My first taildragger flight, and I'm absolutely bloody hooked.4pm, my mate picked me up and we took a drive down to La Mercy where his beautifully restored Vagabond shares a hangar with a couple of quad bikes of ill repute. Quick change of the port suspension and it was time to rock and roll.
55mph on 06 and the tail comes up, 65mph and she wants to fly and at 70 you allow her to take a little elevator and there you go. Quick? (Slow) cruise up to Ballito, little waggling of the wings over my house, slide open the window and wave, then up to Salt Rock for an orbit over another pilot's house and back to the field into the now quickly setting sun. I brought her in a little high on base, after which P1 took over and sideslipped her down and put her bum on the gound (with a bump).
"Ok, one quick circuit" he says, "I promise I can land better than that."
Off we go, this time I flew a much tighter circuit, kept my corners a little straighter and was quite impressed on turning final and keeping the ball in the middle. Pity I was lined up over the hangars and not the field
, but the alt was better Came down for a perfect greaser (captured on video too).
Push her back into the hangar and crack open a frostie!
It's k@k in Africa, isn't it?
