Original Posted By: Brent Reed
I think the Pietenpol is very easy to fly for a tail dragger. My dad taughtme to fly his. I flew from the front seat at first and after I got the hangof it we switched places. I forget exactly how long it took but it wasn'tvery long, not more than 5 hours. I only had about 20 hours of instructionat the time, all in tri gear planes. I was signed off to solo the pietwhile I was still a student pilot. The hardest part was finding aninstructor that was experienced with tail draggers. The person who flewwith me and signed me off had lots of tail dragger time but none in aPietenpol. We put off the flight several times due to cross winds, etc.The instructor was not completely comfortable flying for the first time inan unfamiliar airplane in less than ideal conditions. Since he had put meoff several times, he finally said that he would fly with me if I wascomfortable with the conditions. There was a steady cross wind of about 10miles per hour. We made the flight and everything went fine. I suggest getting a few hours dual in a Pietenpol if possible. If not, thena couple of hours in something like a Champ would probably be enough. Ifyou have to teach yourself the Pietenpol, then approach it VERY slowly.Start with very low speed taxi. Increase speeds slightly when you arecompletely comfortable with the handling. Keep increasing the speed untilyou are comfortable with high speed, tail up runs. Eventually you will beready to fly. Do things at first in calm air (little or no wind). Wait forgood days if you need to. Don't rush it! Be careful you don't get too muchspeed, I ended up flying once before I wanted to (in a Flybaby). Lessonlearned: double check airspeed indicator operation!I wouldn't advise test flying your own Pietenpol without a little moreexperience, or at least flying in another one to know how it should handle.Hope this is helpful. In all cases the choice is up to you, of course. Butthis is how I would approach it.Jim>Hello to all. Steve told me I should post an intro, so here it is. My>name is Glenn Scherer, I live in north central Texas, NE of Dallas.>Although I won't start pilot training until sometime this spring, I>have already decided that I want to build an airplane for>reacreational flying. The Piet appeals to me for several reasons, not>least of which is that it's still being built and flown after sixty>years. >>I would like to solicit this group's opinion on how suitable this>plane is for a low-time pilot. Is it a forgiving design to fly, or>should I expect to build up a lot of hours in more suitable designs?>>TIA, Glenn>>________________________________________________________________________________