TW.7
The Endorsement and Staying Proficient
Know exactly what 61.31(i) requires for the endorsement, the tailwheel-specific full-stop landing currency rule, and how to stay sharp after the signature.
References: 14 CFR 61.31(i), 61.57(a); AC 61-65
Quick Review
Conversational Q&A — quiz yourself before the oral.
Unless the exception in 61.31(i)(2) applies, you must have received and logged flight training in a tailwheel airplane from an authorized instructor, and received a logbook endorsement from an authorized instructor who found you proficient in the operation of a tailwheel airplane (61.31(i)(1)).
Note what's absent: no knowledge test, no practical test, no new certificate or rating. It's a one-time logbook endorsement.
The flight training must include at least the following (61.31(i)(1)):
- Normal and crosswind takeoffs and landings (61.31(i)(1)(i))
- Wheel landings, unless the manufacturer has recommended against such landings (61.31(i)(1)(ii))
- Go-around procedures (61.31(i)(1)(iii))
"At least" matters — this is a floor, not a syllabus.
Wheel landing training is required "unless the manufacturer has recommended against such landings" (61.31(i)(1)(ii)).
Two things to get right: the trigger is the manufacturer's recommendation for that airplane — not your preference, your instructor's preference, or the conditions on the day — and it only removes wheel landings, since normal and crosswind takeoffs and landings and go-around procedures are still required, and you still need the endorsement.
Check the POH/AFM for your specific make and model.
Yes — the training and endorsement aren't required if the pilot logged pilot-in-command time in a tailwheel airplane before April 15, 1991 (61.31(i)(2)).
That's logged PIC time — not dual, not a ride along. If you're relying on it, you need the logbook entry to prove it.
An authorized instructor. The endorsement may be given by a sport pilot instructor in a sport pilot aircraft, or by a flight instructor holding a rating other than sport pilot in an airplane (AC 61-65J ¶A.71).
The sample endorsement in AC 61-65J ¶A.71 reads:
"I certify that [name], [grade of pilot certificate], [certificate number], has received the required training of § 61.31(i) in a [make and model] of tailwheel airplane. I have determined that they are proficient in the operation of a tailwheel airplane."
Signed with the instructor's signature, date, CFI number, and expiration date.
Yes. The endorsement certifies you are proficient in the operation of a tailwheel airplane — it is not make-and-model limited, even though the make and model you trained in is written into it (61.31(i), AC 61-65J ¶A.71).
Legal is not the same as smart, though. Tailwheel airplanes differ substantially in ground handling, visibility, brakes, and tailwheel design, so getting checked out in a new type is a proficiency decision even when no regulation forces it.
No — and it isn't required. The training and endorsement must be done while the aircraft is in its wheeled landing gear configuration — main wheels and a tailwheel; if it's fitted with skis or floats in place of the wheeled landing gear, the training cannot be accomplished and the endorsement isn't required (AC 61-65J ¶33.3).
To a full stop — that's the tailwheel-specific twist in 61.57(a)(1)(ii): if the airplane has a tailwheel, the takeoffs and landings required for passenger currency must be made to a full stop.
The general rule (61.57(a)(1)) requires three takeoffs and three landings within the preceding 90 days as sole manipulator of the controls, in an aircraft of the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required), to carry passengers.
No touch-and-goes count toward tailwheel passenger currency — day or night.
No — this is the trap. The tailwheel full-stop requirement sits in 61.57(a)(1)(ii), which is part of the general currency paragraph, not the night one — so full stop is required by day as well.
The night rule (61.57(b)) separately requires three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop for every airplane, tailwheel or not; that's a different, additional rule from the tailwheel-specific one.
The endorsement itself is a one-time logbook endorsement — there's no expiration and no recurrent requirement in 61.31(i).
What does have a clock is 61.57 passenger currency (90 days, full-stop landings in a tailwheel airplane) and your 61.56 flight review every 24 calendar months, which is not tailwheel-specific.
Yes. 61.57(a)(1) only restricts acting as PIC carrying persons (or in an aircraft certificated for more than one pilot crewmember) — solo flight outside the 90-day window is unaffected.
61.57(a)(2) also makes the re-currency flight explicit: you may act as PIC under day VFR or day IFR to meet the requirements, provided no persons or property are carried on board other than those necessary for the conduct of the flight.
