LAZY LEGS CAN BITE YOU IN THE A***!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

SCENE: A courtroom;

Judge, in a commanding tone; Bring the prisoner forward.

Hangdog looking man in a flying suit shuffles into the dock

Judge; Usher, read the charges.

Usher, in a "courtroom" monotone; You are charged that on the first day of January, two thousand and eleven you were a student pilot in a Boeing Type 75, otherwise known as a Stearman, and, upon landing said aircraft, did cause it to slew across the runway striking a runway light, causing it to break.  How do you plead?

Prisoner; Guilty, m'lud.

Judge; Prisoner at the bar, you have pleaded guilty to the charge and it is now my duty to pass sentence upon you.  You will suffer.........

And then I woke up!  The "charges" are quite true though.  I went up in the Stearman on New Year's Day and was doing quite well, at least a bit better than before, for the first couple of circuits but on the third, with a bit of left-to-right crosswind, I pushed on the right rudder but was far too "lazy" with the left and was pretty rapidly heading for the edge of the runway - PANIC!!  By the time things were on a bit of an even keel the right hand wheel had struck a runway edge light and broken it.  I had no idea about the breakage until the tower called us and advised a landing next circuit.  In the end we were able to do a low approach and overshoot while a controller had a look at the undercarriage to check for damage.  None apparent, but I had a grandstand view of the fire personnel on the runway sweeping up the mess!!

Very humbling indeed.  Instructor Pete was very good about it and said it was fairly typical for a Cessna/Cherokee pilot to get into a bit of a mess with "Lazy Legs".  On the plus side, the Stearman was undamaged and I have had a salutary lesson on the instability of taildraggers - can only get better!!

View from the driver's seat