Ready to add Aerobatics to your 'Pilot Tool-kit'?

Why do you want to learn basic aerobatic flight techniques?

Aerobatics in an open cockpit biplane is as real as it gets! You will love it.

Learning to fly Aerobatics is extremely fun, will improve your flying skills and boost overall confidence. Until you feel and experience these abnormal maneuvers, you can’t say for sure how you will react in an upset situation either from turbulence or some other emergency. As a professional pilot, aerobatics experience should be included in ‘Pilot-Tool kit’.

What are the basic Aerobatic Maneuvers?

Aerobatics or ‘Acro’ are maneuvers that exceed 40 degrees pitch up or down and 60 degrees angle of bank. The most common aerobatic maneuvers we teach are steep turns, wing overs, aileron rolls, barrel rolls, loops, spins and hammer heads. These maneuvers are the building blocks of all the other types of aerobatic maneuvers. Learning the basics will improve your flying skills, situation awareness in unusual attitudes and give you the confidence to recovery from anything.

How do you get started and what can you expect from Aerobatic Training?

Getting started is super easy! Just call, email or text us and we will schedule you with one of our instructors based on your availability. Contact us HERE. Depending on your availability, experiences and goals we will tailor an aerobatic program just for you. You can expect training at our vintage aviation hangar at Montgomery Field where we work on the maneuvers on the ground with you, teach you about safety items such as parachutes and the basics of flying our aircraft. After the 1-2 hour ground training, we will strap you in our open cockpit biplane or citabria for aerobatic training. We use the ‘demonstrate, then do’ approach, so you will be able to learn most efficiently. Click Here for What to Expect in Aerobatic Training!

Included in every aerobatic training flight is an amazing view and tour of San Diego.

Fox's Fast and Easy Tail Wheel Endorsement

Tail Wheel Training day 1

CoronaVirus Protocol

Ground Training 1: We will sit down at our runway mock up with a Citabria model and talk about the forces effecting you as a tail wheel pilot such as slipstream affect, P-Factor, gyroscopic forces and crosswinds. Some discussion items will be utilization of the brakes, and causes of some tail wheel incidents.

Flight Training 1: After our safety brief and preflight, we will have you fly from the front cockpit. All you will need to do is work on taxi, smooth brakes, takeoff, constant rate climbs and flight out to the area. In the practice area, we work on dutch roll drills, steep turns, stalls, and maybe falling leaf stalls. These maneuvers are critical to learning how to manage the rudder smoothly. We fly back, enter the pattern and introduce 3 point landings. We will demo/do full slips and turning slips. If you master the 3 point landing, we will introduce the wheel landing.

Tail Wheel Training day 2

Ground: Reviewing the proper 3 point landing techniques and aerodynamic forces is important to review every day in the beginning. Visualizing a good landing will be integral to you developing intuitive and natural landing skills. Flying with a control stick may feel a little different for some folks. We will introduce the Wheel Landing techniques, the why’s and the hows.

Flight Portion: After strapping in the front of the Citabria agiain, we will get aircraft started, work on smooth brake usage, control stick wind controls and basic taxi, takeoff and go right to pattern work. The instructor will demonstrate a wheel landing, and they you can get to work duplicating the techniques and learning the site picture and feel. We will practice full slips and turning slips to help you integrate them into your tail dragger skills tool box. As you get some experience with these landing techniques we can practice power-off landings, wheel landings and 3-point landings until you are comfortable.

Tail Wheel Training day 3

Ground: We will focus on any weaker areas and review all the forces at work on the aircraft, you will be able to relate better after two days of experiencing them.

Flight Portion: You will get aircraft started, do your checklists, taxi, takeoff and go right to pattern work. The instructor will try to not do any instruction for the first few landings, getting a feel with how you are progressing with wheel landing and 3 point landings. By this time, you will have seen all of the techniques for the tail wheel endorsement and we can just practice until you are comfortable in all tail wheel skills.

What is my Tail Wheel Training going to entail?