It's one of the one-time proficiency endorsements that need no checkride and grant no new rating (61.31), alongside:
- Complex (61.31(e))
- High-performance — an engine of more than 200 horsepower (61.31(f))
- Pressurized aircraft capable of high altitude — a service ceiling or max operating altitude above 25,000 ft MSL (61.31(g))
Note the tailwheel endorsement requires flight training only — unlike the pressurized-aircraft endorsement, which requires both ground and flight training (61.31(g)(1) and (g)(2)).
Deep Dive
The three required areas — and why they're these three
The list isn't arbitrary. Crosswind work is where the exaggerated weathervaning and the side-load-into-swerve chain live. Wheel landings are the technique that buys control authority in wind — and the technique with its own distinct failure mode in the bounce. And the go-around is the AFH's stated exit from both the large three-point skip and the bounced wheel landing (AFH ch 14). The rule requires exactly the three things that keep a swerve from becoming a ground loop.
Only the wheel landing training drops out, under the express exception in 61.31(i)(1)(ii).
Everything else is unchanged: you still need normal and crosswind takeoffs and landings and go-around procedures, you still need logged flight training in a tailwheel airplane from an authorized instructor, and you still need the logbook endorsement certifying you proficient in the operation of a tailwheel airplane (61.31(i)(1)).
Document the basis. If a question is ever asked, the answer is the manufacturer's recommendation in the POH/AFM — not a recollection.
Currency: the paragraph that catches people
Read the two currency paragraphs side by side, because the tailwheel requirement is buried in the general one, and almost everyone expects it to be in the night one.
| General (61.57(a)) | Night (61.57(b)) | |
|---|---|---|
| What | 3 takeoffs and 3 landings | 3 takeoffs and 3 landings to a full stop |
| When | Preceding 90 days | Preceding 90 days, between 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise |
| Role | Sole manipulator of the controls | Sole manipulator |
| Aircraft | Same category, class, and type (if required) | Same category, class, and type (if required) |
| Tailwheel add-on | Must be to a FULL STOP, in an airplane with a tailwheel (61.57(a)(1)(ii)) | Already full stop by rule |
The practical upshot: in a tailwheel airplane, touch-and-goes never count toward passenger currency, at any time of day.
Both. The text of 61.57(a)(1)(ii) requires that the takeoffs and landings "must have been made to a full stop in an airplane with a tailwheel."
So three full-stop landings in a nose-wheel airplane of the same category and class do not make you current to carry passengers in a tailwheel airplane. Category and class alone isn't enough here — this is the one place the reg reaches past category/class to the landing gear configuration.
Yes, but the conditions are narrow. Under 61.57(a)(3), they may be accomplished in a full flight simulator or flight training device that is approved by the Administrator for landings and used in accordance with an approved course conducted by a training center certificated under part 142.
For the typical tailwheel pilot, that's not a realistic path — go fly three full stops.
Staying sharp after the signature
The endorsement never expires, which is precisely the problem. Nothing in Part 61 forces you back into a tailwheel airplane, and the skills that fade first are the ones with the shortest reaction windows — the prompt-then-remove rudder work on the rollout, and the sight picture for the three-point attitude.
Anchor your personal recurrency to what the AFH says will hurt you:
- Feet first. The failure mode is not too much rudder but rudder held too long (AFH ch 14). That's a timing skill, and timing decays faster than technique.
- Full stops, by design. The reg already forces this for passengers — using full stops for all your practice also keeps you rehearsing the complete after-landing roll, which is where the AFH locates the directional-control danger (AFH ch 14).
- Crosswinds on purpose. The AFH tells you to know the airplane's crosswind component and your own limitations (AFH ch 14). A limit you haven't tested in six months is a guess.
- Go-arounds on purpose. The maneuver becomes dangerous when delayed unduly or executed improperly (AFH ch 9), and the two named causes of delay — landing expectancy and pride — are both worse in a pilot who hasn't gone around lately.
Legal: the 61.31(i) endorsement is one-time and doesn't expire, so if your flight review (61.56, every 24 calendar months) is current you may act as PIC solo. To carry passengers you'd need three full-stop takeoffs and landings in a tailwheel airplane within the preceding 90 days (61.57(a)(1)(ii)) — and 61.57(a)(2) lets you fly those with no one aboard but persons necessary for the flight.
Wise: that's the classic current but not proficient gap. Take an instructor, and spend the flight on the things the AFH warns about — crosswind rollouts, bounce recognition, and go-arounds.