I've become proficient with take-off using a tricycle gear plane and will be using a taildragger soon. Advice for take-off differences would be appreciated.

hold up elevator when taxiing, got to WOT with a steady but not snappy move, use rudder for keeping it pointed down the runway,
once up to speed its now no different than a nose wheel unless you give down before it breaks ground. a nose wheeled plane can be held to the ground with elevator even to the point that the tail is higher than the nose. also a taildragger is a little more likely to "nose over" without elevator input.

The biggest mistake you can make is ramming the throttle open like you may be used to with a tri-gear. Advance it slowly, and just be ready to use rudder. They really are no harder than tri-gear setups, maybe even easier if you remember to use your left thumb. They are less prone to warping out or shape and assuming different tendencies every flight like nose wheels, and I have even set up a trainer as a tail wheel and the student had no trouble learning that way.

osmo, pardon my ignorace here but when you say "up elevator" are you referring to right stick up or right stick down?

Right stick down, meaning the elevator control surface pointing up. You want the prop wash to push the tail of the plane down since taildraggers can nose over very easily if you hit a bump or something.

A tip for you.

For TAKE OFF ONLY, put in 1 or 2 clicks of up elevator on the transmitter.

As others have said, hold full up elevator while taxing, use a SMOOTH advance on the throttle (do not jam it to wide open ) and be ready to add in some rudder as soon as the tail lifts off.

With the 1 or 2 clicks of up elevator, what I do is:

Taxi out to where I will be starting my take off run and stop the plane.

Recheck your control movements.

Add the 1 or 2 clicks of up elevator.

Leave the elevator IN THE NEUTRAL POSITION.

In a smooth steady motion, advance the throttle to full throttle (do a count while you advance the throttle - one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand four. You should be at full throttle now ).

WATCH THE PLANE. As soon as the tail lifts off be ready to feed in A LITTLE RIGHT RUDDER.

The plane should lift off by itself when it reaches flying speed.

Climb up to altitude.

Take out the one or two clicks of up elevator.

hold the elevator down whilst takiing to prevent it nosing-over (not so important on tarmac but good practice) and throttle up smoothly with the elevator still down but release elevator as you build up to takeoff speed

Tail draggers vary a lot in how they track at takeoff.

Some track smoothly with no hint of left yaw, others pull HARD to the left as you run the engine up.

Don't let this catch you unaware.


Do anything you can to elevate the tail, by increasing the distance from the fuselage to the tail wheel.
When the plane sits more level, the left yaw tendancy is greatly reduced.

Before you fly check the neutral position tracking, and make sure that it is straight.

Then add a couple of clicks of right rudder to start you off to compensate for left yaw.


As others have said, when moving the plane around on the ground hold the stick back ( elevator up ) to keep the plane from nosing over and to help make the tail wheel effective.

You will also land the plane with a bit of power. You will have to practice during your first flight(s) with the plane in the air, to get your approach angles down and to learn where you have to be at landing.

As soon as you get your plane up and trimmed the first time, start your approach practices... you don't want to learn how to deadstick your plane in, before you even know how it flies...

Be prepared to effect a shallower approach under power than you may be used to... and use the rudder once on the ground to keep the plane straight and avoid ground loops.

Foamy,
If you hold DOWN elevator in while on the ground this will actually lift the tail of the aircraft and put the prop into the runway. You need to hold UP elevator while taxiing a taildragger to keep the tail on the ground, and release this when you start to accelerate for take-off.

Ken

Make sure you have the tail wheel adjusted so the plane tracks straight when the tail wheel in on the runway. The better you have the plane trimmed the less you need to steer it on take off.

Thanks everyone. I think I have the general idea now. Let's see if I can do this without trashing a new plane.

BTW, how long will it take before the butterflies before every flight go away?

