Max age? I'd say about 119 - if you are older than that I recommend not trying to learn tailwheel.Hello, I have zero hours flying a tailwheel but many hundreds in nosewheel. I am north of 65. In yalls opinion what is a max age to start tailwheel training? Cheers and Happy Thanksgiving.
Michael is correct...not all tailwheels are equal when it comes to the skills required to fly them safely.
I've done many tail wheel checkouts over the years on many different types. Real loosely in my opinion RV's are some of the easiest to master, right with them are Cubs and Citabrias.
Moving up a notch or two are older Piper Pacers and Luscombe 's they demand a higher level of skill. Nearing the upper ladder might be an early Pitts.
Long and short don't think for a moment that because you have lots of time in RV's that you'll be able to jump into a Pitts and safely operate it.because you won't, it's much more demanding.
Moving on to the age question..I've checked out many older folks on tailwheels and it's been my experience that it takes much longer, sometimes twice as much time to learn and the older pilot does not retain his skills anywhere near as well after periods of inactivity.. That being said there is absolutely no reason an older pilot can't learn to fly any tailwheel aircraft given enough time so add some fun to your life and learn some new skills....at the very least it will improve your stick and rudder skills and make you a better pilot.
One person's experience....
http://www.mig17.com/pitts_s1c.htm
I have given flight training and tailwheel training since 1969. Age has little to do with the ability to safely land a taildragger. What determines the potential skills of a taildragger pilot are the skills of the pilot. If you are a good noise wheel pilot you have the ability to be a good tailwheel pilot. If you are an older pilot, you need to fly more than the average pilot because the older pilot will lose skills faster than the younger pilot in most circumstances. The reason why we are comfortable driving a car at an older age is because we drive more often than we fly.
I teach three point landings before wheel landings for good reason. If you muff up a wheel landing, you will be able to safely recover into a three point landing. If you are making a short field landing, you will need the skills to make a three point landing. If you try a short field landing by wheel landing and you land to long or you land on a runway that is to short, you have set yourself up to either flip over like the guy in the RV a few days ago or you will ground loop unless of course you can or will go around. All landings are three point landings anyway because you will always end up on 3 wheels?.hopefully.