HOW TO FLY A J-3 CUB
by Dagley Reeves

[Introduction][The TAXI][The TAKEOFF][Common Mistakes]
[Air Work][Landing][Crosswinds][Emergencies]
[Conclusion][NTSB Accidents]

TAXI

You may taxi (and fly) the J-3 with both doors open (top one up, bottom one down) if you wish. Hopefully by this time, you have located the brakes. They ain't much but there again when this airplane was new it didn't have brakes! The brakes are somewhat awkward to those who are used to toe brakes, again, no big deal it's just different. The little brake pedals are small and it is easy to miss them (this usually happens at the split second you need them the most) so practice putting your heals on the brakes. Leave your spurs at home. As a matter of fact leave your boots at home too. I caught the heel of one of my boots once somewhere on the floorboard and nearly ground looped. Cub brakes range in effectiveness from bad to zilch. Give her a little juice and test the brakes to see how well yours work. Remember to test both of them. Maybe your brakes work fine, if so, consider yourself lucky. Probably, however your wondering if it is really a good idea to go around slipping the surly bonds of earth with such wimpy brakes. Your also wondering how in the heck they ever got anywhere back in the old days without brakes. Well, it's like this: "You see the brakes weren't really needed because we didn't have tail wheels either. If you wanted to stop you just sucked the stick back into your gut and dug the skid in. To turn you gave here a blast of throttle, kicked the rudder and shoved the stick forward to get the tail up and spun her around! Easy!" Yea, right. All of the old film footage I've ever seen also showed a couple of guys out there on the wings pushing the darn thing around, but then who am I to argue.

At any rate you will soon discover what makes flying a tail dragger more challenging than "driving" a Cessna spam can. You can't see diddly, the brakes are terrible and the plane seems to want to go any direction other than the one you want. To handle the first problem, we do what they have always done, zig zag. After you start moving, instead of going straight down the taxiway, we are going to weave back and forth across it. Beginners note that when you are being made fun of for not being able to taxi you should flatly state that you were zig zagging in order to insure your path was clear, as any real pilot should know. (Whether you were or not.) So jink, to the left, look out the right, jink to the right, look left. Jink, look, jink look. It does no good to zig zag if your not looking. Hey, you'd be surprised how many Cubs have run over the plane in front of them. Deduct five points from your score for running off he taxiway and fifty for each taxiway light you take out.

By now your wondering why the airplane has a steerable tailwheel when it doesn't seem to steer a cotton pickin thing. I don't have an answer for that, sorry. It would take a lot of paper to describe how to do this, you just have to practice. A couple of hints and observations. First of all, it is possible, it can be done. It's sort of like riding a bicycle, (how many times have you hear that one?) once you get, you got it. You've just got to get used to staying ahead of the airplane (sorry, but where to you think these cliche's came from?) For example: Plane goes straight, no problem, but then, shoot, it jinks to the left. So you put in some right rudder, nothing happens so you put in some more right rudder, plane starts moving to the right. When the nose is straight again you neutralize the rudder. Now you're in the dirt on the right side of the taxiway wondering what happened. You have to automatically feel the nose move before it ever happens and put in the correction then. When the nose starts coming back to where you want, you have to put in opposite control to stop it where you want before it ever gets there. This is called "flying by the seat of your pants". And you thought that phrase was just an excuse used by the old farts who were too dumb to get an instrument rating.

Using some of the techniques of the old tail skid days can be appropriate at times. The elevator should be in the slightly nose up position under normal circumstances to add a little weight to the tailwheel in hopes of making it more effective and keeping the plane from nosing over. Some pilots favor burying the stick in their crotch but I think this is overkill and may actually hamper the operation of the tailwheel. There may be times (sand or soft dirt, or tailwheel stuck over center) when you will want to take weight off the tailwheel by applying forward stick, and a blast of throttle over the rudder to gets things moving.

Taxiing in wind takes more forethought in a tail dragger. The same control placement procedure you learned in your Cesspot 150 applies but remember a Cub is much easier to flip over than a Cessna with training wheels. Tail wind, stick forward ailerons neutral. Left quartering headwind, stick back, left aileron etc.

If you are having trouble taxiing due to the wind, now is the time to consider if trying to fly is a good idea. This is not a high wind component aircraft! Oh sure, you can always land on a taxiway into the wind or divert to another airport but who needs that. If your flying a Cub your not going anywhere any faster than you could drive anyway. Come back another day when it will be more fun. The reason you can't find any tailwheel planes for rent (solo at least) is because they get torn up a lot. Of course it doesn't have to be this way. Proper training and good judgement are your weapons against the all time aviation bugaboo, the ground loop.

Short excerpt of aviation wisdom to follow:

A superior pilot uses his superior judgment to avoid having to exercise his superior skill.

Taxiing a tail dragger properly is half the battle won, it takes practice. It's like riding a bicycle, or water skiing, or doing handstands, or spinning a basketball on your finger or docking a boat or opening a Bit O Honey without letting the wax paper stick to the candy, you just have to stick with it. Once you get, you got it.

Tail dragger FooPaas

or

Remember What's Behind You

These three little stories are true and are indicative of how easy it is to end up on the airport doo doo list for not paying attention to what you're doing.

It was a hot August day and the air hung thick like the breath of an oppressive invisible demon...sorry got carried away, anyway it was hot. Wayne McWhirter was sweeping out the office when one of the airport yea hoos pulls up in a Steerman for fuel. As he approached the fuel pit on the gravel taxiway he gunned the engine, kicked the rudder and stomped on the brake spinning the Steerman around in an impressive one eighty. He also filled up the office with dirt in the process. While he was unstraping himself, Wayne went into the tool shed, got a shovel, walked out to the Steerman and put a big shovel full of gravel in the front cockpit of the Steerman. And walked away without saying a word.

On another hot August day, Wayne McWhirter was sweeping out the office when a different airport yea hoo was ready to depart the gas pit. His tailwheel was over center. The bums on the porch noted that the elevator was in the full up position as he applied almost full power to swing the tail around and ...you guess it, filled up the office with dirt. (Remember the thing about using a little down elevator to get some weight off the tail to straighten things out). One day when the aforementioned yea hoo was sweeping out his office, Wayne, (who didn't know how to fly but did know a thing or two about how to start and taxi an airplane) walked out to the back line and climbed into one of my old man's surplus BT-13's. He taxied in front of this office, spun the tail around and gave the 450 horsepower engine full throttle. And taxied away without a word.

At a recent air show, the pilot of a Yak 51 was taxing to the war bird parking area. When he got there, one of those snappy little, gas it, stomp the ruder and brake, turn around things seemed in order. It was impressive, especially the part where the rudder of the Yak crashed into the aileron of a parked T-28. The crowd went wild, and so did the owner of the T-28.

There are several possible morals to the stories:

Watch your rear end. (Or as my military trained cohorts are so fond of saying, "check your six.")

The most dangerous words in aviation are "Watch This!"

The chance of your making an idiot out of yourself is directly proportional to the number of people watching.

Don't mess with Wayne McWhirter.

  [Next Section]