My philosophy is that any fairly competent pilot can land a taildragger perfectly every time but it takes a great pilot to recover from some of mine.

Lovely post! Sounds like like you had a good time even if the Cub didn't fare as well. On a serious note, I believe this "atrophy" is a concern for GA. Pick your reason, but the fact is we are flying less. My hope is that doesn't drive accident/incident rates up in our near future, causing more government sponsored "help." Keep flying guys and gals! Brent from iflyblog dot com

I think you are being a little hard on yourself, Paul. You are constantly flying different airplanes, but most of us just fly the same one all the time. I just watched your demo flight in a jet and now read about your lack of perfection in a Cub.

If you want to have enduring high class landings you should give up your job in aviation journalism and just fly the same plane all the time. Then your only problem will be removing some of the rust each Spring when the rains stop - if you live in the Pacific NW like I do.

Paul, What makes you think that this applies to tail draggers only. Land too fast is a tricycle aircraft and you can damage the nose wheel attachment to the firewall on a 182.

Sure, you can cheat a little more in a trike but the same concepts apply to all GA singles.

Thanks for an excellent analysis.

Yeah, but it takes a lot more work to wind up in a ditch in a tricycle-gear airplane than it does in a taildragger, where it can happen before you even reach the runway for takeoff.

Atrophy can also be complemented by routine. I commute almost everyday to work using my planes and I exercise three different planes by using each one in a weekly cycle. They are a Cub, a Swift and a Beaver. Routine is as bad as atrophy. You can get sloppy. You have to slap your face once in a while to bring your concentration back. Daily routine requires regrouping and discipline as atrophy does. Nice article.

I pride myself on my consistently great landings. To do that, I have to ignore those landings which are less than great. But if I don't ignore them and instead analyze them, nearly always it's because of excess airspeed. Being the great stick that I am, I have thus far, in 40+ years of flying, recovered from every one of those less than great landings with no damage to anything but my ego. Soldier on, Paul--you are not alone! :)

Funny you should mention this as I had the same issue in my Cessna 140 yesterday: too fast and too lazy. But, because I don't get to fly all the time, I was also very aware that I'd lost the "edge." There's only one thing for it and that's more time with air between me and the ground. Fortunately, I can burn $3.85 a gallon auto gas. But I burn it in an O-200, so I guess it comes to about the same cost. Still, I could do (and have done) lots worse.

I was towing gliders in our Piper Pawnee this weekend after about 3 months of not flying. After my 3 stop-and-go's I proceeded to tow about 6 times. Of the 9 landings, only the last 3 were decent. I didn't have good sucess until I focused better on speed control and remembered the proper sight picture for the high-seating position in that aircraft. Going between low, on-your-butt position of the glider to the "above everything" position of the Pawnee is quite the transition. Knocking the rust off is definately necessary and preferable without an audience!

"It's the ever-futile fantasy of defeating the natural state of atrophy, the vain hope that our skills will be cemented in a permanence that will define us as great sticks. Most of us never get there, so we keep grinding away, propelled by unfulfilled optimism and $6 avgas."

I love that! And so true, too.

I'm not the world's greatest stick, but I certainly do aim to get there. And at least as basic airmanship goes, I have been getting better over the years (helped by the fact that I've managed to log around 120 hours in the last 12 months, which is a lot for someone paying their own way). However, my weakness has been, and still is, landing. They've always been ones that the plane is still usable as-is, but I never really feel at-one with the plane. I always feel that even with my best greasers, I'm only at best 80% of the "perfect" landing.

I know, I'm the harshest critic of my own flying, but if no one else is criticizing my flying (and landings), what other excuse will I have to improve upon it.

Well done Paul great article. One gets better in landing when the aircraft is your own. Tend to look after it better methinks

Well done Paul great article. One gets better in landing when the aircraft is your own. Tend to look after it better methinks

You must have the bad landings to recognize the good. You always measure your landings againt the best you've ever done. It's harder to win the longer you fly.

Paul, your writing was excellent, as always. You didn't say anything about 'ground loops.' (tail wheel aircraft seem to try to do that when you get behind on the landing) Atrophy was on my mind when I returned home from Flight Safety at age 67. I had just passed a first class physical and was feeling good. In the simulator, I found that I was either too slow, or forgot part of memory items during the many emergencies they throw at you, or was I getting old?? I got my recurrent ok because my flying skills were still good enough (according to the instructor) I was just upset with myself regarding my memory. Because our aircraft required two pilots I wondered if the simulator instructor passed me for that reason. I talked with several pilot friends and my wife and then the Boss. I was lucky as I stayed in aviation as the Company Safety Officer and started flying a desk. Flying for 46 years seemed enough for this 67 year old stick. Truth be told, I am looking at a LSA that I flew and like. Don't forget Paul, send your Resume to AOPA. They are looking for a new stick to replace Fuller.

For some reason pilots never offer the act of bouncing the respect it deserves. It simply indicates a bit of excess flying energy remains. On the other hand, the much worse alternative to a nice leisure bounce, would be a failed full stall landing attempt from 10 feet above the runway. In that case, the plane doesn't bounce much because the lower longeron tubes absorb the impact. So I much prefer the lovely "saved bounce " when it comes time to relearn landings every spring.

