FCC

Why most of the tail draggers specially stick 40 of Balsa USA and some others tend to turn to one side while take off.

Somebody suggested that the toe-in can solve this problem but this doesn't prove to be helpful. Any other useful technique to solve this problem...

mefly2

My Feedback: (6)

I think a lot has to do with the torque from the prop, with a light tail (which is good...), the .40 will put out enough power to swing the tail.

ReallyUglyStick

My Feedback: (5)

other contributing factors include: mains to far forward. the torque will force the tail around fast on a taildragger that's got the mains to far forward. also, a short coupled plane, such as the cub. cubs are NOTORIOUS for their bad takeoff habits. there aren't too many of them at my field, and when someone takes off with a cub, i always anticipate a show...

Jim_McIntyre

Sorry to gripe about this but, it is a pet peeve of mine. A slight touch of rudder on takeoff will keep any plane straight. You don't see may full-scale taildraggers doing the "push cart" swagger on take-off and there's no reason for models to do it either.
The only reason I can think of is that most training programs avoid teaching rudder for some strange reason. Why is this? I was even told to stop teaching rudder to my students (told I was "confusing them"). You have to use the rudder to taxi don't you? Does the rudder suddenly become inefective or dangerous when you bump the throttle forward? If the rudder is not to be used then why bother connecting it to a servo??!!! Does the rudder suddenly top working when the tailwheel leaves the ground or start working when the tailwheel touches down again??!!!!

I'll get off my soapbox now, sorry for the rant but I feel a little better now.

Jim
Lover and flyer of short-coupled, high AOA taildraggers

MinnFlyer

My Feedback: (4)

You're so right Jim. Almost everyone starts with a nose wheel trainer, but not many are given any taildragger training. As the (nose wheeled) plane picks up speed (but before rotation) the nose wheel is being forced down onto the ground, so you have good, direct wheel-to-ground steering, and the torque of the prop is seldom noticed or easily corrected. But with a taildragger, the tail comes up right away, now you only have a 2 wheel connection to the ground and the wheel that does the steering is off the ground. So you have to "Fly the tail" to counter-act the torque and make the plane go where you want it to.

seafury_fb11

Yep... What Jim and MinnFlyer said. One thing they didn't mention is that it really isn't that hard. There is just a technique to it that you have to learn.

What I see causing many pilots problems is that they are often too timid on the throttle. If you throttle up slowly, and try to drive the plane down the runway, when the plane starts picking up speed, it will be much harder to control if it starts swerving. The trick is to get through the transition from tail on the ground, to tail flying as quickly as possible and just be prepared to compensate with a small amount of right rudder. It basically amounts to throttling up with a little right rudder simultanteously. If you throttle up quickly, the tail should come right up and the prop blast will make the rudder take effect right away. As soon as you pick up a little bit of speed, you can center the rudder. The plane will then usually head straight down the runway without swerving at all.

One other thing is that you will probably want to hold just a touch of up elevator to keep the prop from pulling the plane right over on its nose as the tail comes up. (And I'm talking about a *small* amount. You don't want the plane to jump off of the ground before it has enough speed to start flying).


Russ.

mscic-RCU

My Feedback: (6)

When time permits, I usually convert all of my student's trainers to tail draggers. If you can fly a tail dragger, you can fly a trike. New people don't know it is supposed to be harder, so I just start them in the right direction!!

seafury_fb11

Sneaky. Possibly even somewhat devious - but good idea!

Russ.