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On Saturday morning, I took my first training flight in a taildragger at Sevierville in a Cessna 140. I liked Jack Shipe, and I think I'll go back. So I now have a new category in my log book, hours in "tailwheel".
It was my first time down there, and so he was mostly just checking me out to make sure I knew what I was doing. I think I passed muster pretty well. The 140 is a nice little airplane. I'll have to get used to paying attention to switching tanks; like many airplanes except the Cessna 150 and 172, the 140 does not have a "both" tanks position for the fuel selector, so you actually have to pay attention to which tank you've selected.
One of the critical phases of flight is as you're preparing for landing, usually a time that's too busy to be reading a written check list. To memorize the critical points of this flight phase, aviators often use a variation on the acronym "GUMPS": Gas: fuel selector on appropriate tank (the fullest one in the 140) Undercarriage: gear down (the gear is fixed in the 140) Mixture: Rich Prop: forward (fast) (the 140's prop is fixed so it doesn't have this control) I'm not sure what the "S" is; "switches"? Some use the variation "GUMPFS", which includes "flaps". Since the flaps are part of the energy management process of the decent, I don't think it's necessary to do that.
After being out doing maneuvers, we came back to the airport and did two landings, one wheel and one three-point. Jack mostly did the landings, so I don't really have much of an impression yet. Ground maneuvering is definitely harder, as the coupling between the rudder pedals and the tailwheel is very loose in the 140. My mention here of the GUMPS checklist is because I haven't drilled it, and thus I didn't actually select the fullest tank, which is what you're supposed to do.
A couple of things about the interior of the 140. I've always thought that having two switches, one for each magneto makes much more sense than the composite key-type rotary switch that's in most modern airplanes. That 140 has the two switches, and I do like it.
Another thing I really do like about it is having the turn-and-bank indicator in the center of my field of view. I have a tendency to over-rudder, and having that indicator right in front of me kept me more honest than having it down in the corner.
(Oh; I've updated my pilot skill matrix appropriately.)