Old 01-08-2019, 11:13 PM
  #9  
JohnBurke
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Joined APC: Jun 2012
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Originally Posted by sailingfun View Post
A nose wheel aircraft will kick itself straight on touchdown if the fuselage is not properly aligned with the runway because the main gear are further aft.
It doesn't make any difference if you touch down on the mains. In fact, the third wheel doesn't come into play until it touches down. By then, one should have got it figured out.

A normal flare in a nosewheel aircraft is a normal three point landing in a tailwheel aircraft. Again, not a lot of difference.

Nosewheel aircraft (some) allow a bit more slop in one's behavior. Then again, there are nosewheel aircraft which require one to be on top of it all the way, and that won't track straight ahead more than a few feet before taking off in a turn. I've flown them.

Originally Posted by sailingfun View Post
A tail wheel aircraft does the opposite and requires you actually use your feet.
Pretty much any aircraft, actually. We get lazy in turbojet equipment and some actually put their feet on the floor.

The rudder is there to be used as needed. Again, it's not inherently different in a conventional gear aircraft vs. a nosewheel aircraft.

Originally Posted by sailingfun View Post
In addition a tailwheel aircraft has a limited amount of weight on the tailwheel relative to the amount of weight on a nosewheel aircraft. This gives the nosewheel aircraft better stability on the ground.
It really doesn't. There's some difference in aircraft with locking tailwheels (try landing an 802 with the tailwheel unlocked in a crosswind. That will make your day). Otherwise, landing, taxiing, and flying a conventional gear airplane really isn't that much harder or difficult; once the tail is in the air, it's essentially the same, and so far as taxiing...well that's just taxiing. Not really particularly complicated either, nor unstable.

Originally Posted by sailingfun View Post
The last issue varies between aircraft types but tailwheel aircraft often have very limited visibility in the landing attitude.
Not really. Much ado about nothing, especially if one does a two-point landing. Problem solved.
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