Tail drag to tricycle
 

Hey,

I have an ep-42 made by sig and i'm getting kind of tired of just the same old landing (even though no 2 landings are alike) it's a tail dragger and i would like to change it to a tricycle. what would it take to change it AND is it possible to slide out on the back wheels of the tricycle and snap of the back of the plane.

love ur advice

p.s. Buying and new plane is NOT an option well.it is but how hard could it be EH!!!

RE: Tail drag to tricycle
 

firestar,
Ok, to change the plane from a tail dragger to a tricycle landing gear setup it's going to take a few things. 1. You will need a nose gear mount similar to this [link]http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXD843&P=0[/link] . This is going to mount the nose gear to the firewall but still allow you to steer the plane with the rudder servo.
2. You are going to need to route a pushrod from the rudder servo to the new nose gear on the firewall.
3. Next you will need to move the main landing gear. On most taildraggers the main landing gear are usually located just in front of the CG of the plane. For most tricycle setup the main landing gear are located just behind the CG of the plane. What you are going to have to do is relocated the main gear to just behind the CG of the plane. When you relocate the block make sure that you reinforce the ribs that you mount it too. What works well is cutting rib doublers our of lite plywood, 1/8" or 3/32" should do fine.
4. You may have to rebend the main landing gear to either lengthen them or shorten them so that the fuselage of the plane sits level with the ground.
5. Lastly you will need to rebalance the plane to ensure that the CG is in the proper place.

Hope this helps

Ken

RE: Tail drag to tricycle
 

I'm still new to this hobby and i was wondering, HOW DO YOU FIND THE CENTER OF GRAVITY

RE: Tail drag to tricycle
 

The centre of gravity is the located at the point where it will balance level supported on either a proper CG jig, or usually your fingers!
Put one finger under each wing, the same place each side, nearest the fuz, not the wingtips, and pick up your plane with the two fingers.
Usually CG is about 1/3 back from the leading edge.
When you find the point when you pick up the plane by two fingers where it balances level, thats where the centre of gravity is.
Move your fingers fore and aft a little at a time till you find it.

Personally, I wouldn't bother messing about going from a taildragger to a trike, it's too much messing about, plus the steerable nose gear will end up letting you down at some point, most experienced flyers do away with them from the beginning and fix the wheel straight.
Most flyers convert trikes to taildraggers if anything, not taildraggers to trikes.

Hope this helps. ;)

RE: Tail drag to tricycle
 

I have one plane I converted from a trike to a tail dragger, a Pica Rapier II. It became such a squirrel on the ground I finally put it away until such time I convert it back. LOL! Honestly, I don't understand why anyone would want to lock the nose wheel in the straight ahead position and lose the ability to steer the aircraft. To each his own I suspect. At my clubs field we have two paved runways forming an X, each about 300x40. We can steer from the pits out to the runway. On landing the steer factor allows one to scrub off speed after touchdown. Many times I have experienced a tail dragger that simply vanes into the wind every time you try to move it. What a pain! The only fliers I know are predominately from my club, but we have a few with many years of flying under their belt that prefer a trike because of the improved ground handling. And then we have some that prefer a tail dragger. Again, to each his own. I'd say go for it if that's what you want to do. RCKen has laid out the proper steps. If the nose wheel setup is structurally sound you should experience no problem. The only times I experienced problem with any nose wheel was early on, first 2/3 years of learning.

RE: Tail drag to tricycle
 

Well I have only owned one trike steerable plane myself which was my trainer when I first started flying, but I never had any problems with mine, but plenty from the club have told me that they are not very good, and have usually resorted to fixing them straight, but havent told me the actual reason why, I'll have to ask them.

My current taildragger has a steerable rear wheel under the rudder and gives good enough ground handling for me on our grass field.
Some planes are more suited to a trike where others are more suited to a tail dragger, and some can utilise both ways :D
But yes, each to their own really like you say.
I get on with taildragger or trike though, not much difference to take off & land.
Yep, RC Kens method is as good as any if a conversion is what Firestar wants to do though

RE: Tail drag to tricycle
 

You're right about that Chocks. I don't think I would like to see a P51 or a Piper Cub with a trike setup. That would just be sac-religious. LOL! :D

RE: Tail drag to tricycle
 

:D Yeh, although some can use either way doesn't mean it will look right, - like you say, a p51 or cub on a trike......
no way [sm=thumbdown.gif]

You might get away with it on a cub at a push cos it's got similar looks to the cessna, but definately not a p51 :D