RC-Captain

But I think the original thread starter doesn't understand the importance of trike gear [:-].

2slow2matter

My Feedback: (1)

I Think he bowed out when sigrun called him out....

Prophex

True, my concern is not taking off and steering on the ground, it's landing. I know, when landing, you should be completly horizontal; But for a beginner this could be pretty hard. So, what if you landed a little bit on te side ? a trike gear setup, in my opinion, wouldn't get the plane stabelzized. (It lands on the nose wheel and flips to the side) but, with a taildragger, were 2 wheels are in the front, the center of gravity is between those two wheels, and not right above the front wheel, which would make it alot more stable ...

Ok, it's hard to explain this, but I guess if you think about it, you'll know what I mean,
Prophex

RC-Captain

Listen Prophex , I'm not trying to steer you wrong in any way and I beleive the manufacturers of these trainer airplanes are'nt either. Please understand from the first time I started flying my trainer , what tyou are descrbing is absolutely false.

I fly on grass and very hilly , bumpy , fields because I have no choice right now, and I have had hundreds of successful landings without landing in such a way the nose wheel hits the ground first. and flips the plane over . I have actually landed and ran over a 2 inch thick branch and the nose wheel received no damage but the 2 rear wheels were completely knocked off of the fuselage [X(]. (easy repair).

With a tail dragger you will probably would sustain more broken props landing on the fields I described just do to the G force being slammed to the front of the plane as it is trying to slow down. If landing is not interrupted then you will be ok . But if a rock, tree branch, or rough lump etc get in front of the 2 wheels you are landing on .... well plan on the noise continuing its path of motion and pack up alot of props with you because you may need them. With nose gear this situation is more likely not to happen. good luck and fly safe. [8D]

wdennie

i believe the main reason trike is put on trainers is because of them being such a high lift wing,I experienced this with a pro trainer i had it was a tail dragger and it would take off when it wanted to because of the fact that the wing is at it s wrong AOA it is being pitched up because of the tail wheel being shorter and keeping the tail lower than the main gear and the air is hittin the flat part of the wing therefore creating lift instead of letting it get ground speed for lift,in most cases if you are not ready for it or dont have alot of down trim it will lift before you want it to and can come into a stall at that point if the speed is not enough to fly. So in my opinion the trike is there for a purpose and that is to keep the wings level for take off so the pilot dont to worry about stalled flight while training. a plane is made to fly not to drive so the wheels are just there to get from point A to sky so just get them where you comfortable and not worry about them.

Montague

Prophex,

You're worrying about a non-problem. You should go to a local field and watch some planes actually flying a bit, or even try it and see.

It's true that a skilled pilot can land a tail dragger nose-down and get away with it. (a non-skilled pilot landing a tail dragger nose-down almost always flips end-over-end, trashing the vertical stab or other parts when the plane lands upside down HARD).

A trike-geared trainer, landed nose down, will somtimes bounce back up in to the air. It doesn't go side ways "because one wheel hits first" or something like that. The reason is that the wings keep the plane from rolling hard to the side. Instead, the nose gear flexes, and the mains get to the ground well before there is time for the plane to roll to the side.

I've seen trainers hit nose-down on botched landings hard enough for the strut to bend back, and the wheel left a mark on the under side of the fuse. The plane just popped back up in the air. It didn't roll to the side and touch a wingtip at all.

And in a proper landing on a trike gear plane, the mains touch first, then the nose wheel. Or you touch all 3 at once. nose-wheel-first is to be avoided, and isn't that hard to avoid with a little practice.

And remember, airplanes aren't cars. You can't run them around like you do cars, turns on the ground have to be done carefully and slowly. That's true of all gear configurations.