Hi Mark, Congratulations. The YeeeeeeeHaaaaaaaa's are not far away. Your friends at MDQ are probably right that you did leave the ground. So far you have been given good advise. I will only relate a bit of my first flight experience. But first I want you to go back and invite your new friends to give the plane a once over. Make access for them to see inside and let them look. You by passed the final stage of the final check before first flight which is to have someone look behind you to keep you safe. I bet you are much to excited to even think clearly at this point. Your taxi tests sound much like mine. Each time I went down the runway, I would let the throttle stay out longer and longer. As you say, the tail would pop up in seconds and steering (rudder authority) is great with the tail up. Yes the transition is the time of greatest concern. In landing my plane, my best landings are Three point these occur when my approach speeds are real slow, with less then 60 MPH over the numbers. Reality for me is that I'm not in that good a form most days and I wheel land at a higher speed and consequently require transition from wheel to tailwheel. My best transitions occur when I allow the tail to stay up as long as it can, allowing the speed to bleed off while balancing the plane on the mains using forward stick pressure(Caution too much forward stick pressure or too much brake pressure will cause the plane to nose over). There is a speed at which the effectiveness of the stabilizer is not stuffiest to hold the tail up and at that point the tail just falls. I then pull aft stick to put as much pressure on the tail wheel as the airflow over the elevator will generate. On my first flight, I had performed one tail up and decided to do another and then yet a third tail up. All this time the throttle was wide open. On that last time, as I lowered the tail, the plane just jumped into the sky, no skipping of the mains, not one indication that in a heart beat I would be 5 feet in the air. I had plenty of runway left, but as someone else said why crash before you even fly. Away I went, with a death grip on the stick. I was so rigid that the plane was porposing. I finally let go of the stick and let the plane fly. My landing could have been uneventful except that my idle was too high and the plane would not stop flying and I had to cut the engine to get it to settle and land.
Mark with all that you have said over the months, I'm sure you can fly the plane and landing it using one of the techniques you know will do just fine. Just remember to make sure each time you go out that you and the plane are ready to fly. Hell, it's almost 8 AM by now you probably have flown again. Orma L. Robbins Southfield, MI N110LR Tweety, old enough to drink this year Flying and more flying, to the gathering or bust http://www.kr-2.aviation-mechanics.com/
