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.

Timbo

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...

chrisreedrules

I've got a little over 20 hours in tail-draggers... Micco SP-20 and SuperD mostly. They are much more fun to fly in my opinion.

RunnerMark

I'll agree if you can find one to fly, do it. It will open more doors for you down the road when you least expect it.

Timbo

Here's one of the few places you can still get lessons in a taildragger, they have both a Cub and a Champ. $95/hr. and another $40/hr. for the IP.

Flight Training School - Hampton Airfield 7B3

My local FBO (in FL) gets $170/hr. for a C152 w/IP. I'm paying $5.65 a gallon for 100LL. That's what's killing the light plane industry.

usmc-sgt

7B3 is one of the best grass strip airports around. It has the true community/$100 hamburger feel. You can fly 500 feet down the beach into a 45 towards the runway and then land on the short grass strip. Go into the cafe and grab a cheap bite to eat and then go into the flight school and grab a recliner or couch and just sit there and talk flying all day.

I lucked out where I never had a hard time finding a tailwheel to rent..how I have no idea. I was solo in a citabria in SoCal when I had maybe 10 hours of TW and a 1.5 hour checkout.

Timbo

I grew up there, my Dad and 3 other guys owned it when I was a kid. He started my older brother and I in his Cub when I was 8. My Mom had a Beech Muskateer there as well, but she wouldn't let me land it!

It has been lengthened by about 500' to the south, since I was a student there in the early 1970's, and they cut down the 2 tall pines at the north end, which were fun to split, in a full slip at 50' on final, but it's still a lot of fun going in there.

Now, every time I go up north to visit Mom, we always walk over to the Cafe for breakfast. Her house (the one I grew up in) is 1/2 mile away, inside downwind, south end. All day long in her house, you can hear the planes taking off, and from her driveway, you'll see them just over the trees to the west. I feel like a dog barking at motorcycles when I'm up there, I can't stop watching!

cjgreen91

where else can you find duke and 310 time for those prices.

chizg

There's a place down in southern Cali that rents a Champ for $65 wet. You'll watch the traffic below pass you by and you have to hand prop it, but it is a blast to fly! That's where I built my time.

FlyingTigerDPH

I built my time in a 152 for my commercial x/c's to save money and time. As long as you get other experience either before or after, its a really cost effective option.