Do you suffer from Tailwheel Envy?

Ashamed to be seen taxiing your Piper Cherokee past smug Champs, Cubs and Stearmans with their tails on the ground and noses pointed skyward? Well, help is here.

Now, you can earn that coveted FAR 61.31 Tailwheel Endorsement in the front seat of a tailwheelin’ Citabria from Paul Berge Aviation. Training at Nash Field (6Z6), you’ll experience tailwheel flying, the way nature intended, from an Iowa grass runway with no ATC, long waits for takeoff or check ride pressures.

Spend a day or take a weekend to master the art and science of flying with throttle in your left hand, joystick in the right and both feet coordinated on the rudder pedals. It’s seat-of-the-knickers, centered flying where you’ll learn to feel what the airplane needs rather than what some glass panel expects. Then, when you’re comfortable making normal and crosswind landings—full stall and wheel—and can handle the Citabria in go-around procedures, you’ll hear your instructor say, “Get out your log book and checkbook,” because you’re a tailwheel pilot now.

Your instructor, Paul Berge, has thousands of hours of tailwheel experience over 40+ years of flying and occupies the seat behind yours ready to correct the more amusing excursions you might attempt. Additionally, he’s there to tell endless stories while guiding you into this new phase of your flying life. And when you return to your nose-pushing Cherokee, she’ll notice a change in you and say, “You’ve been flying with someone else…and I like what I’m feeling.”

Contact Paul to learn how to combine tailwheel training with your flight review.

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