Practice, Practice

It was threatening rain yesterday when I went flying. I went up for about fifteen minutes around the local area to get the oil warm, then I returned for a series of landings. When you're flying an airplane with a tailwheel, what is important is not just touching down on the runway, but controlling the airplane throughout the rollout on the runway.

So what you do are full-stop landings. If you are at an airport that has long enough runways, you can do "stop and goes," otherwise you pull off the runway and taxi back to the end. The airport I fly from doesn't have a long runway, so that is what I do. And that is what I did yesterday for about eight circuits of the traffic pattern.

It's not the easiest thing to do to the engine; it's "full rich" operation the whole way. You're going from full power to altitude, slow cruise in the downwind and then partial/idle power on the way down, and that repeats every six minutes or less. Aircraft engines last the longest with you're at a decent cruise power with the engine properly leaned.

Still, it's good practice from time to time.