Steering a plane

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I recently retired from a 34-year career as an engineer on steam locomotive NKP 765. Believe it or not, I once had a visitor to the cab that said, “Whoa dude! How many guys does it take to steer this thing?” There’s no steering wheel, of course.

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You can’t fix stupid.
 
Don't you steer a plane on the ground, but fly it in the air?
Ground movement of an airplane under its own power is called 'taxiing.' Unless it's not under its own power like when you get a 'pushback' from the gate (backing up) or 'under tow' from a tug (being pulled forward by a ground tug).

Flight is called..... flying. :p
 
Steering wheel is left center right. Yoke is left, center, Right plus Up, level, down and that's the difference.. may be other additional controls on both
 
My pilot told me that when the aircraft was on the taxiway, he used both feet on the router petals to move the tail in the direction left or right that he wanted the aircraft to go while supplying power to the turtles. Trust me, I have no idea what he just told me. Got to cut this short as we're landing now. "OUT"
 
Don't you steer a plane on the ground, but fly it in the air?
While taxiing most aircraft steer on the ground via the rudder pedals (not with a steering wheel, except maybe the Ercoupe) which on most are also connected to the nosewheel or tailwheel for steering, though some are not connected so they must use differential braking, which is effective because you have individual braking on left and right main gear (on most aircraft). Many large aircraft (jet airliners and such) steer the nose wheel via a "tiller" in the cockpit until they get a fair amount of speed on takeoff.

Having said all that, there are exceptions in a few cases here and there for all of that.
 
Far too often it seemed to me to be the other way around. Stupidity can be taught

Education can help people know what they should know but doesnt guarantee they will use it
The US population IQ has been declining for decades, common sense isn't very common, and finding/hiring someone with actual critical thinking skills is nearly impossible. It has always been easier to control stupid people than intelligent people who might challenge the status quo and who see through the brainwashing/propaganda. Stupid TV programming, social media and book banning further advances this population dumbing down agenda.
 
Makes you wonder how you ground steer with a tail dragger.
Similar to doing a nosewheel, using rudder pedals and brakes, but much touchier. The big difference is a little like driving a car backwards at speed, in that the CG in a taildragger is behind the main gear, instead of in front of the gear so that getting a tad sideways tends to want to swing further sideways where on a nosewheel getting a tad sideways wants to self-correct. Since most (not all) taildraggers have the steering tailwheel that is spring-loaded in addition to a breakaway into full swivel past a certain angle, it takes considerable attention and very small corrections early to keep the movements smooth and not let them get away from you (often into a ground loop which might damage a wingtip).

There are variations, such as tailskid instead of tailwheel (usually limited to grass runways), tailwheel locks, full swivel with no steering, heel brakes instead of toe brakes, no brakes (usually with tailskid), etc,.

Note that, for someone trained on nosewheel aircraft (tri-gear or tricycle gear) it typically takes 7-10 hours (sometimes a bit more) to transition to a taildragger (formerly known as conventional gear before most aircraft went to tri-gear).
 
Yeah, the skid type like on a biplane is what I'm thinking of. An observation I had hanging out by the warbirds in oshkosh one year was how the tail wheel planes like the P51's had to zig-zag down the taxiway because sitting midships their view in front was blocked by the fuselage and engine.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
the tail wheel planes like the P51's had to zig-zag down the taxiway because sitting midships their view in front was blocked by the fuselage and engine.
Most (not all) taildraggers need to zigzag when taxiing, though not the Super Cub in my avatar. The original J-3 Cub was solo from rear seat only (weight and balance) and most people did need to zigzag, but the front seat of the Super Cub (and Champs, for that matter) had good enough visibility to avoid that need. The Cessna 170/180/185 didn't need to zigzag either. It just depended on the visibility forward.

Note that during takeoff and landing, when you didn't dare zig or zag, you soon learned to judge how straight you were traveling by comparing the side of the cockpit to the runway edges on either side, partly by peripheral vision, partly by occasional quick glances, until the tail was up (or before the tail settled if a "wheel landing," that is, touching down only on the mains, not 3-point). The Stearman I flew was that way, for instance (Jemez Mountains in background):

NC4408NFlt09_sm.jpg
Note the tailwheel and immediately above it the tow hook- towed sailplanes (not often) and banners with it -- sweet bird.

the skid type like on a biplane is what I'm thinking of
Some biplanes (and some early monoplanes) had tailskids (the skid was also their brake in many instances), but later ones (typically from late '20s on) had tailwheels and brakes.
 

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