FLYING THE TIGER MOTH

Guy Leitch writes: The Tiger Moth is one of the greatest trainers of all time. It’s easy to fly, yet really hard to fly well, and this is what made it a great trainer.

- Guy Leitch, Jim Davis

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE of the Tiger Moth was courtesy of my great friend and instructor Larry Beamish deciding that I needed to learn to fly tailwheel planes. For someone brought up on docile Cessnas and Cherokees, the Tiger is – well – a tiger. It assaults your senses.

The wind blasts you; the engine and prop noise hammers you like a rock concert, and the handling is well…. different. This is an aeroplane that demands fancy footwork. The prop turns the ‘wrong’ way so it yaws to the right when you open the power on takeoff.

You have to get the tail up smartly on takeoff to see where you’re going but overdo it and you will grind the prop into the ground and it may flip onto its back. That’s a lot worse than a dreaded ground loop, especially as the fuel tank is in the top wing. 

Oh – and did I mention it has no starter – and no brakes. You have to be determined to fly a Tiger.

 

For my Christmas holiday we took our buckets and spades to Kenton on Sea. And there, hold and below! - a beautiful yellow Tiger came chuntering along the coast. Better still, I knew the owner, Clifford Reynolds, from way back.