I was thinking about converting my Tower Trainer to a tail-dragger. Any thoughts on how best to do it, or if I should even attempt to do it?

thanks!
Glenn

you would have to move the main landing gear forward to aleast the leading edge of the wing, and install a tail wheel or skid

I guess you can convert just about anything to tail dragger if you like. I would put the main gear in front of the wing and bolted into a reinforced block or ply backing, and put something at the tail so you can securely capture the mounting screws for the tail wheel assembly. Sullivan makes a pretty good tail wheel assembly, that is strong and light-weight.

http://www.sullivanproducts.com/Land...rMainFrame.htm

Mostly curious. Why do you want to change it? What issue is the nose gear causing?

My trainer, a Great Planes PT-60, was designed to use a nose gear but we built it as a tail dragger because of a specific issue. I had an ARF trainer and a PT-60 with nose gear. I have a really bad tendency to drop the nose of the plane just before touch down. I've broken a firewall, and damaged the bottom of both fuselages, because of this. With the new PT-60, the worst damage has been a broken prop. Usually the worst is that it stops the engine when the prop touches the ground.

The right answer, in my case, is to learn to land. But, changing the configuration of the plane has reduced the amount of repairs needed while I learn.

Here is a drawing of the way mine was done. Everyone says "the gear has to go in front of the wing" but my plane works fine with the gear slightly behind the leading edge.

Glenn,

Since you have posted this in the beginner's forum I'm going to assume you are just learning to fly. To turn your trainer into a tail dragger will only make the prop manufacturer's happy. Learn first to safely takeoff and land with the nose gear. This will help you learn to use your rudder on takeoff gradually instead of making it mandatory. This is simply a matter of too many things for someone training to deal with IF THEY DON'T HAVE TOO!! This is the very same logic that applies to full scale planes... why do you think you need a "tail dragger" endorsement? Again, many more things to do in the cockpit on takeoff/landing/taxi....

but, if you really want to make APC/Zinger/Master Airscrew happy... relocate the gear back, screw on a tailwheel and have fun...

Deadstik

I flew the Tower Trainer .40 MkII ARF last year, and I found that the nose gear didn't hold up for too long on a rough grass field. You might consider simply upgrading to a heavy duty Fults nose gear instead of re-doing the whole landing gear setup.

Good luck, and remember, if you're not having fun then you're doing something wrong!

Hi, Why not use a slightly smaller nose wheel like a 1/4 inch smaller.Also the wheels that come with ARF's are to small for use on grass.On .40 size planes I use 3 1/4 main and 3 inch nose gear wheel. The reason for the smaller nose wheel is you get a good chance of touching your mains first when landing.A stronger nose gear is nice to. You might want to glue triangle wood on the back side of the firewall with some epoxy.Bear in mind tail draggers are harder to take off as you have to use the rudder.Hope this helps. Dan

My Tower Trainer had a poor nosewheel setup. The nosewheel wire was smaller diameter than the holes on the engine mount. The nose wheel tended to wobble and get pulled by grass on our field, making the plane very hard to keep straight on takeoff. Eventually when I did go to a taildragger I found ground handling substantially easier.

Gstout, if your Tower Trainer is hard to handle on the ground go to your LHS and look for nose gear that is slightly larger in diameter. Klett or Goldberg used to make one, I don't know if it is still availab.e. Also make sure the nose wheel and rudder are accurately aligned...that is when the rudder is neutral the nosewheel is also neutral.

Other than this the Tower Trainer is great.

All,

Thanks for the info. Yes, I'm still pretty much a beginner, but feel like I've got a pretty good grasp on takeoff & landing the Tower 40 as is. Would love to move onto my second plane (Pulse XT, I think), but don't necessarily have the funds for it yet. Thus, I was thinking I could start learning and improve my flying skills by converting what I already have into a tail-dragger.

Very happy with the Tower 40 as is, and haven't had any trouble with the stock gear off of our grass field. So, to summarize, no issues with current configuration. Just looking to expand my horizons with my existing gear!

Thanks again!
Glenn

I am in the middle of converting a PT40 to a tail dragger. My web site has some picture up to my current construction.
http://blue10north.tripod.com/PT-40-Project.htm
If anyone has any advice about this build, I certainly would love to hear from you.