poppy2

I am a novice learning to fly and landings are hard for me. Once I land, I try to think through what I did right and what I did wrong right then and there. I think that in jetmech05's post, some very wise words of wisdom were spoken. "I have alot of students when they first start to land that flair OK but then they don't hold the elevator long enough and "drop the plane" bounce every time."


Poppy2

Grampaw

Congratulations Villa on the grandkid. Boy or girl? I have three Grandsons, two of them are old enough to fly with me on occasion. I started them on a Trainer Cord, but stopped that and let them have the airplane and the excitement of getting it out of the tight spots themselves, with me barking at them, of course. They won't get dependant on me or some device to rescue them. You're in for some fun, boy or girl.

But to get back to the topic of trike geared planes. It was not my intention to knock trikes, or those who fly them. I just personally prefer tail draggers, mainly because I am inherently a lazy bum and hate to contend with all the rigging necessary to install and maintain the nose gear. I've taught several beginners to fly, using tail draggers. And once they got the hang of taxiing, taking off and landing, they were hooked. Being an old Marine I too like the Carrier type approaches. It looks so sharp to make that final approach in a banking turn, then straighten out and touch down. But when I'm flying the LT-40, or any flat bottomed wing plane, I have to pass up flaring out and plunking in, as that flat wing will want to fly and up goes the nose and messes up the whole thing!

Landings damage a lot of airplanes, regardless of the type of landing gear. And a lot of people blame the landing gear when it's themselves who is the culprit. Learn to land and practice it. Make at least one touch and go every flight. You'll be glad you did.

MikeEast

My Feedback: (3)

LOL, if you have to DECIDE whether you want to go to a "taildragger" and are having problems with the landing gear on the LT 40 then there is absolutely no doubt you are a beginner and probably should have stayed with the stock gear and learned how to properly set it up as you continue to learn the basics of flying your trainer. There was nothing wrong with your landing gear, you just didnt know how to properly set it up , respectfully speaking.
LT 40 is a proven performer in every way and the steerable nose gear works perfectly when properly installed as with the rest of the provided equipment. Flat spot on the strut= problem solved.

One of the MAJOR componants of becoming a compotent RC pilot is becoming thoroughly knowledgeable about setup, contruction and proper installation of the gear that makes the airplane work. RC Airplanes are all about patience, precision, balance, pride in your work on the bench and in the air..... attention to the small details.

Trainers by design are intended to be trike gear planes because they are easier to handle on the ground, trike gear are what makes your trainer fun to come back to once you become a compotent, experienced pilot. You will find that as you advance in skill that all this taildragger vs trike talk is a non issue. Its all good, learn to fly EVERYTHING and become good at ALL of it. Then you will be able to pickup the sticks on any plane from a LT40 to a 40% Carden Edge 540 and have a ball... But nothing will be more relaxing than coming back to your good old trainer and doing touch and goes on the tricycle landing gear.

ryanpilot

My Feedback: (4)

I fly both. I think if a guy wants to learn on a dragger he should start with a draggerhmmmm wonder who did that??? lol But if you went to a dragger because you simply could not land your plane right and did not take the time to learn the little tricks to set up then IMHO you are not learning some very important fundamentals of the sport.

I love doin touch and goes, especially when you have people at the field and you start betting on spot landings. You know you get good at landings when your aproach and speed are perfect and you stop on the X. That LT 40 should be the easiest plane in the world to land. I have also seen too many new pilots flare and not hold it or flare too early and drop it on the runway instead of adding power and flying it to the ground.

Nothing wrong with draggers, it just adds to the learning curve for a lot of pilots. The best thing about draggers is that it teaches you better rudder work.

britbrat

Wow -- I just read through this whole mess. Lots of angst over this rather basic issue. Time on the stick & time in the shop fixes all of these problems. Both types are non issues with a little practice.

Properly set-up trikes make take-offs easy, and also make taxiing a trainer easy -- if there is no significant cross wind. Badly set-up trikes are nasty brutes that require skill levels beyond that of beginners, both to taxi & to take-off. Trike gear is of no advantage at all in landing & can generate its own set of behavioural problems if mishandled. It is also relatively easy to damage that nose gear in hard landings.

Tail draggers are slightly more difficult to taxi (but not much), however, they are notably more difficult to handle during take-off --- the degree of difficulty in handling a tail dragger is similar to that of handling a bad trike. Tail draggers are tougher (no nose wheel to bend or break) & are better able to deal with rough/uneven ground & deep grass. They are also lighter & generate less drag in flight.

Most beginners prefer trikes, but eventually most pilots prefer tail draggers, once they have learned to handle them.


Time on the stick & time in the shop -- fixes it all.

Glen Wearden

It's been a while, but I remember having some problems with my prop hitting the ground on landing. As I recall, I went to 3" wheels all the way around, and extended the nose gear as far down as I could, and solved the problem. Glen

RC-Captain

I disagree, with trike gear you are less prone to nose over on a landing , thats the advantage.

britbrat

If you flare like you should with either type, you aren't going to nose over, whereas if you land with you nose wheel touching first, you will bounce like a ball --- and maybe then nose over.

bruce88123

If you "LAND" like you should then you will not land on the nose wheel first whereas in a tail-dragger you MAY nose over at any time while simply taxiing even. Harder, but not impossible, to do with trike gear.
Again the key here is to go out and learn how to take off, fly and LAND whatever type you decide to fly and quit making excuses and blaming the poor airplane for your inabilities.[:@]