........ If I am right, this rule is not aimed at high time big iron pilots moving down to a J3.
My uncle retired from the Air Force with quite a few thousand hours piloting C-124 Globemasters, which were pretty good sized airplanes for their day. One of the first things he did after retiring, was rent and groundloop a J3.
JimC
Moving from a heavier aircraft to a lighter certified or light sport aircraft can present challenges. Also any prudent pilot will always get a checkout (cockpit and flight) from a person knowledgeable and experienced
in type. This applies to other transitions as well such as moving from S1-26 or S2-33 to a high performance "glass" sailplane. I remember that my Pawnee checkout consisted of two hours of ground instruction and a stint in the aircraft with the tail up on a sawhorse to demonstrate the steep nose down attitude of the nose in level flight.
Sad but true story:
Back in the mid eighties while I was flying the tow planes at Chilhowee Gliderport in Tn. Mike asked me to check out a new highly experienced pilot he was considering. We were using an L-19 and had retired the 7GCBC and PA-18. I had hundreds of hours and tows in the Bird Dog in all kinds of weather including those brisk winter days when the soaring on the mountain ridges was excellent but required takeoffs and landings with stiff crosswinds and burbles across the 2800 ft grass strip.
The pilot also had to remember he was dragging a 200 ft rope behind him and this complicates the approach. Mike always wanted us to land with rope attached with fast turn around as we always had gliders waiting to go. On light wind days we landed downwind and fast taxied tail up back to the gliders.
The prospective tow pilot was a retired Navy Carrier Pilot and commercial pilot who had well over 12,000 hours of flight time. He had logged a lot of tail wheel time but none in the L-19.
He was a much more experienced pilot than I was and was pretty much an expert on flying in general.The day of the checkout was a light wind day out of the NW at 5 to 10 and clear skies. We started with the customary full stall landings with all flap settings from zero to full 60 degrees. I then asked the "student" to demonstrate a series of partial and full flap wheel landings on left, right gear and then both mains. I cautioned the new pilot about the spring gear on the L-19 and it's propensity to ground loop during a bounced landing or when drift was present ( the L-19 can be vicious when drifted at touchdown). I also mentioned that application of flaps in crosswinds had to be managed carefully. I told him the same thing I was told "Don't turn your back on a Bird Dog till it is tied down".
To my surprise the guy refused to show me any wheel landings and gave me a 15 minute lecture that tail wheel aircraft should always be landed three point and never wheel landed and presented all of the same arguments we have all discussed and read before. He also went over all of his qualifications again and reminded me that he was a Navy pilot. I ended the checkout session and let Mike know that the prospect had not demonstrated any wheel landings. Mike needed a pilot, and also flew with him an hour or so and decided to let him tow.
Three weeks later the new guy severely ground looped the L-19, taking out the right gear and bending the prop. The plane was ground looped so hard that we found grass between the rim and tire. The day of the accident was a really great ridge day with stiff winds out of the west. People who saw the incident said he was attempting a three point landing with near full flaps, lost control, and added power too late and well into the ground loop.
The new guy ( flying expert) drove off never to be heard from again and we had no tow plane for many weeks.
