Your friend that recomended the tail dragger is right as far as I am concerned, especially on a grass runway.. If you use a trike gear on our runway you had best to install a few extra coats of epoxy on your firewall as I've seen many firewalls break out upon even slightly rough landings.. Our field is usually windy and the trike gears are placed so close together that the airplane blows over onto a wingtip with great regularity.. Learning a tail dragger is somewhat harder, but not enough to impede your learning process.. I'll admit I go to the trouble and install a rudder controlled tail wheel (just for manueverability in taxi )... rather than to just let the tail drag .