Conversion to Conventional Gear

Well, having owned N9GZ for about a year and starting to get real comfortable with it, I was ready to do what I wanted to do ever since the day I bought it. One of the beautiful things about this plane was that it could easily be converted to trike, conventional and amphibian gear. I had about 100 hours in a Citabria and really enjoyed the challenge of tailwheel flying (or landing I should say..) According to Glasair, the Sportsman could be converted to tailwheel in "about an hour". I must admit that I was a little nervous about going back to tailwheel flying. I wanted to wait till the winter was over, the winds to calm down, and those grass strips to open before I got back into it.

So back to Ed at A&P to make the conversion. On April 13th, 2010, I dropped N9GZ off and worked with Ed to make the change. When I bought the plane, the previous owner gave me a tailwheel conversion kit as well as an extra set of main gear struts. I thought it would be a simple change. Well, nothing is quite as easy as it seems.

All in all, after a few starts and stops for some missing parts, the conversion was done in about a day. Honestly, I'm not sure I'd do this back a forth all the time, but I now know what to expect. Boy, does it look neat! I couldn't be happier with the plane (at least the way it looks!) How would it handle in the new configuration?

The weather here in NY was still a little raw and I knew there was no way I could take it up myself. So I contact Adam Rosenberg at Heritage Flight Academy and made an appointment with him in the Citabria once again. It had been a year but I was confident that I would jump right back in like I never left. Boy was I wrong. Well I must first say that the weather just was not cooperating at all. Every day was windy ( 10-12 kts, gusting to 18) and it never seemed to be down the runway, but I went up 3 times with him and did about 25 landings and felt pretty good. But now it was time for my plane.

On April 23rd, Adam and I took N9GZ in the new configuration for my first flight. The winds were forecast to be moderate but once again, while taxing out, we both realized that this was going to be a borderline day. Again gusting to 15 kts, but at least it was somewhat down the runway. As I taxied by the tower, the controller commented on the plane, which made me feel great. There was a lot of play in the taxi, as the brakes seemed to take a lot of pressure to get it to go where I wanted. But soon enough we were lined up on runway 15R and in the pattern.

I wish I could say that it was a great day and I transitioned easily. Nothing of the sort. In fact, I was downright miserable. It was the worst landings I had ever done, worse than when I started out in a tailwheel years ago. Ok, granted the wind was swirling but I've been in worse before. I landed hard several times and I swear I saw something fly off the plane once. I must have broke something! But I was never close to losing it and for what it's worth, Adam said considering the wind, I did just fine.

I went up with Adam a few days later and still was not comfortable. Again the winds were gusting and again I had a hard time. First my three pointers were bouncy, then my wheely landings were hard. Again and again I went around the pattern, determined to master tailwheel landings, only to be disappointed. It was at that point that I started to question my logic in making this conversion. What was I thinking? Every error in tailwheel landings is exaggerated while errors in trike landings are minimized with that front wheel. Boy was I discouraged.

Finally on the third day with him, I stared to get a sense of what I was doing. Even though I was not close to where I wanted to be, Adam pronounced me safe to fly solo again. He cautioned to pick a good day with little wind and I'd be fine. Sure enough, the next time out was a beautiful day and I nailed everything. It was like I had been flying tailwheels all the time. That was over a month and a half ago and I must say I'm having a ball.

One thing is for sure though, I realize that once I think I got it all figured out, I bounce another landing. So it goes with the tailwheel.

Next up, will I make it to Oshkosh this year?