I was just giving Hal a hard time! This was a collaborative effort by both of us. We started talking over the phone about a scale tail wheel, I said that I could machine a hub out of aluminum and use a rubber hose as a tire. That’s what I thought we were going to do, but then Hal got to tinkering as usual and came up with the wood idea. I would have never thought wood would work well, but it worked out great. Aluminum would be to heavy for this size plane anyway.

I used some ¾” inner diameter universal fit-all drain hose and a large hard wood dowel.

I used my mini lathe to spin the hub so that it fit my tail retract forks. Make it just small enough for a tight fit in the rubber tire. The center hole was drilled on my lathe and the rest were drilled on my drill press. As in all my tail wheels I use a 1/8” bearing axle and then the smaller brass tube as the main axle.

I sealed the wheel with thin CA and then hit it with some 320 grit sandpaper. Use a small round file to clean up the holes.

Now that’s a Hellcat carrier wheel!

Dion