This is the first time I have flown one of these
since I was fourteen or fifteen. I forgot how bad it
was.

Horrible handling airplane. Terribly un coordinated.

Don't learn in it unless you can afford to spend twice as much time
and money. The flying skills you learn are then useless for flying any
other
type of modern aircraft.

However it is fun and challenging :)

Paul Lamar


My initial solo was in a 90-horse Super Cub, and I instructed in them
for over 600 hours. The skills acquired make better pilots. I have flown
with many tricycle-trained pilots who had no idea what the rudder was
for, and allowed the plane to wallow in slow flight, their feet on the
floor and the ball oscillating completely outside the marks.

To enter a cub, begin from ahead of the wing struts (I never figured out
why that step was there because no one ever continued to use it)..

Reach up with both hands and grab the two chrome-moly tubes that meet at
top center, put your right foot on the tire, slide your rear back and
sit lightly on the door hinge-line. Lift your feet together, swing  them
inside and extend them forward on either side of the control stick.

Pull yourself forward and shift sideways into the seat.
This past saturday I entered a cub for the first time in 30 years and at
age 66 it still works as well as it did in 1964.  Granted, if you are
over about 6'-4" you will have to be a bit more flexible.

The Cub is much more docile than the RV-4. The RV will be much quicker,
and require a quicker but more measured response. The biggest problem in
transitioning to tail wheels is too much rudder applied too late.  In
correcting the first zig, you wind up with a zag that is so far
developed by the time the correction is removed the the zag cannot be
halted before the vector line of the  airplane C.G. passes outside the
main tire.  At that time the pilot becomes a passenger as the laws of
physics direct the airplane to swap ends.

The tail wheel is for taxiing. Above 25 knots with engine idling or at
any speed with engine developing substantial power, the rudder is the
only meaningful directional control. The reason for the sloppy tailwheel
link is to allow the rudder to be deflected to the right before the
initial application of power without  the tail wheel causing a turn to
the right as the power comes up

Victor Roberts

I did not know that about the tail wheel slop. Since I have none I'll watch
out for that in the RV. Thanks. I'll take it out today and check it out.

Paul Lamar