Bill,
That's often the case - and you're right on gear alignment. The 195 is pretty much a pussycat on the ground unless the gear is misaligned or the tail wheel strut is improperly adjusted, then it can be a nasty piece of work. A lot of the horror stories you hear about 195 ground handling come from pilots flying airplanes that were not rigged correctly.
Then there are the inexperienced pilots who can't fly an airplane that requires some finesse and blame the tool rather than themselves - such as with the light controls on the original Cardinal - hamfists over controlled and tore them up on landing.
There are several variations of the flat Cessna gear - some are quite soft. They work just fine on a nosewheel airplane, but aren't optimal on a tailwheel conversion as they let the airplane roll and sometimes create the situation where the airplane rolls to the right as the gear compresses, then darts or swerves to the left. It's disconcerting and disorienting to the pilot to have an airplane roll one way and turn the other. (The Grumman Wildcat was famous for doing just that and its soft gear bit a lot of pilots, especially on their first landing on land after being on the boat for some time. My dad told stories of the instructors at Pensacola standing by the runway and taking bets as to who would groundloop as Wildcat pilots landed back ashore after months at sea.)
The flat steel gear on the 120/140 is solid and helps that airplane have quite nice ground handling. I don't think all steel gear is created equal. (Have a vague recollection of Bill Thompson talking about the iterations of the rigidity of the spring steel gear over the years in one of his books.)
Warmest regards,
Rick
