Taildragger Conversion

Put a Fults double nose gear on it. It's pretty near impossible to bend that one.

Rich,

I had one of these years ago and converted it to taildragger before ever flying it. I purchase an aluminum gear set, epoxied a small block of quarter inch ply such that the wheels alighned with the leading edge, and tapped it for nylon bolts. For the tail wheel, a drilled inch long small hardwood dowel epoxied to the bottom of the rudder allowed for the attachment of a simple tail wheel. I flew it until all the covering fell off and then donated it to the landfill. Have fun

Lenny Nipper

One last question: Is it wise to enlarge the rudder? Maybe 50% increase in area for better ground control with a free wheeling tail wheel? Or go to a tail wheel that steers with the stock rudder?

I have the aluminum gear, and will put the tires at the leading edge as suggested. Thanks to all for your help!!!

Rich.....

I did this conversion to my first trainer when I got pretty good at landing. It was a Sig Kadet LT40. I aligned the wheel axels to the leading edge and did not change the rudder size. I drilled a hole through the fuse and attached the tail wheel to the rudder using a bend along about half the length of the rudder and had 3/4 of an inch sticking up into the meat of the rudder. worked great until I had it inverted and decided to pull up. :-) can you say re-kit? :-)

15 degrees is the universally accepted position, as you say, but be sure to note that this is with the airplane in a level flying position. If the tail was on the ground and the contact point was 15 degrees ahead of the CG, the airplane would have serious noseover tendencies. With regard to the toe-in/toe-out debate: set the wheels to parallel, no toe-in or out. Most full-scale taildragger service manuals will call for such a setting, and if there's toe-in mentioned, it's often to get the gear tracking straight when rolling friction twists the gear a tiny bit outward, the same principle as a car's front wheel alignment. The toe-in will be small, maybe a degree or degree and a half; someone mentioned 4 degrees, and that's asking for an unmanageable airplane. Some airplanes use toe-out, and of the taildragger's I've flown with misaligned wheels, the toed-out ones were easier to handle. Any swerve will put more weight on the outside wheel, and a bit of toe-out will tend to lessen the swerve just a bit. More than a degree or so will ruin the handling qualities and make a dog of it. My own airplane (full-scale Jodel) has the wheels set straight and handles properly. Dan Flight Instructor on real airplanes Aircraft Maintenance Engineer Taildragger pilot for 28 years

Hey, Listen to this guy! HE pounds the nose gear on HIS Kougar with regularity!!! (BIG grin!)

redesigning

I also do full throttle touch and goes which really are beyond the average student and hard on equipment.

You forgot to tell him that I use a 20 ounce ballpeen hammer. LOL

So far, nobody's mentioned how to attach the tailwheel. I like the type of tailwheel bracket that mounts on the bottom of the fuselage. Bend the tiller arm so that you can attach it to the bottom of the rudder. You can use either thread and glue or better, bend a small hook at end of the arm and insert a T pin near the trailing edge of the rudder, then use a rubber band or small spring to connect the two.

Morris snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com

Tail wheel- best and simple is just get a Sullivan unit. Package has wheel, mount, springloaded strut, spring connector to rudder for steering. attach it to a balsa or plywood base in the tail structure.

I don't think the Sullivan unit comes with a wheel.