is it any harder to land a say piper cub useing taildragger mode? i'm planning on buying a 1/3 scale arf piper cub put before i do i'm going to convert my mkIII into a taildragger and learn how to handle it on the graund and landing. and do you always have to land a 3 piont landing?

If you want to come in faster, the tail will be higher when the mains touch down. For Example, if you have a longer runway, or are landing in a cross wind.

A three point landing happens when you are going as slowly as possible. Slower than that, and the tail wheel will hit first. If the mains are long enough, the speed for a three point landing could be the same as stall speed. Check out a full size from Poland called a Wilga. It is a single engine *bush plane*, designed for short field landing. Not only are the LG longer, they are pretty well shock mounted.

I generally shoot for a three point landing. . . because it's there.

A taildragger has the CG behind the main gear, while the tricycle gear has the CG ahead of the mains.

This becomes an issue when the airplane is yawed off a straight track on the ground (whether by pilot input or crosswind gust)

In the tail dragger, the CG is moving to yaw the airplane further around the mains (relatively unstable), while in the tricycle gear, the CG is trying to move ahead of the mains (a stable situation). That is the reason taildraggers are involved in more ground loop accidents, where the CG keeps on going and the airplane swaps ends, often snagging a wingtip in the process.

FWIW, when I taught FS tricycle airplane students to fly a Taylorcraft, the transistion took 6-8 hours, and focused on flying the airplane on or near the runway. When I took a T-craft student into the tricycle airplane, it would take 2 - 3 hours, mostly due to the flaps that the T-craft didn't have... Taildragger students could land the Cessna successfully on the first lesson. It usually took three or four lessons for the Cessna drivers to become competent with no-crosswind full stall landings in the T-craft. Then we were off to wheel landings and crosswinds!!

Full stall landings are preferred in light air or direct headwinds, but if there is a crosswind, a wheel lanidng is preferred to maintain control of the airplane during touchdown....

Taildraggers require a bit more skill, but are a lot more fun!!

Cheers!

Jiim

This didn't occur to me, but it makes sense. This is similar to the reason the new VW Bug has the engine in the front. Old Bugs and Corvairs had a tendency to try to go backwards due to the aft CG.

Taildraggers are a lot more fun. Takeoffs are usually the biggest problem. Landings are easy if you have a steerable tailwheel. If you do mostly wheel landings you will have rudder control for a longer period. Three points are prefered. Just remember that the three point requires a full stall which should be at ground level. Learned to fly full scale on a tail dragger. Full scale trike pilots seem to forget that the mains have to be on the ground before the nose. One of the main repair and fixup problems on 172's and 182's is a dinged firewall. Model trikes usually have the nose gear mounted to the firewall so the same problems apply.

Tailwheel planes handel rough ground better than nosegear planes. Models and fullscale.

You might get some debate on that statement. Rough ground will often cause a taildragger to nose over, especially when taxiing.
Dennis-

The place that modelers have the most problem with a Cub is they tend to apply power too fast, and end up torque-turning and losing control. (some will say its really "P-Factor' doing it... the result is what counts.)

Apply power slowly and smoothly and the taildragger will behave much better. As you gain proficiency in coordinating rudder and elevator to keep the tail straight (a bit of up elevator to hold the tailwheel down till you have a bit of airspeed) you will find you can apply the power faster.

Trike gear trainers let you get away with slapping the throttle to full. A taildragger won't let you get away with that unless you know how to deal with it.

Cubs have a slightly narrow landing gear. You have to be careful about doing turns on the ground at speed.

Cubs with scale control surfaces are subject to severe "Adverse Yaw" which can cause you to drop a wing and spin the airplane on final approach if you don't use the rudder for lining up with the runway. Using the ailerons at low speed can have the Cub turn the opposite of the desired direction. This tendancy can be reduced by setting substantial "differential throw" in the ailerons (more upward deflection than downward) but the real cure is to learn to properly use the rudder. The adverse yaw can be severe enough that with full rudder and aileron to one direction... the airplane still turns the opposing direction. (I used to demonstrate this doing landings with a Kadet Sr equipped with barn door style ailerons.)

I trained on a Cessna-150, and my instructor would smack me if I let the nose wheel smack the runway. I don't know about other trike gear pilots, but I was taught to do a full stall landing. I teach it when instructing R/C.

Same here. In fact my instructor would smack me if I didn't hold full back stick after the nose wheel touched down just to keep as much weight off the nose gear as posible for as long as posible... he owned the plane too so I'm sure that had something to do with it.