G'day

I have done it several ways over time.

My first attempt was when I rebuilt my very first Kadet Senior after it crashed in a friend's hands. I rebuilt it as a tail dragger (completely new fuse) and I made the tail wheel steerable with its own servo. Some time later I sold it to a friend and while he was flying it, the tail wheel fell off in flight leaving the metal bracket as a de facto skid. He kept flying it like this and later when I bought it back I kept flying it this way with no problems though it was not all that easy to taxi.

My current one which is a tail dragger uses a Hitec HS-225MG "mighty mini" servo to operate a simple "pull pull" system to operate the tail wheel. The servo is located in the tail in the bottom of the fuse. This has now doubt added some weight in the tail but it works extremely well. All my other Kadets were built according to the plan but this one has reduced dihedral (about half the original) and barn door ailerons similar to the ARF version. It flies really well and is quite easy to take off with plenty of grunt from a Saito 72.

I did recently build a Kadet Mk 2 which I made a tail dragger with a free wheeling tail wheel. This was a disaster on our rough field. It was very difficult to keep it straight on take off so it has been retrofitted with the original trike setup and handles much better on the ground and in take off.

I have also converted a couple of Boomerang 60 Trainers to tail wheel using a simple wire skid. The Boomerang 60 is probably sold in the US under a different name. It is a large (and compared to a Kadet, heavy) 60 size trainer with a flat bottomed wing and a rather soft steel in the landing gear. I became fed up with having to straighten and re-bend the under carriage wires so I made it a tail dragger. The simple skid worked fine but this was partly because it was rather overpowered with a 90 four stroke and could take off in about six feet. It was a pain to taxi though.

Executive Summary. I would build it as a steerable tail wheel either using a take off from the rudder servo or the simpler system like mine of using a small but strong servo in the tail to power it. The pull pull system I am using works really well. I think the tail wheel I am using is made by Dubro.

Cheers

Mike in Oz