conversion project please help
 

I am trying to make two coversions to a 40 size tower trainer. first i want to bolt the wing on but dont know how. second I want to make it a tail dragger but same problem. please help?

jim


its not the fall that breaks the plane, Its the sudden stop at the end.

RE: conversion project please help
 

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You can bolt the wing on a number of ways. None are dead simple or easy to do. And you've got to look at the present layout of your airplane to decide which method would work the best/easiest. I'll look up the Tower Trainer in a minute and give a guess. MOF, I flew with one just yesterday but don't remember what the front looks like. old age.....

The rear of the wing is easy. You simply place a piece of wood inside the fuselage under the TE of the wing. It's gotta be wide enough and thick enough and long enough. The top of it should be parallel to the top of the wing. Drill two holes through the wing that also go through that new wood. Thread the wood for the bolts you're going to use. Then redrill the two holes through the wing so the bolts simply push through. You don't want to have to screw them through the wing.

The front of the wing can be done the same way. But if the fuselage reaches up in front of the wing, you can do something better. Place pins in the front of the wing. You can also place a projecting plate under the front of the wing that sticks forward. Either is simply a "hook" that's to hook under or into the fuselage in front of the wing LE.

Best thing for you to do is to take a hard look at every highwing at your flying field. Watch as the guys bolt their wings on and look at the design of their airplane. Or check out your LHS and look at the ARFs and how they work.

RE: conversion project please help
 

The idea is simple. The details can be many and are up to you to work out.

Don't put on the tricycle gear. Buy an appropriately tall and wide main gear. Position it so that the wheels' axles will line up with the leading edge of the wing or very slightly forward. Mark the fuselage so that you can bolt the gear on the fuselage where all that lines up. Go inside the fuselage where those marks are and place a plywood doubler on the floor of the fuselage to support the main gear and take the bolts. Epoxy in that doubler. Now put fuselage side douplers above that floor doubler so that the fuselage sides will also take the landing stresses.

Get yourself one of the tailwheel assemblys the LHS sell, and put it on the airplane. It'll connect to the rudder most probably.

RE: conversion project please help
 

Are those two preceeding posts complete in every detail?

Not even close. But they describe the tasks generally. The details are specific to your airplane and what you choose to use in the effort. Best thing for you to do is to look closely at the models at your field and see how they're done.

RE: conversion project please help
 

OK, the Tower Trainer limits the options on the front of the wing.

The fuselage is lower than the front of the wing. And it actually looks somewhat "fragile" for retrofitting.

It definitely won't accomodate hold-down pins out the front of the wing. Nothing for the pins to fit into UNLESS you build the windscreen up, and that'd look dumb. And a flat plate projecting out and forward from under the wing into the backside of the windscreen looks to be a bad idea. There wouldn't be much windscreen/fuselage to hold the plate. You could beef up the insides of the fuselage to accept the plate however. You'll have to decide if that'd work. Look inside and try to visualize beefing up the fuse..... would it work?

What's left for the front???? Bolts through the leading edge. They'd work.... cosmetically. But the wing wouldn't stand up to the bolts going thought it right there. You could plate the top of the wing just as the rear is reinforced, but the plate would have to be big and curved and creased and..... too much work.

What's left????

Hooks off the wing that'd fit over the existing dowel rods. They'd be flat plates and would have to be inserted into the wing like mutant ribs that grew out of the wing. Nope...... To be strong enough, they'd have to have been built into the wing from the gitgo.

Anybody got any other ideas?

Only one of mine seems worthwhile.

The rear of the wing already has a reinforcing plate. All you'd need to do is mentioned a post or two up. But the front........... hhhmmmmmmmmmmm........................

RE: conversion project please help
 

OK, back to the taildragger............

With your Tower Trainer....... If it wasn't for bad luck, you wouldn't have no luck nohow, atall

A bolt on tailwheel works for any airplane that has a rudder that extends all the way down the fuselage. The Tower Trainer's rudder is up above the elevator. Tailwheels usually need direct access to the rudder and that airplane doesn't provide it.

A buddy recently converted an Eagle2 to a taildragger configuration. He isn't experienced and thought that a freewheeling tailwheel would work for him. The Eagle2's rudder is out of reach like the Tower Trainer's is. That setup gave us fits. To turn while takiing required airflow from the prop. Blow on the rudder with the prop and the elevator/stab lifts the tail and she starts pitching on her nose and ...... jeez it was too flippy. So I built a new tailwheel structure that'd work easily off it's own pushrod and we had a steering tailwheel.

When the rudder is out of reach, you'll need to get your steering from the servo. A pushrod is easy. Except that you then need the wheel's tiller to project out the side, not front to back. But it's really not hard to design. The execution depends on the details for how easy it is to do, however.

RE: conversion project please help
 

is there anyway to take a v-notch out of the elevator so that the tail wheel would work?

Jim