Great JT. Now you spoke of a taildragger conversion and this also works well on the Senior. In fact a TD Senior is a lot less tramatic than many other TD's. I am currently working with an older gentleman who has had a tough time with some modern trainers at other fields so I connected him up with a local builder who whipped him out a TD Senior and an OS .61fx, by the way this engine purrs like a kitten on that airplane. With this taildragger he is now progressing very nicely much better than his last trainer when he had completely hit a standstill.

The conversion is actually very simple during the build. It involves adding with epoxy a plywood plate inside the floor and the front edge even with the verticals that form station where the front of the wing is. This plate should be long enough that the back edge will reach the next set of verticals in the fuselage. Cut and epoxy some ply gussets at each of the four verticals so this will carry some of the loads of the ply plate up the verticals. Then it a simple matter to find an aluminum or glass gear to bolt on the bottom and through the ply plate.

The tailwheel is a little tougher and there are a number of ways but my favorite is adding a second pushrod for the tailwheel. This actually easy to do on that airplane because there is plenty of room. You would make the rudder pushrod as per plan exiting above the stabilizer. now you make a second pushrod that attaches the servo horn on the opposite side of the servo. This second rod is run under the stabilizer near the elevator rod but it exits the fuselage on the opposite side of the rudder pushrod. Agine a plywood plate is epoxied in place at the bottom rear of the fuselage. Now a tailwheel bracket (Dubro or others) is screwed on the bottom and the tiller bar instead of being bent back to insert in the rudder itself is bent to the side and this is where the pushrod will attach. You can flatten the end and drill for a clevis or you make the tailwheel wire itself out of 4/40 threaded rod with the threaded portion as the tiller and use a plastic threated rod clevis/bushing. The big advantage of the second pushrod is the tailwheel can be fine tuned for less throw than the rudder and beleve me this is a hugh advantage especially when your learning.


John