The tailwheel landing gear arrangement is also known as which of the following?

• A. Tricycle
• B. Tandem
• C. Retractable
• D. Conventional

Answer: (D)

Tailwheel landing gear is known as conventional landing gear. This arrangement uses two main wheels positioned forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel at the tail. It’s the classic setup that was standard before nose-wheel (tricycle) configurations became common.

This differs from the other terms in practical ways. A nose wheel setup is the essence of a tricycle arrangement, which changes ground handling characteristics and ground attitude. Retractable describes whether the gear can be stowed, not the basic layout of where the wheels sit. Tandem refers to a different layout where main wheels are in a fore-and-aft line, not the tailwheel configuration.

In operation, conventional gear provides good prop clearance on rough fields and can be simpler mechanically, but it makes ground handling more challenging—especially in crosswinds—because the aircraft tends to rest tail-down and can be prone to ground looping if not controlled carefully.