It's hard to say how long it will take. But what will happen is one day you'll go out and just take off and not even think twice about it. It just "sort of" happens. But I will also say that the level of butterflies also is directly proportional to how new the plane is. On new planes you get nervous every flight. But after you get a few hundred flights on a plane you don't feel that way any more. That's what I like to call my "throw around" plane. Planes like that are really fun to fly because you know them inside and out, you know exactly how they perform, and you really don't worry about it if you crash them. That's when planes get really fun to fly!!!!!

Ken

I have to agree with Ken, I think once you are used to the plane and flying it is second nature,
You have learned what the plane will do and you are comfortable with flying it you will just stop
getting the butterflys.

There are a few veterans with over 30 years experience in my club and they still get butterfys on
a maiden.

When the butterflies go away , so does some of the the mystery , but there is always more to take it`s place.
Ken `s telling it pretty straight , another thing I learned from him was , don`t be afraid to push a plane you think you`ve mastered, go back and kick up the throws , move the CG back , heck , over power the puppy ,lol Yep! More butterflies.\
Also , don`t hesitate to do a repair on your plane and don`t get flustered .

I may have missed it, but did you mention what plane your getting (or have)

a tail dragger is actaully easlier for me once the tail lifts.
it's not as complicated or as hard as you think

you can alway taxi around the with the main wing off to wake up the left thumb.

I'm currently flying a Sig LT-40 and I'm going to a Sig 4* 60.

Like Ken said, when you start learning to fly a tail dragger you can get very frustrated rather quickly. Just keep at it and suddenly you are not thinking about it, no matter which plane you fly. It becomes second nature just like almost everything else you do with flying R/C.

There are no 2 tail draggers that fly exactly the same. My Sky Raider Mk II is one where can hammer the throttle from idle to full with the plane sitting still and it won't ground loop (I've even tried to intentionally ground loop it and it is very resistant to come around). My Scat Cat 500 is another critter. It is equipped with a rudder and a tail skid, no wheel. Power has to be applied gradually and at 1/2 throttle it's usually starting to come around so full throttle has to be brought into it quickly, but by that time it’s airborne. My first 20 take-off attempts, which where off asphalt, resulted in 20 ground loops. It likes to swap ends all the time (take-off and landing) and is very user un-friendly on the ground. Best method for that plane is to have somebody hold the tail and release it with the plane at full throttle - typical pylon race-horse start with the nose offset 20 deg. to the right from the intended direction of flight. Most tail draggers I've flown start at idle and full up elevator with power gradually increased as the elevator is released. Generally by the time I'm at 1/2 throttle I'm off the elevator and the tail is starting to rise off the ground for a nice take-off run.

Hogflyer

I have converted my hobbistar to a tail dragger, I have not found it harder to take off, it is a little less forgiving landing, I have had more prop bumbs then i would like, I don't have near the experience that some people have but it is like everything else, it takes pratice and paintence.

Jon

I have to somewhat disagree with a few of you guys. If you are flying a small tail dragger(60 inch wingspan or smaller) it is easier to put right alieron when on the ground because your prop wash will not effect elevator on the ground. Any bigger than that you want up elevator or down stick. When the wheel is touching the ground the rudder inputs are extremely touchy and could cause a spin. MY advise is first to try and keep the plane level at less than half speed all the way down the runway. If you can get right behind the plane at first to see which way your plane generally yaws. Its usually left since your engine is pushing left but even a harder than normal compensation to the right can make the plane unstable. As the tail lifts its about 2000 times easier to control. On landings OPJOSE had it right your gonna need more power and if its a bigger plane you want to make your touchdown on the mains. Generally landings can be down throttle down on smaller planes but you will need a bit of power. Think about three or four clicks up throttle. Should be fine. Dont get scared. After the first couple of take offs and landings youll want to do touch and goes!!!!

mostly good advice . I did not see anything about toe in & camber which are very important in tail wheel aircraft.also who ever said to increase the distance of the tail wheel from the fuselage lengthen ing the gear leg etc-- this IS WRONG. you want the tail down somewhat so it lifts and finds its own level at take off. otherwise, the plane will not be able to rotate -I know, ive had it happen.

I didnt see anything in here about toe in or camber which can make or break some tail wheels.