hi folks -

i am also going through first time taildragger take off rudder control. i just finished building a 4-star 60 and am experiencing the same things you have been talking about. on acceleration, the plane wants to yaw hard to the left and i've been experimenting with getting "the feel" of rudder/elevator compensation.

anyway, the reason i am adding a post here is because i am also experiencing some weird stuff on landings that i did not have to deal with on my old tricycle gear trainer:

landings come in good and slow with the engine running at low idle of around 1900-2100 rpm's - so i don't think much is going on torqe-wise

when i land and roll down the runway, just before the tailwheel comes down and makes contact, the plane begins to yaw to the RIGHT. and so while it's yawing to the right, i am feeding in almost full left rudder. eventually, the tailwheel makes contact and once rubber to pavement control takes over, the plane ends up doing a 360 left donut because i've been pushing the rudder to keep it from going right initially.

i am using one of those sullivan tailwhels with a spring connecting the tailwheel steering to the rudder. they give you two choices of springs to use - stiff & flexible.

at first, i had the flexible spring on and i thought that may be the problem. i figured that at moderate speeds where the tailwheel is in contact, there was just too much decoupling of the steering from the rudder which would create instability.

so i switched out springs for the stiff one.

although i will still do 360 left donuts, the effect is less severe but the plane still wants to yaw to the right initially and full left rudder has little effect until the tailwheel makes contact.

i don't think it could be that the rudder is trimmed to the right - i've checked this. also, since the engine is basically idling, prowash over the rudder is minimal.

maybe the front wheels need to be toes in as suggested above ?????? but when i push the plane across pavement by hand, it seems to track straight.

anyway... any ideas welcome.
thanks

-paul.