Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted By: bioburner
Originally Posted By: Taildragger
Ha, it is not in a 'fixed' position.
It is a wind indicator as stated above and it builds fear into a tailwheel pilot when it is not aligned with a runway!
What do you think it does to an ultralight pilot?
Talk to John Denver...
John Denver was flying a Long-EZ - not an ultralight, but an experimental category airplane that is well known for its high performance and good handling.
He lost control by stepping on the rudder in an effort to twist around in the cockpit and change fuel tanks at low altitude. Sort of analogous to using the steering wheel to pull yourself up from grabbing something that fell on the floor, and turning it a whole turn, while going 70 on the highway.
The airplane flipped over from the excessive rudder input and he was too low to recover.
Crosswind wasn't involved. Landing wasn't involved. He lost control of a perfectly good airplane (not ultralight) that was in stable, level flight.