Kripto

I am just finishing my Spadet (first spad) not to mention I have out of RC for about 20 years.

The way I have mounted the tank and engine mount (poor planning) it is really not going to be possible to make it a trike with front stearing. I plan to move the rear gear up and make it a tail dragger. My questions are...

1 - Is a taildragger harder to fly (take off and land) than a trike setup?

2 - How much farther do I move up the landing gear bracket? Do I want it to be real tail heavy, checking like you check the CG but for the gear placement?

3 - Do I need a tail wheel (for grass) or can I just glue a wedge under the Horz. Stab?

Thanks for all the help as usual...

Ed
SPAD wanabe

ChrisSpad

1. Thats arguable. Learning to taxi and take off is a bit different than with a trike, but, if you can learn to control the plane in 3 axes, plus throttle at once, i don't think that learning with a taildragger adds much to it. Learn to taxi around first, from there, its easy.

2. For a taildragger, you need to place the center of the axles in line with, or an inch or so ahead of the leading edge of the wing. Further back and it tends to nose over. Too far forward, and i've been told it gets squirrelly, I've not noticed it, but, all i fly (unless i am instructing) is tail draggers.

3. None of the above. A steerable tailskid works great in grass, and is simple to build.

Here's a pic of how i do mine:



Here's a nice detailed instruction on how to do it:
http://www.spadtothebone.com/SPAD/Qhor/Qhor9/qhor9.html

you can just bend it back, and skip the tailwheel if you are flying from grass. It works excellent without it. I've not had good luck with the pvc skid. It needs to steer for me to be happy with it.

edhaeuser

1 - Is a taildragger harder to fly (take off and land) than a trike setup?

Maybe a little harder. You just have to be more alert to directional control on takeoff. Personally I much prefer taildragers.(they just look better imho)

2 - How much farther do I move up the landing gear bracket? Do I want it to be real tail heavy, checking like you check the CG but for the gear placement?

Generally you place the wheels at or very slightly in front of the leading edge of the wing. Balance the plane at the normal balance point.

3 - Do I need a tail wheel (for grass) or can I just glue a wedge under the Horz. Stab?

I think a tail wheel would be preferred...Check out the simple tailwheel that Tatoo came up with...It is on the QHOR plans on the spadtothebone website

Ed

edhaeuser

Oops, I gues Chris already answered while I was typing

Kripto

The Wing saddle (for lack of a better term) is flat like the wing should have been. Should I take the fuse to the band saw and make it fit the wing? Or should I just make another wing that is flat on the bottom? The wing was the first thing I made with coro and it turned out pretty good for a first attempt ( me plus three kids, 6 extra hands help) so making a new wing would not be a problem.

Thanks
Wooo Hoooo It might fly this weekend!!!!!
Ed

ChrisSpad

The wing looks fine. You can shape the fuse to match the wing if you want. The key is to be sure to keep the leading edge at least as high as the trailing edge, or the wings gonna have negative incidence, which will make it a bit weird to fly. Spad wings rarely come out totally flat bottomed.

It might be best to leave it as is and have your instructor test fly it. If it climbs under power, then adjust the wing saddle. When you put the bands on, its gonna pull it down alot more than you'd expect. As a matter of a fact, i think i'd try banding it down first, and just see what it does.

Kripto

Well i would love to have someone fly it but here at my club I have not found anyone there... since december there has been noone in sight, i flew my RCM trainer that my wife bought me for christmast... after i got it 20' off the deck i wigged out and the put it back on the ground. I have a single engine pilot rating and fly often but that is not the same. what should i do with the wing sadle....


ed

Woodsy

Try just banding the wing on, quite often they will just find there own "spot" or you can glue a couple of coro "packers" to the wing

Silly me

Flying a taildragger is same trimming a taibragger is easy, but landing is the hard part, reason:

A tail dragger plane on landing you have to land the plane on
1 - stall speed or
2 - wheel it down the runway and then put the tail down

1 Landing a tail dragger on all three wheels it might be fast enough to take off again, stall and brake a prop. this is because your AoA is so high when you put the tail down

2 if you put the plane down and wheen it down the runway you keep the AoA level till the plane slow down and then put the tail down, on most fast planes this is the way to go but I say some people pushing the nose onto the ground on the grass,tar seems better training wise..