AVIATION IS UP TO ITS EMPENNAGE IN TALL TALES: V-tail Bonanzas are doctor killers. Warbirds have uncontrollable P-factor/torque. Runways shorter than 2,000 feet long require specialized skills. Density altitude isn't a factor below 1,800 feet msl. And my favorite: Tailwheel airplanes are inherently dangerous and too difficult for most pilots to fly. It is far too often assumed that taking initial flight training in a taildrag-ger is not only dangerous but unnecessarily drags out training. It's a good thing aviation didn't know how supposedly dangerous training in taildraggers is because, for the first 50 years after the Wright brothers did their thing, virtually no one learned to fly in a tricycle-gear airplane. Nosewheel trainers didn't become commonplace until the late 1950s, and even then it took a long time for the Piper J-3 Cub and Aeronca Champ to relinquish their holds on training as Cessna 152s and Piper Cherokees took over. Primary students in tailwheel airplanes didn't know they were doing the impossible because they had nothing to compare it to. However, tailwheel students develop skills and perceptions tricycle-gear students don't because nosewheel airplanes don't need them as much.
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