It Took Me a While…

by Alan Marcum

Taylorcraft 48101 (courtesy Ann Elsbach and Faith Mason)

​I've been flying for a while. A few decades. I don't have a tailwheel endorsement.

Yet.

It's time. Hell, it's way past time.

The funny thing is that I first flew a taildragger during my primary training (most of which was in 152s). A Taylorcraft L-2, vintage 1940s. Rag wings, wood prop, maybe 65 hp if you whispered the right sweet nothings into the engine's ear. No electrical system: I got to learn how to hand-prop. That sweet airplane, N48101 (now gone: someone laid her on her back during landing, hitting brakes too hard and pitching her up and over 😢), along with her owner-CFI, Ann Elsbach, taught me more about adverse yaw in five seconds than all the books magazine articles ever written. But, like a fool, I didn't continue back then and get the endorsement.

Oh, I've flown other taildraggers. J-3 Cub, Citabria, Stearman, even a Tiger Moth. But never enough to merit the endorsement.

I'm excited to begin this adventure, fly with Rachael and Jim and Oliver, teach my feet to dance properly while landing.

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Alan Marcum is a long-time private pilot a mostly flies a Mooney 252.

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