The rugged design of a tailwheel airplane and its extra prop clearance opens up the opportunity to land at a wide variety of off-airport locations with soft surfaces, like sand, gravel bars, grass and even mud. A modified soft-field approach and landing technique should be used when operating in these conditions, which allows the wheels to touchdown at the slowest possible airspeed with the wings supporting the weight of the airplane as long as possible.

Airplanes are held to high standards when it comes to maintenance and inspection requirements. This week’s tip takes a look at the reason behind each inspection, how to verify they’ve been completed and the required paperwork to be on the airplane. It also takes a look at why digital 406 MHz emergency locator transmitters (ELT) incorporate GPS to improve their performance.

The FAA recommends standard traffic pattern flows at nontowered airports in an effort to maintain order and a safe environment for aircraft arrivals and departures. This includes specific instructions on how to enter back into the pattern after spending some time practicing maneuvers at a higher altitude away from the airport. This week’s video tip illustrates several methods to do this, depending on the direction from which you’re approaching the airport, in an effort to get established on the downwind leg at the published traffic pattern altitude.

There are several new flight maneuvers to learn during Commercial Pilot Training. One of the new ground reference maneuvers is called Eights on Pylons, which involves flying a figure 8 pattern over the ground while varying the aircraft’s altitude in order to maintain a defined visual reference to preselected reference points, called pivot points, or pylons.

This week we go flying to see what power-on stalls are all about. Some pilots are nervous about this maneuver, which can require a nose high attitude. But with a good understanding of the aerodynamics and a preview from outside the airplane, you’ll have the confidence to perform these stalls smoothly – and hopefully avoid an inadvertent one on takeoff.