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Old 05-24-2015 | 09:21 PM
  #18  
jester_s1
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Joined: Dec 2006
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From: Fort Worth, TX
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My Cub was a monster on the ground when I first got it. I would get started rolling, then it would go left as Cubs will do. When the tailwheel lifted, it would go hard right and then I'd chase it until it was flying. It turned out the main gear wheels were crooked with some tow out which had made me also make the tail wheel crooked to compensate. I diagnosed the problem by getting onto some flat concrete and rolling the plane with the tailwheel off the ground. I got behind the plane and pushed the rudder toward the spinner, not steering the plane to go straight but rather just applying pressure directly forward. The plane pulled left when I did that, so I took it home and used 3 sticks to get the gear set up right. All were about 3 feet long. The first was taped to the bottom of the fuselage as perfectly straight with the centerline as I could get it. Sticks 2 and 3 were taped to the wheels. With the 3 foot length, I could get very precise measurements of the angle of the axles relative to the fuselage centerline. All wheels wobble, so I measured each wheel twice to get a minimum and maximum distance. I tweaked the main gear until the center of the min/max measurement was the same, then I turned the wheels a half turn to compare the distance to the centerline facing backwards so I could see how much tow I had. I set it with none because I wanted to start there and make changes if needed. When I rolled the plane on the concrete again with the tailwheel off the ground, it tracked straight. When I put the tailwheel down, I guess it would have made about a 40 foot circle. So I tweaked the tailwheel to make the plane roll straight (and I mean really straight as in slow taxiing about 200 feet down the runway with no more rudder correction in one direction than the other). My next takeoff was a thing of beauty; just a little left pull when I advanced the throttle which I expected, the tail came up, and the plane started flying with a 30 degree or so left turn. Those left yaw tendencies became very consistent with no other changes, so after a few practice takeoffs I can run the plane straight down the runway for a scalelike takeoff.

My Cub takeoff routine now, which should work just as well with a T Clips, is to advance the throttle to about 1/3 over 2 seconds or so with about 30% right rudder applied as soon as the wheels start rolling. At this point, I'm looking to build enough airspeed for the rudder to become effective. I let the plane accelerate for a second or two, then advance the throttle to around 60%. I release most of the rudder when the tail comes up on its own, then go to full throttle. I then pull back on the elevator to take off while giving it a bump of 50% rudder only during the rotation. The plane is a H9 .40 size Cub with a Saito .72, so there's a whole lot of torque and P factor to contend with on this plane. If your plane won't respond well to a similar takeoff technique, I would suspect the landing gear before anything else.