Originally Posted by
usmc-sgt
No to all.
Keep looking and find a champ or citabria or something similar for close to the price you found the 152 for. Get your tailwheel and build your time in that. You will not regret it and it will be a heck of a lot more fun.
Try flying the pattern for 20 hours in a 152, you will get bored after the third touch and go. Try that same thing in a tailwheel and every landing will keep it interesting.
While I agree 100% on getting the tailwheel time, it's so much more fun, but those things are getting hard to find and the insurance requirements for renters makes it very hard for any FBO to have them. Best to find someone who owns one, who will take you out and give you a check out, then let you fly it for a 'small donation' towards the annual.
When I had my Cub, my insurance co. was a huge pita, they required 800hr. hrs. tailwheel time to let it be flown by someone else, and also had the "NO INSTRUCTION!" clause. I had my son taxiing and flying it by the time he was 10, with almost no inputs from me, but he couldn't solo in it...with insurance that is.
Any nit wit can fly a nose dragger, and a lot of them do, that's why the industry moved to them in the first place, they are so easy to land. But to land a taildragger in a good crosswind, you have to learn how to fly all 3 axis...and stay with it, all the way to the tie downs! And even then you may not be safe from a big gust! Don't ask me how I know...