Gary, I know what you mean about never feeling at-one with the plane. Most of my training was the usual "first step toward an airline job" style typical of 99% of flight schools. This is all flying the numbers stuff that inhibits what we are after as recreational pilots.

I am fairly well convinced that taildraggers were never meant for asphalt anyway. The Monocoupe dislikes asphalt and concrete and never fails to let me know. But on grass, every now and then it allows me a landing to be proud of; the buzz of tires in the grass, the almost imperceptable transition of weight from the wings to the gear and a rollout straight and true.

You always measure your landings againt the best you've ever done'

I never have, and never will. I'm a freaking wild-eyed rebel, a life-long renegade when it comes to trying to not repeat some concept of robotic perfection from my fading memories of the misty past. Call me what you will, ban me from the inner sanctum, but the minute someone says they wish they could find perfection in their flying skills, I'm zoning out and wondering where the refreshments are.

I have great sympathy for those in pursuit of perfection - whether growing the perfect beefsteak tomato, finding the perfect beach for vacation, or executing the perfect landing. But it's like reversing aging, you'll never attain it. Everything changes and is in a constant state of flux, atrophy or routine will always be our companions. Better to pursue excellence in the here and now, with your best efforts, release yourself from the siren of perfection, and you'll relieve mountains of unneeded stress and open up reams of creativity you were heading away from by chasing the horizon.

Try this little example to help break free of limited thinking. Transfer these nine dots, and draw four straight, continuous lines connecting all the dots, keeping pencil on paper. Just a fun exercise if you have the time. . . .

. . .

. . . I'll take that sky, those clouds, and the etheral suspension in air over the earth every time, yeah. Great blog.

The nine dots were supposed to form a square....

Our forum software does not allow squares. Only ovals and trapezoids.

Ok, thanks, Paul.

If this flying thing becomes too easy, I'm going to quit!

"Yeah, but it takes a lot more work to wind up in a ditch in a tricycle-gear airplane than it does in a taildragger, where it can happen before you even reach the runway for takeoff."

...or a pesky berm on the side of a taxiway!

I believe we need to define what a good landing is. I generally have the best landings when the wind or the weather is not cooperating and it is demanding the best of you. Maybe is phycological and they feel good because you are expecting the worst. It is one of the best pleasures of flying, when you plant it right and control that plane all the way to the tiedowns. Sometimes on those conditions, the taxing is more difficult than the landing (if you fly a tail dragger). For me the best landings are just after a long cross country flight and you end the trip with a greaser at your destination. I always try to do that. The other one is after heavy difficult day at work and I take my plane back home. The pleasure of flying and then grease it at your home airport takes the edge off you and you arrive home as a new man. That is what a good landing does for you, does not matter how you define it. It is the best feeling of accomplishment. The golden button in aviation besides poping out of the clouds right on the extended CL of the runway.

OMG you fly a Cub, Swift and a Beaver!!! That's it. It's official. I want to be Paul Bertorelli.

Soloed on my 16th birthday...over 46 years ago. Still look forward to the day when that perfect landing is not a surprise! Do a lot of flying with other pilots, have been blessed with an airplane partnership of two for over 30 years. It's a lot of fun to have someone beside you to congratulate you on the greasers - and make fun of you on all the others!

Paul, always enjoy your blog, this one is pretty special. Shows that regardless of the craft we get to fly, we all respect those last ten feet of altitude.

Dave, I can use one line to connect all your dots! Send me an email and I'll explain it. No tricks either. buhwana@charter.net

"OMG you fly a Cub, Swift and a Beaver!!! That's it. It's official. I want to be Paul Bertorelli."

I have jumped out of Beaver, but never flown one. Never been in a Swift. That was Guido with the tri-fleet.

And even on my best day, you don't want to be me. It's not easy being me.

I always thought a good landing is one you walk away from

I'd say that's still true, Bruce. Don't let my anal retentativeness to point out what is folly to me of trying to find or re-create that always elusive, perfect landing or first kiss euphoria again with entirely new conditions and circumstances change your mind.

For a solution to the nine dots, think of an open umbrella lying on the ground.

'When my wife has sex with me there's always a reason for it. One nite she used me to time an egg.' RD

Opened his sleepy eyes dim, I discovered the young time is passing so many groggy, like a never ending dream. Looking back at the past, once the ideal I do not know which is the intersection of life lost, and quiet. Eagerly looking forward to the future of the youth, although we have the Asics Gel Kayano 17, how much is left, what can we captivated. When the wind blows, my eyes always moist and run to see a piece of the leaves fluttering loose powder, went to the fate of death. Have always thought that, in any case life must be done: Life Like Summer Flowers brilliant and death like autumn leaves.Young days, to have different type of the Asics Whizzer Lo to enjoy blooming own light, to treasure that can not be discarded, to seize the little happiness in life, to give yourself a fresh smile every day when the sun comes to the world a beautiful smile. So after years of holding precipitation in the years to come thick memory ?to remember the Asics Onitsuka Tiger shoes,to nourish life, nursed back to health of fun.http://www.discountasicsshoes.org