RE: castering tailwheels
Yes thats how they work in small planes anyway. Larger taildraggers have a locking pin that is mechanically locked for takeoff and landing, steers with the rudder I believe. Funny, but I work as a machinist, and the other day I got to make one of these locking pins for a B17 that was being flown to an airshow and stopped here for fuel. It had broken, and as you can imagine, parts are about 60 yrs out of print for those. I didn't charge a cent for it, I just wanted to look at the plane lol.