I just hinged and glued my rudder in place. After the epoxy dried, I realized that I forgot to attach the tailwheel gear to the rudder! The tail gear that comes with the kit requires that I attach it to the rudder then the back of the fuse. There is nothing I can do without wrecking the rudder. Is there any tail gear on the market that I could use that I could maybe attach to the bottom of the rudder?
Joel
How are your sewing skills? I've seen people bend the tail wheel wire to run along the bottom of the rudder and then "sew" with thread through the balsa and around the wire, through the balsa and around the wire and so on. Then CA the thread to make it permanent. Steve
Joel wrote:
Easy to fix, just not as elegant as haveing built it 'by the book'.
Bent the gear leg 90 degrees so you can mount the carrier on the bottom of the fuselage. Bend the top of the gear arm so that it goes under the rudder. Put a chunk of fuel tubing over that and screw it into the bottom of the rudder. Wheel, and steering.
OR Drill a hole in the rudder post (harden it with CA) and put the tail wheel on a chunk of wire and put a wheel collar on the wire so that it does not go all the way up into the rudder post. Put a chunk of fuel tubing over the
4-40 cap head screw you used to hold the wheel coller in place. Screw the fuel tube to the bottom of the rudder. Wheel, stearing, and shock absorbing.Good luck.
If you go on to Towerhobbies.com and do a search for Tail Gear, there are a whole bunch of them. The ones you want are considered scale gear, it attached to the fuse and a bracket goes through the bottom of the rudder. Two springs will attach from the bracket to the tailwheel controlling it and offereing a shock absorber at the same time. The one I use is Klett.
Does the tail wheel wire have a hinge on it as well? If not. just lay the wire over the position it should be and carefully cut a slot in the rudder for it to fit in. Then mix up some epoxy and glue it in.
I use a tailwheel bracket that attached to the bottom of the fuse. This holds the wheel wire and a spring goes from there to the rudder. It works great and takes some shock away from the servo. I use it on most all my planes. I know right where they are in the hobby shop but unfortunately I can't remember the brand. If you use one of these you won't be dissappointed. Eddie Fulmer AMA
63713
That would be the Sullivan brand. They work great. Easy to install, and they remove the loads from the rudder and servo.
If you use one of these you won't be dissappointed. Eddie Fulmer AMA
You didn't say how big a model you were working on, but you can make a tail gear as follows: Use a bottom-mount bracket like Goldberg's, and bend some new music wire so the tiller arm extends about 2" from the bracket. Bend a small hook at the end of the tiller arm and attach a rubber band to the bottom trailing edge of the rudder. Hook the the rubber band to the tiller arm, and you have an inexpensive stress relieving set-up. The only problem with it is that you have to replace the rubber band occasionally.
Morris Lee
I use Sullivan tail wheel kits on almost all of my planes instead of the ones provided with kits. It has a wire with a built in spring that attaches to the bottom of the rudder. It works great and it also takes the shock of landing off of the rudder and servo. Tower has them.
David
why don't you just cut the rudder hinges, put in the tail wheel, and cut some new slots and rehinge the rudder!
Strip off the covering on the bottom of the rudder, rebend the tailwheel wire to conform to the shape of the bottom of the rudder and then either epoxy a patch of 6 oz glass to the rudder to hold it on or glue a piece of ply to the bottom of the rudder and shape it to blend in.
Or get a tailwheel assembly (I like Klett) that uses springs to actuate the tailwheel.
Don
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