LadiesLoveTaildraggers

Andrea Eldridge is based at KCNO, Chino Airport, Chino, California.

Twice the Luscombe Fun!

FAA Designated Pilot Examiner.  Assistant Editor Warbird Digest magazine.  Former Trans World Airline pilot.

From Planes of Fame Air Museum. Andrea getting ready to take off in her beautifully restored 1947 Luscombe.

My husband built this 1947 Luscombe for me and now we are restoring a Luscombe Phantom from the Golden Age of Aviation!

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Andrea Eldridge

FAA Designated Pilot Examiner

Patty Plantz is based at Blackhawk Airfield, Madison, Wisconsin.

I’ve been a pilot since 1987. Got hooked on aviation by my husband. He and his brother started flying ultralights in 1984. Then moved on to real airplanes. Our first plane was a Cessna Skyhawk that we shared with my father in law and brother in law. We did a few family vacations in that bird, when our kids were in middle school – Montana and Vermont. Moved on to a Kitfox in the early nineties. In 1996, we bought our current tail dragger, a 1947 Bellanca Cruisair (nick named the “Cardboard Connie” due to triple tail and wood & fabric construction).

I “flew” right seat only for the first year. Then when I got comfortable, I flew several hours with a tailtragger instructor. After that, I was on my own! I’ll never forget the first flight, flying solo at last. It was a gorgeous, sunny December day. I flew my favorite local route – followed the Wisconsin River. Felt like I was dancing in the sky as I did some shallow “S” turns along the twists and turns of the river. I’ve been in love with that airplane ever since.

Our Bellanca has the original panel, haven’t upgraded to any high tech stuff. Feels like stepping back in time half a century when we climb aboard for a flight. I love the way it flies and I love landing on grass. Feels great to touch down nice and soft on the green green grass -just like the good old days of early aviation!

We’ll soon be transitioning to sea plane pilots. I got my rating last Sept. in Michigan. The folks at Northwoods Aviation in Cadillac, MI offer a great program. My husband and I have been building a sea plane since 2003. We hope to have it flying by late summer (although that might be a bit optimistic!) I’ll miss the Bellanca. Its extra fun to be a female taildragger pilot because it usually turns some heads everywhere we go. I’m sure all you ladies can relate to that.

Looking forward to meeting fellow female taildragger pilots (and airplanes) at the Fly In this summer in Savannah.

Patty Plantz

Amanda Rutland is based at CHC, Christchurch Airport, New Zealand.

Flying the Moth, Centennial Park

Pictures included are the C185 and the Tiger, as that’s what I’ve done the bulk of my flying in over the years. We have a lot of female pilots here in NZ, but unfortunately taildragger pilots in general (male or female) are becoming exceedingly difficult to find.

If you want to get a rating on a new type it’s very difficult to find an instructor capable of training you. Women do seem to be more determined to give it a go here; it’s in the’ too hard’ basket for a lot of men who have their minds set on becoming airline pilots.

Haven’t flown much in the last few years, had a change of career so have been doing a lot of study. (:

Amanda & Bill & Moth

Got my private licence at 17, commercial at 19. Learned to fly a Piper Cub first, then worked in Wanaka flying a Tiger Moth and a Pitts Special, then flying a Cessna 185 dropping skydivers.

Have also flown an Auster and a Harvard, albeit briefly. Have around 1400 hours, 800 taildragger.

Take care.

Amanda Rutland

New Zealand

Mary Ann Dash is based at KWRL, Worland Municipal Airport, Worland, Wyoming.

Mary Ann Dach (right) with Lisa Martin

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Aviation has been in my blood since 1983! I have enjoyed doing all sorts of aviation related jobs/experiences too many to name here but my flight instructor blog has it all http://right-rudder.blogspot.com

Finding this website seems to be the perfect place for me to learn and stay connected to this new community.

Mary Ann Dach

Have I got an interesting story for you! Actually, it’s Ken & Lorraine Morris’ story but I’m passing it along with pleasure!  This is one they’re going to be telling for years to come and I’d like to be there for the telling! So Ken… Lorraine…. the lady taildraggers fly-in’s coming up?!

At the end of February we purchased a Cessna 140A in California, sight unseen, with the intent to restore it. Ken bought it, took off, and within 15 minutes the engine quit. He had a choice of landing in the San Francisco Bay (cold, wet water) or landing in the Dumbarton Mud Flats (cold, wet tidal mud). He chose the flats and made a great landing. The ground was soft and as soon as the main wheels hit the mud they stopped. Unfortunately the rest of the plane kept moving and it went over and ended up on its back.

He jammed his finger and thankfully that was the extent of personal injuries but the poor little 140 got a bit of gear damage. We found out that the mud flats were in a protected area for some endangered stupid mud mouse, and the California Fish and Wildlife department head had a major fit when he found out Ken had the audacity to lose his engine power and do an emergency landing in HIS mud!

