N291DR 1.5 Noel

Practice in N291DR with an experienced CFI "Noel" who instructs in Citabrias a lot. We did about 7 landings at KRHV, staying in the pattern all along. All were no-flaps.

CFI instructed me to fly approaches at 60-65; it turns out that is waaay too fast for the little puttery plane! I floated and floated! When we slowed down to 55 or so, we were able to get good 3-point landings. However, the following remain as issues I need to work on:

1. When taking off, I sometimes put the nose down a little too much. Take it easy.

2. When slipping to a landing, remember: You use rudder to choose the amount of drag you want to add, and aileron to steer the airplane in the direction you want to go.

3. The RANS S-6S 3-point position does not look "extremely" nose-high, so remember that position and duplicate it. I had one landing where I slammed down on the tailwheel and the CFI had to rescue it for me.

4. Careful of floating back up again while in the flare. Gentle on the stick. Take it easy.

5. Do not over-control with the rudders when flaring. Take it easy.

6. You don't need to "rudder walk" so hard when taxiing. It's okay. Take it easy.

Overall I would say I'm making better progress than I feared in transitioning to tailwheel, but the "take it easy" advice comes up again and again -- I'm doing way too much.

N291DR 1.9 Mary

Type conversion and tailwheel training with CFI "Mary". Did 3 landings. KRHV KWVI, break at KWVI, then KWVI KRHV.

We took off from KRHV with CFI doing most of the takeoff, then flew to KWVI. I did a bunch of "floaties" to maintain direction and centerline, then we attempted a 3 point landing. I am used to the SportStar (low wing) so, in the S-6S, with a huge window right there below me and the ground seemingly close enough to touch, I flared too high. We whumped down, but it was on 3 wheels. Next landing was pretty decent.

I learned to take off, and started getting the hang of directional control on the ground while rolling. In general it's not as difficult as I feared, but it's not trivial and requires practice and effort. When I dab the rudders in my "rudder walk", I am keeping them deflected too long, which causes over-control.

On our last landing at KRHV, we accepted a short approach request from the tower for spacing. CFI offered to use flaps but I declined; I didn't want to mess up my mental model just yet. I slipped in but still had lots of energy. I did a wheel landing, which went mostly okay, but I let the tail down a bit too soon and got tailwheel shimmy. We rolled out all the way to the end of the runway and puttered off. Will do better next time. :)

N291DR 1.1 Mary

Familiarization flight in my club's RANS S-6S with CFI "Mary" (code name). Zero landings -- just steep turns, slow flight, stalls and falling leaf maneuvers, and general controls familiarization.