Hey everyone. Looking for some recommendations on where to get a tailwheel endorsement. Ideally, I would like to go somewhere and knock it out over a weekend. I'm located in Georgia but would certainly travel within reason and make it a road trip. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
I've not personally flown with him, but I've heard good things about Ron Dillard at M54, Lebanon, TN. Teaches in a Citabria. A weekend might be pushing it, depending on your experience, rudder skills.
I know a CFI that also trains in a Citabria just south of Raleigh. Can you get closer to the location than "southeast"? I imagine there are lots of people out there teaching TW.
aerowood aviation at EQY has a dragger but I don't know what they offer for training packages, if any.
Could you provide a few more details on the Citabria south of Raleigh and the CFI? I might be interested.
Funny you mention Billy. He is on my list of instructors I'm considering. Thanks a lot for the heads up!
I did tail wheel with Billy when he still had his J3 cub. He was/is the chief instructor at the 141 school that I attended and worked at for about a year. I learned a lot from Billy and don’t have any reservations about recommending him.
Barry at Punta Gorda FL is excellent. Former FAA DPE, has about 20k tailwheel hours, most of it teaching. Honestly if I were you I would just find somebody local to you. Taildraggery isn't hard to teach, so no need to go find the Michael Jordan of TW. The real learning comes once you get the sign off, for about the first 100 hours on your own.
Paul Santopietro near Daytona, Florida. (http://learntailwheel.com/) He has two Citabrias. I spent two days with him right before I soloed back at my home field / home airspace on the other side of the state. We did real, full-on spin training, plenty of touch-and-goes, slow flight, etc. VERY helpful. I had a lot of lack-of-confidence issues, particularly with landing and slow flight. We cleaned all of that up over those two days and after I get my PPL, I'll just spend a few more hours with him for the taildragger endorsement. It was quite the experience. He's actually based out of Massey Ranch (X50) in Edgewater, Florida. If you go, I'd suggest staying in New Smyrna Beach which is right down the street and a great little town.