it dosn't matter after a while wheather it's a tri or a drag..one rough landing on wires and it's all wacked.
it'll tend to go to the right at first ,but if the left side sits slightly lower after a hard landing or it'll want to go to the left.
Especailly if the nose gear gets bent too.lol

I guess toe in and and proper wheel placement (in front or at leading edge) is too complicate for newbies.lol
Of course an instructor with experince can help you and help you set up a a tail dragger.
My instructor had a lt-25 as a tail drager. My first R/C flight was on that..i didn't take off or land tho.
it helps to watch him do it as he was explaining it to me. He said slight rudder adjustments.
I could have awear his left thumb didn't slighty moved.lol
He had nice carbon fiber landing gears too..i wonder why?.lol

I am just starting out and I am researching different trainers. The telemaster senior is a tail dragger and from what I have heard is also and exceptional trainer.

Yes the STM is a taildragger and from what I've heard here, an excellent trainer...

Currently I have a Kadet LT-40. Another great trainer. I built it per spec with a nose wheel.

I too decided I wanted a tail-dragger version of a trainer, so I started building a STM.

One thing I gotta say though... It's a big bird. 8 foot wingspan. And the fuselage is over 4 feet long. Just a fair warning, it'll consume a bunch of space, both in the shop, and in your vehicle to/from the airfield.

I thought I was prepared for the size of this bird. "8 foot wingspan can't be that much bigger than my 6 foot kadet right?" It was still surprising.

Just to give you fair warning....

As to you original ? All most all are tri gear.
That Said:
I had a GP 40 Trainer Tri. and a Goldberg 40 Cub to learn on. I had good instructors who would put me on both airplanes. To me it was just as hard to stear them both when learning, and less trouble with the Cub. Tri are fine but with one or two hard landings on the nose wheel and you have to mess with it constantly to get it to run true. With the Cub you just bend them back together a little and go on learning. Most of the planes you will fly after learning will be tail draggers. So my advice is, learn on a tail dragger. (I'm not surggesting a Cub though). I would say a High wing, flat bottom, or semi flat, tail dragger. I love the 4* and fly it almost every time I go out, But would not reccomend it as a trainer. Second plane diffenatly, after beefing up the fuse area just behind the wing hold down. Very weak in this area if a hard landing is made.

Thanks for the info. on trikes vs. taildraggers. I have not been flying long enopugh to have learned the effects of one or the other. I learned on a trike but too many nose heavy landings, with damaged nose wheels and firewalls, made me think of the taildragger.
Laurence

Food for thought. While it might seem like the lack of a nose wheel might give tail draggers an advantage, heavy landings with them will also take their toll. Instead of nose gear and firewall issues, heavy landings with a tail dragger can/will result in bending the landing gear, tearing out the entire landing gear mount, nosing the plane over and breaking the prop, etc. The key, which I'm sure you realize, is to spend lots of time practicing landings until every one is nice and soft. [sm=regular_smile.gif]

I am sure everyone knows this, but I am feeling left out. If you use plastic bolts on your taildragger's main gear, a rough landing will usually shear the bolts and leave the gear mounting plate intact. (Would you like to know how I learned that? ) Then, you can heat up a flat bladed screwdriver and make a new slot in the body of the plastic bolt and back it out.

I am a BMFA approved instructor who learned to fly on a Junior 60, a 1946 British free flight design, two wheeled undercarriage. Lots of people converted free flight designs in the 60's and 70's in order to learn to fly and they are still popular today as "Vintage" models.

Many years ago I was the last man on the site and was packing up my gear when a young man turned up with a trainer with a tricycle undercarriage. He had never flown a model before and asked me whether I would fly it for him, just so he could see it in the air. Having taken off and trimmed it out I said, "This reminds me of the first time I took off with a trike undercarriage." He replied, " Oh yes, when was that?" To which I said, "Just then when I took off with your model!"

I give all of my beginners a long flight on the buddy box on a seven-foot Radio Queen until they get the hang of it, they can learn to taxi and take off later! The RQ doesn't even have alerons!

I suppose tricycle landing gear is easier to steer and will prevent a nose over but I try to spend as little time on the ground as possible so I don't think it makes much difference.

As for the auto/manual transmission debate, I deliver Jaguar cars for a living, it's a tough job etc...Most of them are automatics and the resale price of a manual is much lower, however, having driven the whole range, I much prefer a stick, you have so much more direct control over the vehicle, however, not for the first time, I find myself in a minority of one.

As for suitable tail dragger trainer, I feel a bias coming on, come on you Americans, what's wrong with a Telemaster?

DD

SIG LT-25 kit. As big as many .40 size trainers but flies well on a .25 engine.

I had a lot of trouble learning on a trike. Our fields on grass and the nose wheel would fold under and cause it to track funny then it was real sensitive to input and would get all squirrely before I even left the ground. I loved moving to a tail dragger. Just line it up, give it throttle and the tail leaves the ground. Let it roll a lil more and pull up. And my gear was getting mushy on the nexstar. At times I could touch down easy and still bang the prop and stop the engine. A couple of times I had took the main gear out, put it in the picnic table and bent it back down.

You might consider the World Models LA Flyer 40 ARF:

http://www.airborne-models.com/html/...p?ProductID=90

It's available in four different trim schemes.

I had a '70 Plymouth Valient. Three on the tree, armstrong power stearing, armstrong power clutch and brake. The air conditioner worked by rolling down the window (yes, you had to crank it back then). I don't see too much difficulty with a taildragger, but it was a little awkward at first with my Slow Poke. I guess the manual transmissions helped.

NorfolkSouthern