Put one of these on an otherwise-normal airplane and the fun begins. It’s like trying to land and taxi a swivel chair.

by Rick Durden

To put it bluntly, operating a tailwheel airplane while in contact with the planet is best described as challenging. Nevertheless, it does not require a super-pilot’s ability; some pretty awful airplane drivers out there operate tailwheel airplanes regularly and don’t turn them into landfill. How do they get away with it? One way to find out is to strip away as much macho posturing and old wives’ tales about airplanes with the steering wheel on the aft end as possible, and look at the subject as objectively as we can. …