I don't want to learn on the Phaeton i just built, afraid of crashing it.
Any tail draggers recmended to start with or how do i change over my Avistar trainer?
Thanks

Cheep: Convert your Avistar by moving the main gear forward so that the wheels are in front of the leading edge of the wing, add a tail wheel and remove the nose gear DONT FORGET TO REBALANCE

New plane: Sig 4 Star

To add to what Mr67Stang said, you'll need to add a 1/4" plywood plate to the inside of the Fuse and reinforce it with Tri-Stock to provide a mount for the new gear position.

If it's just to get the feel for a tail dragger, you can skip the tail wheel and just add a wire tail skid to the rear

Learn on the trike gear trainer. It will help protect your prop/engine when you make rough landings when you are learning (trust me, you will have them). Switching from a trike gear to a taildragger in your second plane isn't near as difficult as some people think. I see too many people think like you that they need to learn on a taildragger because that's what they want to fly. But taking off and landing a taildragger isn't any harder than a trike gear, just a little different. But the differences aren't big enough to lose any sleep over.

At least that's my 2¢ worth

Ken

Thanks for the replys. Nice to hear it's not THAT different. I have been flying solo for a few months now. Just wanna get ready, after all the time i spent building the Phaeton don't want to destroy it the first landing. Thanks for the how to on switching over the Avistar!

Just for the record, LANDING a tail dragger is no big deal. Your only concern is avoiding a nose-over.

It's the take off that's tricky because your tail is up, so you have no "Wheel-to-ground" contact to help the plane counteract the torque of the engine (Which is minimal on landing due to the low RPM)

Make sure your tail wheel is stearable. I'm not sure of the rudder configuration on that plane, but having a stearable tail wheel is a must in my mind. I trained on a trike gear trainer and finally totaled it out before soloing. I made a stick type plane with the trainer wing and changed to a tail dragger. I'll never fly another trike gear. The take off can be harry if you don't do things smoothly. IE don't jam the throttle, but increase speed slowly until the plane lifts off. As soon as the tail lifts all you have for stearing is the rudder, so a larger vs smaller rudder is desired for that.

By the way, I bought props by the dozzen for my trainer. I would go through two or three a day. Once I went to the tail dragger configuration, the prop dammage lessened. I soloed with a four star 60 with a Mag 91 four stroke. Even with one hard landing that snapped the fuselage behind the wings (as weak spot in the design of the plane) I'm still using the first and only prop I've put on it.

Go for the mod, you will love it once you master the torque issue, and that isn't all that hard to do.

Don

All but one of my planes are tail draggers and for the tri gear one, it's yet to be maidened

LA Flyer 40.

Well so much for converting the Avistar. Just a bit to windy for me today i guess. It's a pile of sticks now. I stopped at High Fly and picked up a used Sig Kadet rtf already set up as a tail dragger. I'll let you know how that goes tommorow.

My first low wing plane was a Slow Poke ARF. It is a tail dragger low wing trainer. It flew great with a small engine, had enough fuel for long flites and is not very different in flying charachteristics than a trainer. This plane will not do knofe edge flight but will fly inverted. Another good plane is the Tower Hobbies Uproar 40 ARF. It is easy enough to fly for a second plane, but will give you some good aerobatic experiences. As long as you're going to tail dragger might as well go low wing. By the way both of these planes are a breeze to build. But a tail dragging trainer looks realy cool also!

Do so many people prefer tail draggers? Why? I like the way a trainer looks better on a nosewheel.

A perfect transitional plane for you would be the Thunder Tiger Tiger Stick .40:



It's a very easy to assemble ARF that comes with tail dragger gear (but the instructions include how to set it up with tricycle gear, too). It is very aerobatic but can be slowed down and landed as easily as your Avistar. It's also very reasonably priced in the $99 to $109 range:

[link=http://www.infinitehobbies.com/moreinfo.php?pid=5907]Infinite Hobbies[/link]

[link=http://www.ehobbies.com/ttr4509.html]eHobbies.com[/link]

[link=http://www.ultimatehobbies.com/istar.asp?a=6&id=TTR4509!1009&csurl=%2Fistar%2Easp %3Fa%3D3%26dept%3D2%26manufacturer%3DTTR%26sortby% 3D%26numperpage%3D16%26pos%3D32%26]Ultimate Hobbies[/link]

This is a great flying ARF that makes a wonderful second airplane and a great first tail-dragger.

Good luck and good shopping!

I second the Stik recomendation, any Stik, Tiger, Ultra, Das Ugly, whatever Stik all make super easy to fly taildraggers. A long fusilage with generous verticle fin area combine to create a lot of yaw stability. You'll wonder what the big deal about taildraggers was all about. Wait till you fly your first scale Cub though.

Sig Kadet LT-25 is the perfect tail-dragger trainer.

my mate had a tiger 60 and converted it to a tail dragger and it flew and handled nicely

Well I hope you kept every stik of balsa and peice of plywood. You should really attempt to repair the trainer. Even if you fail miserably you will learn a lot. How to recover a plane for example, and much more. Even a crashed (totaled) trainer is still a learning tool.

I remember asking these same questions here. I was worried about learning to land a tail-dragger. I asked and re-asked and got more and more advice...finally, I just did it.

The truth is, almost any plane can be converted to a Tail-dragger. My first was, I think a UCD .46. I recommend a stick, mine were both H-9 sticks.

You will find that landing a tail-dragger is actually easier once you get the hang of it. I probably could not skillfully land a trike setup right now. I would need to get re-aquaineted with trikes.

The Hangar 9 Ultra Stick is one of the easiest tail draggers to fly. Takeoff is easy with little or no right rudder needed. Landing is the same as a trike gear. The only thing you will need to do with the tail dragger is to remember to taxi with a little up elevator engaged to keep the tail wheel on the ground for positive steering.

I have been flying a Phaton for the past year- you will like it. actually you will love it!! but as said here you MAY need a bit of tail wheel experience first esp if you are overly nervous about the phaton . its not a hard plane to fly . not that the phaton is hard -id put it at no worse than many other tail wheels & better than a lot of them. make sure your CG is correct. landing is a no brainer & a thing of beauty with that plane . just be sure to have an engine idle low enough as you have gobs of lift . also go to a slightly lower pitch prop than you normally would & possibly 1 inch diameter more. larger rudder just makes it easier to control but also easy to over control. I find it needs some at first but gradually back off almost entirely as speed builds . important to let the tail come up on its own. some times it pays to have a bit of play in the tail wheel vs the rudder as it wil "lag" behind the applied control & be easier to direct. toe in & camber are very helpful on tailwheels.