Pilot Life: Logging Some Quick Tail Dragger Time with My Uncle!

After attending my friend's wedding reception this evening, we high-tailed it back to Fremont County because my uncle Sam (no he does not wear a top hat, patriotic attire, and points at you!) offered to take me flying for a quick stint around the pattern in St. Anthony. And we got to do it in the CP-30 Emeraude, the tail-dragger that he gave me an intro flight in last year! And this time, I got to log the flight under both dual and as pilot-in-command. After we arrived at the St. Anthony Airport, we waited; as it turns out, my uncle was already in the air flying with one of his buddies! After he landed, he parked the plane and had me hop in.

My uncle gave me some tail-dragger time in N5TX!

After a quick start-up followed by a run-up, we taxied onto Runway 22 and my uncle handed me the controls and had me do the takeoff roll. We got airborne and made a straight-out departure on runway heading. We then turned around and aimed for Runway 4 to get some quick rounds in the pattern; the winds were also favoring Runway 4 as well. My uncle then talked me through and helped with the process since I don't have much experience landing tail-draggers. We made three laps in the pattern for Runway 4 and I got to log three landings; my first was so-so, my second ended up with the plane weaving around the runway, and my third landing ended up being my best one of the night (yep, you read that correctly; I logged the time at night!).

By the end of the flight, I honestly felt that I had a better understanding of the handling on the Emeraude now compared to last year. And if we had more time, I honestly felt I could've really make improvements in handling the plane. Another time for that, perhaps! After the third landing, we rolled out and I handed control back to my uncle since the CP-30 Emeraude was a little difficult to control on taxi. We taxied to the hangar and my uncle shut the engine down, completing the flight. We rolled the plane into the hangar by hand and we headed back to Ashton, where my uncle had me make the appropriate entries into my logbook and he signed it!