their flight controls. It is said that a pilot drives a trike but flies a taildragger.

• Because learning to fly a taildragger is more challenging, mastering it provides lasting skills.

• Instructors demand a higher level of proficiency before releasing a student for his or her first solo flight in a taildragger.

• The safety of those who learn to fly a taildragger is tied to the skills developed in mastering these aircraft, not necessarily because the aircraft themselves are safer.

• While it varies depending on the airplane, the instrument panels of many older taildraggers are not cluttered with digital displays and other instrumentation. Taildragger pilots, therefore, are often less distracted by what is inside the airplane and spend more time looking outside. This enhances situational awareness when maneuvering.

In other words, taildragger pilots develop superior stick-and-rudder skills under more challenging conditions than when flying tricycle-gear airplanes. A taildragger demands that its pilot continually practice and maintain skillful aircraft control. Perhaps this explains why so many tricycle-gear pilots who train for tailwheel endorsements do so more for the purpose of becoming better pilots than just to obtain another logbook endorsement.

There is room to disagree with my reasoning and conclusions. I am perfectly willing to listen to another side of the discussion but only if it satisfactorily explains why pilots who learn to fly in taildraggers have better safety records than those who do not.

www.BarrySchiff.com