I was brought up on taildraggers, my father owned a Percival Proctor which he bought in 1949 for about £400, (I would have been 11 years old). He was a licenced ground engineer, so he was able to keep it for 18 years at a small cost, being able to use it for business travel occasionally. When I was apprenticed at Vickers Armstrongs I was lucky enough to be subsidised to learn to fly, paying only 10% of the real value per hour. The course was for 30 hours flying to achieve ones PPL & it had to be completed in 6 months, so off to Fairoaks & start in a Tiger Moth of course. Nothing new really I had flown with my Dad in 1946 in one when civil flying restarted after WW2. I had no chance of equalling my Dads record of going solo in 1 hour 30 mins, but after 5 hours 30 I went for the test, unfortunately the weather was too gusty so had to be delayed, but my log book says 6 hours 30. I converted to fly an Auster Alpha & then the Taylorcraft plus D that was in the fleet. I was worried about the Auster because in the Tiger one is Right Handed on the joystick but Left handed in the Auster & Taylorcraft, but really it was easy. Always taught to 3 point & the only wheeler I remember doing was in a landing competition where I forced the wheels onto the touchdown line - well almost! Unfortunately, as one does, girls marriage, house buying & kids put paid to flying, but I did most of my working life in aircraft design & development, & now enjoy making & flying FS 9/FSX models - available here. The main difference is one has lost the 3D & easy scan capability in real life, which makes quite a difference when landing, as well as the loss of sensation of air turbulence on oneself & the necessity of correcting the aircraft after being upset by turbulence. Maybe the commercial simulators reduce those problems.
Keith