cant stop superstar ground looping

Keep enough up-elevator in it to keep the rear wheel steering until you have more airspeed. Many taildraggers hae this problem.

Also, do not apply full power all at once. Get the plane moving on low power so that the rudder is affective then continue to ad more power as the plane picks up speed.. You can then guide you plane streight down the runway good luck Gene.

Use larger, softer tires. Move the LG back. Apply power slowly. Use the elevator yo keep the tail on the gorund until you build up plenty of speed. Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

Aply full power and full up elevator to get plenty of wash over the rudder and too keep te tail on the ground. Once you start moving, ease up on the elevator and throttle or you will, depending on model, end up in a vertical climb

Welcome to the world of taildragging. Use some right rudder as you open the throttle. Got to be proactive, here, and anticipate that left-turning tendency when you open the throttle. Too much rudder will make it turn right. Taildraggers are inherently unstable on the ground and are a lousy way to learn to fly models and a great way to learn to fly full-scale.

Dan

Nonsense! A properly set-up taildragger is easy and a joy to take off and land. You have no worries about digging the nosegear in and constantly realigning it. The linkage is usually much simpler to set up on a taildragger. I fly a Fokker Dr. 1 (considered to be one of the worst ground-handling planes), and have very few problems with it.

Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

I've had two planes with this problem. One was a cub and I solved the problem by setting up a "dual rate" rudder with very little throw. The other was a three channel top flite elder. The rudder on this plane is so small that it has not authority at slow speeds. I doubled the size of the rudder and it did fine. It had problems landing because of the small rudder once the plane slowed down to landing speeds the rudder was useless. Again this was solved with the larger rudder.

Although it is entirely possible to make a taildragger handle nicely, that does not change the fact that the design is inherently unstable.

The main gear is located in front of the CG, which will cause a turn to generate forces that will want to tighten the turn.

Have you EVER seen a nose-wheeled plane ground loop? I have not.

I never said I did. However, I HAVE seen a firewall torn out when the novice forgets to flare. There are positives and negatives to both systems. Neither is "better" than the other. It's all a matter of proper setup, practice and personal opinion. I strongly favor taildraggers myself. Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

Taildraggers are inherently unstable on the ground and are a lousy

Although it is entirely possible to make a taildragger handle nicely, that does not change the fact that the design is inherently unstable

Since when?????? Dont blame the taildragger.......blame the operator. All my models are taildraggers and i love em. Never had a problem taxing or ROging. My simple advice for this: PRACTICE!!!

Since When??????? Do not blame the taildragger.........but blame the operator operating the taildragger. All my models are taildraggers and I have no problems with them. So take some simple advice: PRACTICE!!!!!

Think Corvair ! with the engine slung behind the rear axle, and the resulting oversteer is a tight turn.

In a taildragger you want to keep as much inertial mass *ahead* of the axle as is practical. If the axle is too far forward, there's more inertal mass behind the axle, which increases proneness to groundloop. (Don't ask how i know.)

Bill(oc)

Don't you mean the other way around? A very slight Tow-In will get the plane to steer back into a straight line.

Think of the plane rolling slightly to the left during take-off due to "P" factor, or torque. More weight is now on the left wheel than the right. Before you can get enough right rudder into the yaw it back on line, the plane will turn the direction the wheel is tracking. Tow in will automatically track the plane back on line.

Contrary to what is said before, I like to not like to give up elevator to get the tail wheel to stay on the ground, as it doesn't do anything on the grass when the grass is much taller than the wheel. I get the tail up and steer with the rudder on roll-out.

-Fritz

No, the first post was right, you want toe-out!

Only a small amount, about 1 degree is plenty once the slop in the wheel's axle is taken into account. You can check this with two straight edges placed against the rims of the wheels and extended out to the front of the aircraft. Twist the wheels so it takes up the slack and you should get a little more distance between the ends of the sticks compared to the distance between the wheels. This might give up to 5 degrees at the other extreme as the wheel is twisted the other way due to slop of the wheel on the axle. As long as it is toe-out all the way it will be easier to taxi and control. If the wheel centre is really sloppy change the wheels.

Try a google search on rec.aviation.homebuilt and probably several other groups as this toe-in/toe-out has been done to death over the years.

Once the wing starts to tilt, you want the wheel that has a little contact to pull the plane back to level. This will at least keep the plane flat on the ground rather than with the wings tilted over at a wild angle. There is no prop blast hitting the ailerons and they have almost no effect where the rudder and elevator have a bit of prop blast giving them some effectiveness.

Don't give the motor fast changes in rpm, but let it wind up gradually. You don't need to do short field takeoffs on most of the strips that you will fly from until you have lots of experience. Remember you do not have independent wheel brakes which are a luxury on a real plane that allow much easier control on a taildragger. Most modern taildraggers that have a tailwheel instead of a skid have brakes on the main wheels, where the early models with skids could pull back on the elevator and slow the arse down by dragging the skid. Think back to the WW1 aircraft that took off from a paddock into the wind rather than modern runways that always have a bit of crosswind. The main reason for having a tailwheel is so you don't wear out the taxiway at the airport, rather than having to replace the end of the skid occasionally. They can also give a great shower of sparks when landing on a concrete runway..........

Just remember it takes a lot of praktis, praktis, praktis, beofre you get it rite!

Hope this helps, Peter

Taildragging just make learning to fly models a bit harder. My son started out with a trike, and then converted it to a taildragger whan he got proficient with it. Now that's all he builds. Trikes have been around just about as long as taildraggers. The first airplane ever to fly in Canada was a trike, in 1909. Taildraggers were so popular for many years because of the rough airfields available to pilots; many nosegear airplanes don't do so well on such surfaces. Now we have stronger, better-designed nosewheels that can take more abuse and are resistant to noseover. But I still prefer to fly taildraggers in my work and play. I'm a flight instructor and aircraft mechanic; our students learn better in taildraggers than trikes, but then flying full-scale for the first time is easier than RCing for the first time, especially considering the extensive ground training that takes place first. And things happen more slowly.

Dan

I have seen "nose-wheeled planes" go all over the field trying to take off. Most never make a ground loop because the first sharp turn jams the prop into the runway and kills the engine. The same thing happens on rough landings with trikes. The nose wheel creates so much drag on a grass runway that much more power is required to attain to take off speed. This also makes the plane much harder to keep straight down the runway. Most novices show up with a trike because that's what the dealers sell. I guess the manufacturers really believe that most of us fly off of a nice smooth asphalt or concrete runway. That's certainly not the case around East Texas where most of us have to fly off grass and not too smooth at that. Almost everyone around here eventually converts to a tail dragger sooner or later.

I never said you said you did ;-)

Yes, it essentially boils down to personal taste.

However, Dan said that the taildragger design is an inherently unstable design, and you called his statement nonsense. THAT is where I disagree with you.

Dan is correct: The taildragger configuration IS inherently unstable, and needs proper setup and practice to even work at all.

The nose gear design, on the other hand, is inherently stable. Just gun the throttle and steer where you want to go. No need to worry about rudder size, main gear location (within reason), toe in/toe out, gentle use of throttle, proper use of elevator or any other details.

Agreed! Trikes are easy to take off but more difficult to land than a taildragger. That nosewheel hitting first... bounce, bounce, bounce... Every model I have is a taildragger (even some that were supposed to be trikes).

Morris