Avistar Taildragger

The only "problem" that comes to mind is that you've added a good bit of weight with the .60 without being able to much use the extra power gained. It won't slow down as much on landings without stalling with the extra weight.

PCPhill

Nope!

Only prob I see is your main landing gear is too far forward, and it is going to be a bear on the ground. Relocate it so the axels of the main wheels are directly under the leading edge of the wing when the plane is in a level (tail up) attitude. On grass, MAYBE 1/2 inch ahead...no more.

Toe the main wheels "in" about 1 degree each (this is critical) and have at it... The Avistars here converted to taildraggers are well behaved...

Oh, did I mention the toe in???

Dave

Might be too far forward with those wheels. Typically, the axles should be just about under the leading edge. Where you've put them could make the airplane difficult to handle on the ground, with nasty groundlooping tendencies.

Dan

IMHO, the Avistar is quite stout, but it's assembled with hot melt glue. I'd clean the firewall really well and epoxy it, and add some hardwood reinforcment gussets to it. However, you may find that you have flying brick on your hands!

Geoff

Rich wrote:

Thanks for all the great advice!!! I will start making those changes suggested later this morning, after Coffee! I'm always amazed at the level of experience here on this group!

Rich.....

The late Bill Skipper, columnist for R/C Report, was an advocate of toe-out! So I tried it on my latest 40-size Super Sportster. Can't honestly say if it's any better than toe-in, which is what I used on all my taildraggers to this point, but it works at least just as well.

Texas Pete

The theory of toe-out holds that it will make the airplane tend to self-straighten when the swerve causes the weight to shift toward the outside wheel. In flying full-scale taildraggers since 1977, I have found that NO toe-out or toe-in makes the most honest airplane, unless the manufacturer specifies one or the other. On grass it makes little difference, anyway. The most ornery airplane I flew had the right wheel straight and the left one toed in about two or three degrees. Had to land a bit cocked to the right to get the misalignments averaged out. Many models have rather flexible gear that will wander all over the place and won't hold any sort of accurate alignment under drag or weight loading.

Dan

Hi Pete!

I have heard of this, tried it, I never had much success... planes were all over the place..

I could never get a good explaination on "how" the toe - out was supposed to work...

On grass, with smooth tread, not much diff....

But with treaded tires, and pavement... I need the toe-in to keep the model straight at all (the toe in automatically corrects a swerve), like the toe - in on your car, or twin rudders on a twin engine boat...

I use about 1 deg. toe in and find it works well, and the "theory " of the toe-in makes sense to me..

Whatever works! :)

Cheers!

Dave

Interesting...

TY for this Dan...

The toe in corrects the start of the swerve with the "inside" wheel (right wheel on a right swerve) "straightening out / alignining" itself with the direction of travel, decreasing rolling resistance while the "outside" wheel increases rolling resistance by being dragged sideways, thus correcting the swerve....

I find when the weight shifts to the outside wheel sufficiently to ingrease rolling resistance of the outside wheel, I am WAYYYY into the groundloop... :)

Cross wind taxi with correct aileron input should keep weight on the upwind wheel (off the "outside" wheel in a weathercocking situation and "on" the "inside" wheel... at the speed the tail starts to rise...

That is, untill S--T happens and all these theories ae out the window... !!

I also agree, some models have landing gear so flexible that the carefull aligment we are discussing here is a non issue...

You are right , grass is easier with tail draggers... one private strip here (for full size aircraft) has two runways, hard surface and grass, parallel to each other..

And the grass is well used...

Cheers!

Dave

We fly off an old WWII training base runway. I honestly can't discern any difference between the toe-in and the toe-out. Both work fine.

Texas Pete