Since I have in excess of 500 hours in each type mentioned here and was invited to comment, I will.
To start with, you're drawing a comparison of two different arguments. One about learning to fly a tailwheel aircraft and the other is learning to fly an aircraft with very light controls. Those are two completely different things. #1. I don't think you can train in a better taildragger than a Champ. I've owned two of them over the years. The gear is usually worn out and sloppy, the plane is slow, the brakes hardly work, if at all, and the controls are heavy and unresponsive. You can ground loop it and it will simply turn around and roll out backwards without hurting the plane. But, as simple, unresponsive and slow as it is, once you master a Champ, you have everything in your knowledge tool kit to fly almost any taildragger you will ever encounter. #2. The Cub is a good choice as well. More responsive and lighter on the controls than a Champ, and will do a good job of teaching you what you need to know. FWIW, my 160 hp SuperCub Clone is way more ham-fisted than my Champs, but you're in the plane to learn tailwheel, not to learn how to fly a twitchy elevator. It will teach you to always trim for your speed as it will flat wear you out if you don't. #3. If you are looking for a crash course to get into a KR, get some time in a RV-6, RV-7, RV-9, or a Sonex. They feel similar to the KR although a bit lighter on the ailerons and heavier on the elevator. But they will give you much more of a feel for a light uber responsive elevator. #4. The buyer of my KR had never flown a TailWheel prior to getting in my KR. We flew roughly 8 hours together while he learned TW with me in the KR. He flew the plane fine, but was still struggling with his landings which was exacerbated by two issues. The first issue was that we were flying at the aft CG limit, so the control response was less than crisp at low speeds, and with that much weight behind the gear, wheel landings always turned into a rodeo as the tail would drop as soon as the mains touched, so the plane would always want to bounce. The second challenge was that I am not an instructor, so I was struggling to explain what I have been intuitively doing as second nature for the last 23 years. After 8 hours of Dual, he went to a flight school to get his Tailwheel endorsement. They had him do 3 intensive days of flying with three different instructors in a SuperCub. That served to slow things down a bit so he could polish on the skills we had been practicing together without having things happening quite so fast. Additionally, he came back with some training suggestions from his instructors that we used. After 2 more hours of dual working mostly on 3 point landings, late yesterday, he asked me to get out of the plane so he could fly his new plane by himself. That put the CG back where it should be, and he went out and made 3 squeaker landings. I had told him that if he could learn to land the plane with me in it with him, it would be easy when I got out! While he learned to fly a Tailwheel in the KR, getting to work in slow motion in the SuperCub with an instructor did a great deal to help him polish his skills to where he was really ready to deal with the faster, much lighter controls on the KR. He plans to spend two more days doing a lot of circuits locally to polish on his skills some more before heading off for home with his new plane. -Jeff Scott Arkansas Ozarks > Sent: Tuesday, September 01, 2020 at 3:24 PM > From: "Mike Stirewalt via KRnet" <krnet@list.krnet.org> > To: krnet@list.krnet.org > Cc: laser...@juno.com > Subject: KR> PNW Mini FlyIn #2 > > > "If you are getting your PPL, I'd strongly advise getting time in a J3 > cub > or aeronca champ or citabria." > > "The KR is shortly coupled flight characteristics in conjunction with > the > fact the rudder authority is limited." > > I may be misunderstanding things here and probably am since the > statements above are about as far from accurate as can be. The KR is > short coupled it's true, especially the original design, but I've never > ever ran out of rudder in even the strongest of crosswinds. > > As for the others, I've never flown a J3 I'm ashamed to say and my > Citabria time was brief and long ago but despite the years I think I can > safely say the feel and handling of a Citabria is really nothing like a > KR. Re the Champ . . . now that really is dangerously off the mark. I > made the mistake of doing my biennial time before last in a Champ > thinking it might be fun. Instead, as Riley used to say, "What a > revoltin' experience that turned out to be!" It was awful. The controls > are so unresponsive (compared to the 2 KR's I've owned) that trying to > perform simple maneuvers with any grace was a painful experience. All > three of those designs are getting close to a hundred years old and feel > nothing like a plane with the responsiveness of a KR. Old planes have > their charm for some people but using one in order to develop a feel for > a KR is, saying it as nicely as I can, inappropriate. > > Any of the Grummans would be far better choices, the best of those would > be the TR-2 but any of the 2 place models (they had different names and > varied slightly) would be closest. The original Yankee would be best of > all since it was more touchy than the others that followed. I think any > of the two-place RV's would also be good - Jeff can comment on that since > I'm just presuming . . . just going on what I've heard over the years. > RV owners love to extol the virtue of their control quickness. > > I can't think how flying any of those old war horses named above would > help anyone develop an expectation or feel for a KR. Using a car > analogy, it would be like using a 1948 Buick Roadmaster to help get a > feel for a Formula 1 car. Sorry if I've misunderstood something. > > Mike > KSEE > > > ____________________________________________________________ > Sponsored by > https://www.newser.com/?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_taglines_more > > A Response From Trump About New Book's Claim > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5f4eae20c7e652e20413ast03vuc1 > What Looks Like a Landslide May End Up Being a 'Mirage' > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5f4eae20e88ff2e20413ast03vuc2 > Suit: McDonald's 'Intentionally' Hurt Black Franchisees > http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL3141/5f4eae21152452e20413ast03vuc3 > > _______________________________________________ > Search the KRnet Archives at > https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. > Please see LIST RULES and KRnet info at http://www.krnet.org/info.html. > see http://list.krnet.org/mailman/listinfo/krnet_list.krnet.org to change > options. > To UNsubscribe from KRnet, send a message to krnet-le...@list.krnet.org > _______________________________________________ Search the KRnet Archives at https://www.mail-archive.com/krnet@list.krnet.org/. 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