Hi all, I recently converted my Sig Senior to a tail dragger. What a difference in ground handling! I know it will take practice. Giving full up elevator keeps the tail wheel pressed to the ground. When I let go of the up stick, the plane takes a left turn. When the speed comes up, the plane tracks straight. If I let it build enough speed with the tail wheel on the ground the plane takes off, but it looks strange. How does the main wheel location and CG affect ground handling. The plane is balanced a little nose heavy now. Thanks for the help, Mike.

You are going to have to move the main gear forward to reach a good CG

You'll have to learn to use the rudder to counteract the effects of engine torque.
(As the engine brings the prop up to speed, the effect diminishes due to less torque needed)

The harder you're on the juice, the worse the effect will be.
With practice, you'll be feeding in the rudder automagically

My old Cub used to give me fits, until I learned proper rudder control.
Afterwards, I found it great fun to immediately let the tail fly, and just steer it with rudder.

There are cheats. Some folks install a gyro, instead of learning to use the rudder, for instance.
Do yourself a favor, and practice holding a bit of right rudder... you'll get it.

on the ground c/g has little effect, moving the wheels forward will help to stop tipping on it,s nose,crazieflyer has made a mistake on advice,moving landing gear or any weigh forward will make the plane more nose heavy.
Have a goodun,John.

For best ground handling (ignoring the tendency to nose over) the gear should be just slightly ahead of the CG. This will make the plane very suceptable to nosing over if the wheels hit a minor obstruction though. If the gear is to far forward of the CG, landings will be difficult; the plane will want to bounce. The placement will be a compromise of these two condition. On a 40 sized plane, I like the gear about 1.5 inches ahead of the CG.

Thanks for the help, went flying this AM, did a lot of takeoffs, found a slow advance of throttle helped as did right rudder. I was getting in some good straight takeoffs. Just for kicks, I was low and slow, about to touch down, then full throttle and the plane would immediately torque to the left; pretty cool. Nosing over is not a problem. The cause of ground looping is the center of mass is behind the mainwheels, I think. I might try moving the main gear back a little. I will also move the CG back as it is a little nose heavy now, this will be done for a change in flying rather than ground handling. Anyhow, thanks all, had a blast this morning, Mike.

Use the tried and true technique of eye balling the airplane from the top, while on the ground of course!?, the axles of the gear should be just about in the same line of the leading edge of the wing, you must prop the tail up for this, so the airplane is in an attitude as if it were flying (horizontal), I've used this technique for over 27 years, on all kinds of airplanes, straight wings, tapered wings, high wings, low wings and biplanes. It works!

How do you have the tail wheel setup? Is it free or is it attached somehow to the rudder servo?

OK, The axles are about 1/2" in front of the leading edge of the wing. I'll move the wheels back a little. The tailwheel is connected to the rudder servo with 2-56 rod and 3/8 balsa stick. Thanks, Mike

OK. There goes my idea. I set my first one up as a castaring type and had little control on the grass field I was flying at.

Good luck.

Chris

how i take off all my tail draggers (counts... yup every plane i own now)

give about 1/4-1/3 throttle to get it rolling and straight. advance to about 3/4 throttle to get the tail up and moving then full to get to flying speed and takeoff.

unless its my Somthin extra then i just nail the throttle and hang on :bananahea :spinnyeye but that one doesnt even have a tail wheel

just get used to "flying" the tail, one thing you can do is taxi around at just the point were the tail is up drive around like that, will get you moving that rudder by reflex.

Unstable hit the key phrase... "Flying the Tail".

That's exactly what you need to do with a taildragger. Once the tailwheel is off the ground, you have to fly the tail until airborne. And BTW, don't release the rudder as soon as the mains are off the ground, if you do, you'll notice a quick (but slight) fish-tail to the left. Ease off the rudder gently as the speed increases.

I have 6 planes that are tail daggers. We have a paved runway and a grass strip next to it when I am making friends with a new plane I start in the grass the extra drag on the tail wheel helps to keep the tail behind the wings. I have used two methods 1 the GLH method taxi to a starting spot jam the throttle and go like a bat. 2. Ease the throttle hold some elevator work the rudder till it gains enough speed to be effective let the tail come up and gain more speed and fly ever so gently up and out.

I converted my H9 Xtra Easy trainer from tricycle gear to tail dragger last week and flew it for the first time this weekend. On my first attempt at taking off, I started to get a little "squirly" and had to back off the throttle, taxi back to the beginning of the runway and try it again. The 2nd attempt was perfect. I held up elevator and a little right rudder and eased on the throttle. Once I gained a little speed I let off the elevator, allowed the tail to come up off the ground, picked up enough speed to lift off, fed in up elevator, and slowly gained altitude.

I have to say it looks so much cooler with the tail wheel set-up. Anyway, good luck. With a little practice you'll have no problem at all.

You are right ptgarcia it does look cool!!!!