The objective in landing a taildragger is to get the aircraft on the ground without bouncing while maintaining directional control. With this in mind, there are generally two methods to land a taildragger—the 3-point landing and the wheel landing.

THREE POINT (FULL STALL) LANDINGS: In the 3-point landing, the aircraft is slowed to stall or near stall by holding the aircraft off the ground by gradually coming back on the stick (up elevator), attempting to hold the aircraft just inches off the ground until the airspeed depletes and the aircraft settles onto the ground. At this slowest possible flying speed the nose will be very high, the tail will be low, and all three wheels will touch down at the same time, or the tailwheel may actually touchdown first. Touching down at near stall is the desired method because it means the aircraft is barely still flying, is out of energy, and is unable to bounce back into the air. It is also at its slowest airspeed and the landing roll will be very short. It is the right type landing for a short field and for the RC model pilot to show off his skill at flying a taildragger.

RC pilots are reluctant to slow as much as necessary to achieve full-stall 3-point landings. So, they usually fly a half-correct landing, with its attendant critical timing of the forward stick bump and the resulting “bounces” back into the air. To learn how slow you need to be to fly at just above stall speed with nearly full up-elevator, try deliberately flying down the runway as slow as possible without touching down. In other words, try to fly down the runway and hold it off until the aircraft stalls and won’t fly anymore. Or, try to slow down so much that the tailwheel touches the ground first, before the main gear. That’s the correct landing speed for a 3-point (full stall) landing. This will require you to hold the aircraft off the ground by continuing to come back on the stick as the speed bleeds off. If you can’t hold it off the ground and have still not reached stall speed, you may not have enough elevator throw for full stall landings. You may need to adjust your throw so you can achieve full up elevator while in level slow flight. On some of my airplanes I have to use high rate elevator during landing to get enough up elevator to slow down to stall speed. If you are bouncing your taildragger landings, you are most likely not slowing down enough.

WHEEL LANDINGS: The second type landing is the wheel landing in which the aircraft is flown onto the runway in level flight attitude with only the main wheels touching down. This is often considered best for gusty crosswind landings, though there are many opinions on this subject. This takes a higher airspeed to achieve, so the pitch attitude upon touchdown is level flight, not nose up (or tail down). Essentially, fly the aircraft an inch off the ground in level flight. This is often best achieved by throttling back to descend down final approach until just above the ground, then adding a little power to stop the descent and achieve level flight. RC pilots with a nosegear background are reluctant to add power during a wheel landing thinking they need to continue to slow down to land. Fly the main wheels onto the runway by easing forward on the stick just slightly, not pulling off power. Remember you want to fly onto the ground in level flight, not in a descent. Just at the point of touchdown or just slightly before the main wheels touch, bump the stick forward (down elevator) for just a second which seems to “pin” the wheels onto the ground. In reality, you are preventing the tail from dropping. This is a critical point. Without this forward stick, the tail will continue moving downward when the wheels touch, because the CG is aft of the main gear. When the tail goes down, the angle of attack increases causing more lift and the aircraft “bounces” back into the air. It doesn’t really bounce, but just flies back up. Most pilots blame it on the springiness of the gear and don’t realize it was caused by the AoA increasing as the tail goes downward. It looks exactly the same as a bounce, so it’s easy to think the gear caused it, but the cause is different. The slight bump of forward stick just at touchdown stops the tail from dropping and keeps the aircraft on the ground. But, do it too early and the aircraft can hit the ground too hard and truly bounce. Do it too late and the tail will have already continued downward and the airplane will already be flying back up. It’s all about timing the forward stick input. In reality, it needs to be done just before the wheels touch because of the pilot’s reaction time This just takes practice.

HALF WAY IN BETWEEN LANDINGS: I should mention the third type of taildragger landing—one that is in between a 3-point and a wheel landing. This is not good technique. It is usually the result of not flying a 3-point landing properly and makes a nice landing difficult to accomplish. It is usually caused by not getting slowed enough for the 3-pointer or not flying fast enough for a proper wheel landing. It will end up being a wheel landing in a nose-high, tail low attitude. Most RC pilots never get slowed down enough and will touch down at more than stall speed.

Typically, the aircraft will be in a steady descent down final all the way to touchdown in somewhat of a nose-high attitude with the tail somewhat down. The tail won’t be low enough for a 3-point (full stall) landing and will be too high for a wheel landing in level flight. Remember, in a 3-point landing the nose has to be very high, and tail low just on the verge of stall and in a wheel landing the fuselage must be in level-flight attitude. A sure indicator of an impending problem is when the aircraft is in a steady descent all the way to the ground at well above stall speed. This makes timing of the forward stick bump especially critical. When the aircraft is in a steady descent to the ground, the tail is already moving downward, so when the wheels hit, the tail keeps going down at an even faster rate. This can be stopped by a forward stick bump at precisely the right time—just immediately before the wheels touch. It will take more forward stick than in a properly executed wheel landing because the downward movement of the tail is greater in this situation. It can be done, but it’s much trickier.

BOTTOM LINE: Either really slow down for a full stall, 3-pointer or keep the speed up by adding power if necessary for a wheel landing. Halfway in between only makes for half-assed landings–bouncing, swerving, ground looping, or running off the runway.

But if you just can’t seem to get slowed enough to reach full stall speed and you are bouncing on touchdown, then learn to slightly bump the stick forward (or at least relax the back pressure on the stick) at the instant before the main gear touches down (about 1 inch of altitude). You MUST stop the tail from continuing downward when the gear touches or you’ll be airborne again because of the increased Angle of Attack. It looks like a bounce but it’s really not—its actually a liftoff the same as if you gave it up elevator. If you see someone trying to make a 3-point stall landing, but their speed is a little high and they “bounce”, it’s because they did not stop the tail from going down by using a little forward stick or relaxing the back pressure on the stick.

THE ESSENTIAL POINT TO REMEMBER: Regardless of the type of landing you are trying to make, on every landing you MUST stop the tail from dropping when the main wheels touch down. There are only 2 ways to do this. 1. Be so slow that the tailwheel touches down first and can’t drop any lower as the mains touch. 2. Give a bump of down elevator immediately before the main wheels touch down.

A NOTE ABOUT RUDDER. The rudder is arguably the most important flight control on a taildragger. The taildragger is inherently unstable because the CG is behind the wheels. which makes it want to veer sideways and even swap ends. This will happen on landing unless you steer aggressively with the rudder from the moment of touchdown. RC pilots are not used to using the rudder, but must learn. To learn to use your rudder, practice high speed taxiing using the rudder for steering until you can do it without thinking about it. On landing, as soon as the wheels touch down steer with the rudder to prevent swerving and ground loops. Actually, if you wait until you see a deviation, it’ll be too late to stop it. You must anticipate deviations. For example, my Cub tends to veer right on touchdown, so I bump some left rudder at the moment of touchdown and this usually keeps the swerve from starting. But, I need to watch carefully throughout the landing roll and react until the airplane is fully stopped. You can’t handle a taildragger well until you learn to use rudder constantly and aggressively. Watch a full-scale taildragger pilot’s feet during takeoff and landing. It looks like he is dancing as his feet never stop working the rudder. RC pilots must do the same thing with their hand.

Practice everything I’ve discussed in this article until you can land properly and others will recognize your skill. Nowhere else in flying is the pilot’s skill more on display than when landing a taildragger. There is nothing more humbling than trying to land a taildragger in front of your buddies!