Tail Wheel Training day 1

CoronaVirus Protocol

Ground Training 1: We will sit down at our runway mock up with a biplane model and talk about the forces effecting you as a tail wheel pilot such as slipstream affect, P-Factor, gyroscopic forces and crosswinds. Some discussion items will be utilization of the heel brakes, and causes of some tail wheel incidents.

Flight Training 1: After our safety brief and putting on flight gear, we will have you strap in the front cockpit. All you will need to do is work on taxi, s-turns, takeoff, constant rate climbs and flight out to the area. In the practice area, we work on dutch roll drills, steep turns, stalls, and maybe falling leaf stalls. These maneuvers are critical to learning how to manage the rudder smoothly. We fly back, enter the pattern and introduce 3 point landings. We will demo/do full slips and turning slips. If you master the 3 point landing, we will introduce the wheel landing.

The Heel Brakes are great for training. You won’t accidentally hit the brakes while you are landing.

When ready to apply brakes, you can angle your feet inward at the heal and still use the rudders.

Tail Wheel Training day 2

Ground: Reviewing the proper 3 point landing techniques and aerodynamic forces is important to review every day in the beginning. Visualizing a good landing will be integral to you developing intuitive and natural landing skills. Flying with a control stick may feel a little different for some folks. We will introduce the Wheel Landing techniques, the why’s and the hows.

Flight Portion: After strapping in the front seat again, we will get aircraft started, practice heel brakes usage, s-turns and taxi, takeoff and go right to pattern work. The instructor will demonstrate a wheel landing, and they you can get to work duplicating the techniques and learning the site picture and feel. We will practice full slips and turning slips to help you integrate them into your tail dragger skills tool box. As you get some experience with these landing techniques we can practice power-off landings, wheel landings and 3-point landings until you are comfortable.

Tail Wheel Training day 3

The back seat is so much fun! You will enjoy flight and landings in a way that was previously just a dream.

Ground: We will talk about starting techniques, radio comms, checklist usage and backseat landing techniques that are a little different from the front seat. The toughest part of this is learning the ‘hot start’ and just getting comfortable in the back seat.

Flight Portion: After strapping in the BACK SEAT, you will get aircraft started, do your checklists, s-turns and taxi, takeoff and go right to pattern work. The instructor will demonstrate the landings from the front seat, including wheel landing and 3 point landings. You will quickly get used to the new sight picture and using your peripheral vision to enhance your landings. By this time, you will have seen all of the techniques for the tail wheel endorsement and we can just practice until you are comfortable in all tail wheel skills.

Common Questions about Tail Dragger Flying and Training

Why should I get my Tail Wheel training and Endorsement?

Pilots can incredibly improve their stick and rudder skills by a couple tail wheel training flights. Old timer pilots first learned in tail draggers like the J3 Cub. You would be surprised how sloppy pilots can be with their crosswind control and flare since they learned in tricycle gear trainers. In your tail wheel training, you WILL get more capable and confident at crosswind corrections. Your pitch corrections with the glide slope, airspeed and flare control will get much smoother and more refined. These skills are easily transitioned to a C172, M20J, Twin or even a B-737.

How long is the training for the Tail Wheel sign-off?

I have seen talented pilots get the tail wheel sign-off in two lessons and others in maybe 8 lessons. The key to good training is understanding how the cosswind control inputs and rudder coordination work together for a consistent and smooth landing. Let us shoot for 4 lessons!

When I am signed off, will I always feel comfortable flying tail draggers?

You may have higher personal limitations, like 10 knots of crosswind and gusts, but on the normal MYF days you will feel safe and confidents in your landings. After a couple days of solo pattern flights, you may look forward to the higher crosswind days for pattern practice.

Tail Wheel flying sounds scary, I don’t want to do tail wheel training until I get hired by an airline, it my risk my perfect record.

Flying with some pilots in a Cessna with poor fundamentals is terrifying. Getting better flight training and improving your skills is just smart. As an instructor, I had a tail wheel mishap with an Air Force Academy cadet on spring break. He was a couple months from graduating and going to USAF Flight School. I was 2 weeks from starting at United Airlines. When I told the United hiring manager, he laughed at my worry and said that only the best pilots instruct in tail wheel and they are happy to have me onboard. The cadet never had an issue either with his Air Force record.