Conversion to a Tail Dragger
 

I've checked for a thread dealing with this but can't find one, so if anyone knows of one, please tell me and I'll go there.

Some time ago I graduated from a high wing trainer, tricycle landing gear, and it is now hanging on the wall doing not much, and I thought I might convert it to a tail dragger. My second aircraft is a low wing tricycle landing gear with a YS 53 four stroker.

What's involved? Is it as simple as just moving the gear forward a little and adding some lead to the tail (or taking the lead off the nose), and fixing a tail wheel? Is there more to it than that?

Thanks for your input.

RE: Conversion to a Tail Dragger
 

This thread may help...it talks about converting an Alpha trainer into a taildragger...

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_21...tm.htm#2118831

RE: Conversion to a Tail Dragger
 

Thanks Rubberducky. This thread is now obsolete.

Looks like it was what I had in mind. I forgot to mention taking the dihedral out of the wing, but I'm going to do that as well.

RE: Conversion to a Tail Dragger
 

Mount the wheels so they're parallel with the leading edge of the wing and mount a tailwheel and bracket hooked to rudder for steering. CG stays where it is.

RE: Conversion to a Tail Dragger
 

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_21..._1/key_/tm.htm

This one gives some explaination of it , with pictures.

RE: Conversion to a Tail Dragger
 

EPOXY some 1/4" plywood inside the fuselage so that the landing gear axles will be even with the leading edge of the wing when the gear is in place. I suggest adding some triangle stock to re-enforce the ply gear plate.

Glue a piece of 1/8" - 3/16" ply in the tail to fasten a tailwheel to. I prefer the Sullivan tailwheel setups for ease of installation.

Rebalance the plane - the CG stays the same.

RE: Conversion to a Tail Dragger
 

I converted my Kadet MkII to tail-dragger, had several problems. It will depend on your model what kind of difficulties you may have. First, make sure you can make your tailwheel steerable, either directly from your rudder linkage or by means of a separate servo setup. second, the mains must be forward of your c/g. As someone else said, maybe even with the leading edge, but I had to go more forward than that because mine was prone to ground loop on landing (flip over). You want them far enough forward that the plane can be tail-high on the mains without tipping over while landing, but not so far forward that the tail won't come up before the whole plane lifts during take-off. You may have to experiment to get it just right. Good luck. There are several guys at my field who have successfully converted theirs. Most notable is the SIG Kadet Senior

RE: Conversion to a Tail Dragger
 

Of all the Sig Senior ARF's at the fields where I fly, most have been converted to tail-wheels. Makes it a better plane, at least on grass, IMHO.