i'm just makeing the poll to see what people like the most. just to have alittle fun.

Gee Its kinda hard to pick there bro, I love em both!

Both, so I did not vote.



Pete

I find the tricycles easier to control on the ground. I wonder why people prefer tail draggers and why most advanced models are tail draggers.

I have both and like either one. I will say that I think touch and go's are easier tricycle gear. Maybe I just need more practice with tail draggers since all but two of my eighteen planes are taildraggers.

for me trike gear planes are harder to control on the ground than a tail dragger, once I flew a tail dragger I won't go back to the other. plus tail dragger are easier to use larger props on and can handle a rough field better. I just like the looks of the tail dragger better.

just my opinion, but i like how a dragger looks sitting on the ground. Nose up, begging to get some air!!

just my opinion, but i like how a dragger looks sitting on the ground. Nose up, begging to get some air!!

I prefer trike. Harder to smack a prop on the ground, easier ground handling(They drive pretty much like the cars I've been driving for seven years now), and they look nicer IMO. I've also never heard of a trike ground looping, which is a plus.

If I can, I usually look for a way to convert the plane to a taildragger. Looks better in the air. Not so much like a trainer. I recently took a Texas RC Planes Explorer .40 and converted it to a TD then put a GMS .75 on it for a knock-around plane when I don't have time or energy to fly my 33%ers. This plane is called a trainer, but flies more like a stik type plane. Not much dihedral and a semi-symmetrical airfoil. Looks much better as a taildragger, and screams with the .75 on it, and it is aerobatic enough to be interesting.

I started with trike gear planes, but mostly fly taildraggers now. What kind of taildragger is important. An Edge 540 or Extra or Yak is an easy plane to handle since they have monster control authority. But a Cub or Taylorcraft is another matter entirely. Cubs will eat you for lunch: high center of gravity, narrow track landing gear, wicked adverse yaw, little tiny rudder, all are a recipe for dragging wingtips, cartwheeling, groundloops, and some direction changes in takeoff roll. A scale warbird or PT-17 is similarly terrifying. I leave those sort of planes to the real pros.

I like either but in my opinion, it takes more piloting skills to handle a tail-dragger. This goes for models as well as full-scale. A cross-wind will test your piloting skills with a tail dragger....every time!

I like the fact that the tail dragger is harder to control... separates the men from the boys

Tail dragger all the way. With 3+ inch wide foam wheels you can take off and land on almost ANYTHING within reason. I've seen comments about breaking props more often, but if the gear is properly placed and the "engine down thrust" is not excessive, DOWN elevator or a gopher hole are about the only way you could stick a prop in the ground.
Dan

My thoughts EXACTLY! ....

Tricycle and draggersetups have theyre own unique pros/cons, both are great for the intended application


..and why is it that Cubs generally get a bad reputation for being ill handling birds.... Both model and full scale arent bad at all...theyre CUBS!

Ahhhh, but that was "back in the day" when rudder skills were necessary...not just for steering like most trike pilots

But I couldn't agree with you more.

I fly all taildragger but I do like trike gear as well. Trike gear are easy to steer and look pretty cool when you touch and go with the nose hanging in the air the whole time! i voted crash and burn though!!

Trike,, Extra wheel for drag
More complex set up for steering and retract
More weight

Otherwise on the 1:1 scale I prefer trike set up on my 172.

I like both, but it depends on the model. An F-16 will look weird with a taildragger and a Cub will look weird on tricycles lol.

Doug.

They all have their place to be sure but a Tri-Pacer would come close to a clipped-Cub. Although I would certainly not want an engine out situation with a 1:1 Tri-Pacer [X(]

I have come to enjoy tail draggers. I started out flying lots of trikes; but over time I got tired of adjusting the nose wheels to get them to track straight. I began to modify planes and make them tail draggers as I found it more difficult to load trikes into the limited space in my car. It was harderto place low winged trike geared planes in the car as they always seemed not to fit in my car without having to use pillows or other supports to avoidstressing the nose gear or elevator. Taildraggers just sit better in my car and are more stable during transport.