ORIGINAL: Fastsky
Re: "im building a kadet seniorita and was wondering if the steerable nose wheel is a necessity or not? "< not if you remove it and convert the plane to a tail dragger which is better on grass runways anyway, no nose gear to get bent!
Re: "where i will be flying it wont really pose any need for taxiing around, it will be point it towards the wind and open the throttle. "< sounds good in theory but in practice there is always something pushing against the wheels to move the plane in a different direction than you planned. You will probably need around 50' for the plane to reach takeoff speed and a lot can happen in that distance.
Re: "although if i dont need one, i was also thinking of rigging the cable up so i could just hook the cable up to the servo if i decide to use it."< if you have the cable any way why not hook it up?!? Btw, when you do hook it up, set it up so that the wheel will only move about 1/8" to 1/4" in each direction. It doesn't look like much but trust me, its all you need! Any more than that and the plane gets too touchy to control at higher speeds. [8D]
if you are going to convert a nosewheele to a tail drager you MUST move the main gear forward significantly or the planewont ballance on the ground.... will either nosein when the engine revs up or will nose in before theengine even starts :-D
i also like to put a small bend in the nosegear so that the center of the wheel sits about 1/4" behind the pivot point,loads the servo less and actsas shock obsorption, sure ur more likely to break the gear.... but really how oftenare you gonna snap a steel rod?
definatly hook up the nosegear, ive done rocket science.... this, this is not it....