kmeyers

Never going to happen as you describe. Wind at pilots back, set plane down on grass in front of me. Check left and right and yell taking off. Start taxi directly away from the flight line and turn right or left based on the pattern using the rudder. Proceed to end of runway (about 100 ft away from the flight line) still slowly rolling hold rudder away from the wind and windward wing down with opposite aileron. Slowly advance throttle to full and point plane down the center of the runway, controls as needed. Liftoff and climb until about 100 ft turn away from the flight line (downwind). Throttle back to cruise. Rudder for yaw, ailerons for roll and elevator for pitch. Landing is about the same cross control whatever is needed turn 180 at the end of the runway then taxi to a position in front of yourself turn toward yourself and taxi up to the flight line. shut the engine off.

I teach students to always control the plane, if you are controlling the plane the first few degrees you see it off coarse you put in the correcting inputs and it responds. If it does not respond something is wrong and you should shut down. I think that just about covers it.

When I am hovering the flow of air over the rudder and elevators easily moves the the tail forward and back left and right. Similarly when starting a takeoff and taxi rolling at slow speeds with the tail down little blips of the throttle move air over the rudder and I can and do point the planes nose in what ever direction I choose. Remember the grass presents fiction that requires force to over come.

The OP says he is working on a Big Stick ( sticks have about a 50 50 ratio of fixed vertical to rudder).

One note when I decided to reply in this thread I went in the shop and counted the tail dragging planes hanging up without steerable tail wheels. The count was 5 out of 8. On two electrics there was one fixed wheel and one skid. One of the planes has 1500 flights and no problems Kyosho Cap 232 OS .91 fs. Not hanging there because it in the car for a trip to the field is my .60 size stick (that would have been 9 if it was in the shop). That is me and it in my avatar pic. It has over a 1000 flights as well. It is powered by a Zenoah 20cc gas engine swinging a 16 x 8 prop. So believe me you have to respect its nose. Its not the largest of my free wheeling tail wheels, one is a 50cc DA swinging 22 x 8. That is 5 horsepower in a 16 lb Yak handles easy if you know what to do.

One plane that me and my buddies had some fun with on a very windy day was a PT 60 with an OS .70 fs. A Tricycle gear with tons of dihedral and a very large fixed vertical fin to rudder size and throw (The nose gear was streerable). That trainer was difficult to nearly impossible to handle in a strong cross wind because of design. The Cap and the Stick were not again because of design.

I am not saying that full castering tail wheels are my favorite choice. But for use off grass fields like where I mostly fly on planes without dihedral and large fixed vertical stabs they present no problem to me in wind conditions that scare the largest number of pilots out of the air (90 degree cross wind over 20 mph). And are handled very safely.

I find that unless you are willing to fly under these types of conditions you never get a chance to fly backwards to respect of your ground position or do a stationary rolling harrier.

Wow that "s__ety officer" thing really got me typing.

scale only 4 me

My Feedback: (158)

You guys who think you have total control without a steerable tail wheel can justify all you want,, but the fact is, you don't have as much control as you would with a steerable wheel,,, there's no getting around that

mustangman177

What I use and works great on gas or grass and gives control.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXFV47&P=ML

Cary

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

For what its worth and whats been under discussion is the Sullivan (or most conventional tailwheels will not work on any ugly stick with out abandoning the spring an resorting to an extened vertical rod soldered to the spindle of the Williams and the ninety degree bend at the top of the rod that is inserted into the rudder would require the rudders removal to install. That's the kind of modification work the OP is trying to avoid.

Two options are a simple tailskid or solidly fixed tailwheel which work well on the OP's airplane (free swivel or limited free swivel on the OP's airplane does not work well. The second only practical option is a conventional tail wheel with a side or T tiller and a second pushrod to the opposite side of the rudder servo or possible clamped well forward with the air rudder pushrod.

John

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

This photo of one of my ships illustrates two methods of double pushrods. In this case the upper servo with two rods is the rudder and the rods go to separate air rudder and tailwheel.

The lower servo in this case illustrates two rods clamped together with wheel collors for separate elevator halves but the same method can be used for air rudder/tailwheel rods.

Either of these methods can work well for your ugly stick.

John

JimmyZep

Thanks for posting that!

Believe it or not my brain was running through that idea earlier today.

Now I see that it works.

Jimmy

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

You are welcome

hsukaria

I flew my Giant Big Stik for a couple of years with a free castering tailwheel on grass and it was ok unless you are taxiing with a crosswind. With a crosswind, I could not taxi it. i eventually put a small Hitec HS82MG with pull-pull wires steering the wheel. The Great Planes Big Stik series are designed to accommodate a steerable tailwheel if you assemble the plane with a taildragger setup to begin with. The fuselages have a notch at the tail end that you can cut out to pass through a tailwheel wire. I bought my Giant Big Stik used and originally built for trike gear and then modified to taildragger. So, the previous owner did not take the opportunity to build the steerable tailwheel to begin with.

All Day Dan

My Feedback: (5)

Try this. Dan

hsukaria

This is nice, but won't work on a Big Stick

JimmyZep

I have decided how I'm going to do this, I will use the FORCE.

Well ok, this is how I will do this.

Servo on bottom of fuse, rod to tail wheel.

Can I use a Hi Tec micro servo for my throttle?

Jimmy

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

I have done this on a few airplanes and it does work usually plugged through a Y harness with the air rudder or a mix argualbly there is no real advantage to using mix other that electronic independent rate control.

The down side of course is the same as discused before putting a second servo on the side and that of course is the extra weight that far aft on a small airplane.

If what you mean by micro servo is the Hitec HS80/85 series on throttle the answer is yes they work ok for throttle if you ca accept the plastic gear version strip gears rather easily even on the throttle during had landings or otherwise firm arrivals.

John

JimmyZep

What do you think about the kabonite gear standard size Hi Tecs?

Jimmy

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

They are fine especially on your small stick. Actually My all time favorites are the HS 225 minis plastic or metal. I use these even on ailerons of typical sixty sized airplanes that have two aileron servos. have used them on rudder a lot and of course throttle.

In the case of most ARF's they usually have large servo tray holes for the so called standards and where I use a 225 I just cut a stick to cross the servo hole and allows the servo to be screwed down.

John