The insurance company hired a helicopter to remove the plane because God Forbid any other vehicles dared transgress through the Protected Mud Mouse’s territory (Ken never saw ONE)! The helicopter picked the plane up by its gear, upside down, and brought it back to an airport where is was dismantled and loaded on a trailer to be trucked to Illinois.

Kathy Devine is based at DYL, Doylestown, PA and flies a Maule MX-7.

I’ve been flying since 1992. Started out in gliders and got licensed in 1995 after a slight delay due to giving birth to my beautiful daughter. Started flying in airplanes around that same time after my husband bought a Cessna 140. That plane taught me a lot but we sold it before I could get licensed in it. We purchased a partnership in a Maule Mx-7 (180hp) Taildragger of course. I got my license in that bird. I have around 200 hours combined glider and SEL and to this day only have 1 hour of tri gear in my logbook!

Here’s a forward that’s pretty incredible — The demise of an FA18 and the ejection seat that saved a life ….

Interesting photos of the of the ejection from the F18 that crashed last year in Alberta, Canada .  You may have seen the full sequence as the aircraft hits the ground several seconds later.  This is the first time that I’ve seen the canopy being blasted off the aircraft by the twin rockets.  In the second photo, note that the pilot is ejecting horizontal to the ground while the wings of the aircraft are perpendicular to the ground, which is about one tenth of a second below.

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Then comes the amazing change in direction for the ejection seat and pilot!  Note how the directional control on the ejection seat rockets has automatically changed the pilot’s trajectory and attitude so that he is climbing away from the fireball that is about to happen.  His drogue chute is also visibly deployed

Close! I bet he swung once and then landed!

Charlotte Dadswell is based at EGHR, Chichester/Goodwood Aerodrome, West Sussex, UK.

With HY at Headcorn for a 'bent-wing' fly-in, there weren't many other taildraggers!

I have done most of my flying from Goodwood, a beautiful airfield on the south coast of England, and am now based there as an instructor.

Aeronca Chief G-IVOR, the first Chief in the UK, imported by my Dad, Ivor

My Dad owned a 1946 Aeronca Chief when I was a child, so I have wanted to fly taildraggers for as long as I can remember! I learned to fly in a PA38 in 2005, and my first experience of tailwheel flying was in a Super Decathlon, shortly after obtaining my PPL.

Me with Falconar F11-3 G-AWHY

I later purchased a share in a Falconar F11-3, and completed my tailwheel conversion in this aircraft. I had great fun flying this for several years, and did all my CPL hour-building in it, but sold the share in 2011 after qualifying as an instructor.

In HY at White Waltham. I once flew here for an interview, and got a few surprised looks when I climbed out in a skirt and heels!

Flying tailwheel aircraft is what I enjoy most, and I would like to do more tailwheel teaching in the future. We see a lot of tailwheel aircraft at Goodwood, and I always point out the ‘proper’ aeroplanes to my students!

Sitting in the Old Flying Machine Company's Spitfire IX MH434, maybe one day...

It’s great to be part of this group and see the beautiful taildraggers everyone is flying all over the world.

Jacqui Manley is based at a private grass strip, Swanborough Farm Airfield, West Sussex, UK.

Jodel G-OABB

I fly as often as the weather is kind in a 2 seater Jodel, G-OABB Mascaret D150. I have held my PPL for 20 years, my first taildragger was a Jodel D112 , which we owned for 16 years, G-BPFD.

Tiger Moth G-BFHH

Most of my flying has taken place in these two aircraft, although I have had some lucky rides around Sussex and over to France as P1 in a Tiger Moth.

De Havilland DH-82A Tiger Moth II

I have done a little gliding too, but this was many years ago. I share the flying with my husband Ken. We tend to take turns flying to and from airfields and strips mostly in the south of the UK, changing seats so we both get to be P1.

Jodel D.150 Mascaret

We enjoy holidays in our Jodel, mostly to France as it is so close, just a 20 min hop across the channel.

Many thanks,

Jacqui

Pamela Flesher is based at TS36, Silver Wings Airport, Fredericksburg, in the Texas Hill Country.

Pamela Flesher

I solo’d in an Aeronca Champion the early 80′s but didn’t finish my license until many years later. I currently fly a Grumman Traveler out of TX36, a private fly-in community in central TX. Once a summer my husband gives me a treat, some time in a T6 in Florida. I doubt they will let me solo but at least I get to fly “big iron”.

Me and Lil Red at the Women's Air Race Classic start in Ft. Myers, FL.

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Another pilot on our strip just completed building an RV8, and said I could fly with him, while my husband insists we need a Cessna 195. So, more taildraggers are in my future.

I love taildraggers (and am still in the group who hasn’t yet) because I feel they have made me a better pilot. The check pilot said he could tell I had flown taildraggers when he flew with me for my PPL.

Pamela

N5893L/Lil Red