I’ve long wanted regular access to a tube-and-fabric taildragger, something to fly low and slow, with my arm hanging out the window. I’m happy with my go-places airplane, which fits most of my missions, but variety is a good thing. A few flights in a friend and neighbor’s nice, simple, original Aeronca 7AC Champ didn’t whet my appetite for that kind of flying. Instead, it was stronger than ever. So when another friend emailed me a link to an auction for a similar airplane, with the simple question, “Halfsies?” the deal was all but done. A couple of weeks later, there literally was a used Champ on my door step.
There was one small problem: I had never flown a Champ as pilot-in-command. I had lots of time in similar airplanes—Super Cubs on straight floats, mainly—but some of that was as self-loading freight. I had logged 0.5 hour PIC in a wheel-equipped Cub one Sunday afternoon decades ago and was grandfathered from needing a specific endorsement, so I was legal to solo a taildragger. But I had enough conventional-gear/taildragger experience in other airplanes, including Decathlons and J-3 Cubs, to understand I didn’t know what I was doing, and needed some dual. After airplane readiness, weather and instructor schedules aligned themselves, I finally got enough stick time in Champs to figure out most of it. Here’s what a Debonair driver learned about taildraggers.
