Those of you who have made this conversion, would you care to post a few pictures of the tail wheel arrangement and the set up?

Thanks.

I wish I could remember how I did it...I think it was the typical tailwheel with a long arm that went thru the horizontal and into the rudder.

I just completed this conversion. I used a sullivan tailwheel and threaded the rod through the horz stab and up into the vertical stab. Let me tell you, this was a pain the arss mainly because i had to create a "z" bend to connect the wire into the rudder and you have to do this while the wire is already threaded through the horizontal stab. Then the hole I drilled in the horz stab wasn't large enough to allow adqueate travel of the tailwire, so I had to enlarge the hold and then reinforce with with CA and Epoxy. The CG was also pushed back a 1/4 inch so that now it balances at 4 1/4" instead of 4" from the leading edge of the wing. It might be slightly tail heavy when fuel gets low, but it's still within the acceptable parameters of CG based on the instruction manual. I'm confident a little down trim should be take care of it.

I only did this conversion because my engine was returned for service for the past three weeks so I had some time to mess around with it. If I were to do it again, I'd go the additional servo for the tailwheel route and Y connect it to your rudder servo. I haven't flown it yet. I think it looks a lot better as a taildragger, but i'm not convinced it was worth the effort. In my opinion, better to go with an Ultra Stick if you want a taildragger.

Hello!

See if you can tell what I did? I made a tiller arm that ran into a Central Hobbies tailwheel.

Perry

what size stik is that

Big Stik Giant

This is on my 40 size,


Bob

All - thanks for the responses. I have almost completely assembled the model as a trike, but I am just not sure if there is enough height to clear a 14" prop on this model (I am debating between either a .91 FS or 1.2 FS - both are in transit so I don't have either to check.) My thought process was that a tail dragger would provide more clearance in the front. If I can easily swing a 14" as a trike I'll leave it alone, if not, I'll probably put a 13" on the .91 or go with a 3-blade prop...

Denver: what size engine/prop do you have on yours?

I'm using a 90 engine and 14" prop. With the stock nose gear, it will be tight. Before I did the taildragger conversion, I was using a lengthened nose gear to provide added clearance.

That's what I was thinking about as well, potentially with a combination of using large diameter wheels (at least on the nose.) It is interesting that this kit calls for .90-1.2 sized engines, yet doesn't have enough ground clearance for the prop in this size range when built as specified. 1.2 four strokes spin 15"-16" props which definitely wouldn't work in stock configuration. Had I noticed this before I assembled everything I would have built it is as a tail dragger instead...

Assuming you didn't build it yourself, do you recall where you bought the longer nose gear and what what model it was? This would save me some internet search time!

Thanks.

There's no way you'll have enough clearance with the stock nose gear and a 16" prop. With a 15" prop, you'll have about 1/2" clearnance using the stock nose gear and wheels. I bought the extended length nose gear from my LHS. I think it was about 8 dollars or so. It was a Great Planes nose gear, i believe. It came without the 90 degree bend for the wheel axle, so i had to take it to my local hardware store where we used a torch and a vice to make a 90 degree bend for the axle.

If you use larger wheels on the stock nose gear, beware that the axle isn't that long. You might be able to get 3 inch wheels on it. But after that, there's not enough room leftover to put the wheel collar on.

The taildragger conversion would be easier if you haven't already glued the rudder to the vert stab. With the rudder off, it will be easier to thread the tail wire through the horz stab and into the vert stab before gluing on the rudder.

The alternative to all this hassle would just be to use a 3 bladed prop as you suggested. At one point, I had a 14 inch three bladed prop with the extended length nose gear and there was plenty of clearance. I'm just trying the two bladed prop right now to see how the engine behaves. The main reason i wanted to try taildragger conversion was because i couldn't get a tight fit on the control arm to the nose wheel for steering with the extended length nosegear. Even with picture perfect landings, I needed to adjust the nose wheel after every flight and just got tired of it. From here on out, I only intend to purchase tail dragger models. Nose gear is just too much hassle.

Unfortunately I have already glued up all the tail fins, so short of butchering a new plane there is no easy way of making this a tail dragger now; hindsight is a great thing. I think I may try a three-bladed prop and see how it goes.

A general question to anyone: what is a good 3-bladed prop size for a Magnum/ASP .91 four stroke and this plane?

Thanks!

The general rule for 3 bladed prop is it would be the same pitch as what you would use for a 2 bladed prop for the given engine, but just one inch down in diameter.

Alright, so if I were going to use a 14x6 or 13x7 two-bladed prop, then I'd be using a 13x6 or 12x7 three-bladed prop, is this right?

When you go with a three blade you're stuck with a limited selection. Here's a comparison of the "load factor" for some available props. The load number comes from ThrustHP. Despite its shortcomings, the load numbers do seem to give a decent indication of whether two props will turn similar rpm on the same engine. As with most things in this hobby you do have to do some experimenting to see what works for you because we all like different things.

Yes, limited choice and pricey too...

yes, 3 blades are pricey. The 14x7 master airscrew at TowerHobby was about $15. Much more economical if you can swing a 2 blade.