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Just done 7 hrs training a student in a Calidus. Must say I"m impressed with the little beast as a long range 2 seater. Comming in at 70 kts gives a man a thrill. It"s rudder is only small and needs a little tap on the throttle when landing to get some control. Tropical windscreen was perfect for up here. My Kruiser cabin ship also cruses at 75 its. However in bad weather I don"t have enough tail control. It wind cocks ect. so I"m looking for a large light preferably carbon fibre tri-tail :-
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That sounds like Warrens Calidus from Cessnock. It is a great machine, I have been away on a few trips with Warren. Your student is starting off with a pretty classy bit of gear and the summer canopy is perfect for your tropical climate.Good to hear it went to a good home.
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Yep, It went to a smart Irishman. He travelled the world with a back-pack and decided to settle in Darwin. I find the back so comfortable one could easily snore off. He"s OK on landing but shoots off to the left on takeoff"s. Needs more Hrs.
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Great to hear you are having fun Max! I always liked it too :-)
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Us rufians up here like landing on the tail wheel sometimes so I"d like to see a skid or wheel on the rear keel to prevent stainless steel scraping down the runway.
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Your right Max, my Cavalon which has a similar keel design has a skid plate which would be a whole lot easier to replace than a new keel tube.
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Us rufians up here like landing on the tail wheel sometimes so I"d like to see a skid or wheel on the rear keel to prevent stainless steel scraping down the runway.Don"t they have a tail wheel or skid?
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It"s only half way down the rear keel that it touches ground. It does a bit of a loop. Badly needs something as the stainless tube is scoring :" ( If it was my craft I"d fit two skateboard wheels clamped to the pipe keel)
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On grass or dirt strips it doesn"t matter so much of the keel touches, it"s not until you land on a hard surface runway that you have to keep your landing accurate to keep the keel off the bitumen. It makes a horrible scraping noise when it touches and makes you concentrate more on future landings.In a way it"s like having an instructor with you all the time as it will let you know if you have a nose high additude on landing.
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What I like about tail wheels is if they are set up right you can perform neat short soft tail wheel landings and the wheel just pulls you straight. I"ve had many a man run away from me while landing my rosco clone up against a fence as they assumed I was going to crash. Some people think the craft is going to break in half but not all the weight is on the rear as the craft is still flying and sits down like a fairy. You of course apply full throttle during this excersise and hang the craft behind the power curve and suddenly throttle off
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Yeh the Calidus is a nice machine I remember the while one down at Manilla Ian was flying, there is always a better toy on the shelf but still happy with the MTO sport. I also remember a tail scrape in instructor training take off Sounded like "THOCK"...i got a clip over the helmet followed with "that was the tail"...oops sorry mate. I have only done that once...hopefully lesson learn t.I also recall i made a comment like should put a nylon pad on the keel, my instructor said "how about you learn to fly it properly". More recently i was asked which one was mine and my instructor said Mick"s Gyro is the one without the scratch under the keel...still hasn"t forgiven me. Yes so for student training tail pad a good idea i guess and for solo pilots well only if you think you will unintentionally whack your tail on the runway but shouldn"t really happen if you know what you"re doing.
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I"m with Max, it is not unusual to use the keel/tail wheel as a "straightener" in a real short landing.... just ask Birdy, I have seen him in some of his videos doing slow, tail wheel first landings and I concider it the done thing. If I had a machine without one, I would certainly be fitting one, nothing to do with piloting skills. You also have to take into account the other purpose of the tail wheel I mentioned earlier, if you are doing a short as possible take off into a strong headwind, it is (or was) common to sit the machine back on the tail wheel/keel to wind up the blades to the max.... if the keel were to dig in and you cop a gust, if the keel isn"t allowed to move backwards (tail wheel) I can see a backflip in your near future
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I also recall i made a comment like should put a nylon pad on the keel, my instructor said "how about you learn to fly it properly". Assuming you didnt slam the tail into the ground, the instructer needs the slapn. >
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Yes, and the student might well say "then how about you teach me properly!"It is a double edged sword.... I mean I have seen many a crunched tail tie down ring (once was a ring) on Cessnas from the odd tail grinding.... IMO the instructor should be putting some form of keel protection, be it a pad of nylon or a normal tail wheel on his machine, because I doubt many training machines would never have a scrape now and then so students can learn their skills.... oh, and instructors have been known to make the odd "mistake" themselves
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I"m confused, I was under the impression that a good landing was one where you land on the mains with minimum roll and the tail does not come into contact with the ground. The only time I would want my tail to contact the ground would be in a restricted area landing as a matter of neccessity........ Have I got it wrong?
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