hi all,

i am looking for some advice regarding a scale skid lookalike with a hidden tailwheel

my first concern is the handling without a steerable (fixed) wheel in the back...

the second is how to.... anyone got some pics?

thanks,

Vasek

It would be helpful to know what aircraft you want the Skid For. I'm guessing it's a WWI type plane. If that's the case try to fashion it like that on the full scale plane. If you are flying from grass you don't need the wheel. If flying from a hard surface like asphalt the wheel will help some.

Bob, this is the airplane

& i want to know if there is a hiden FIXED wheel in the skid will it be steerable during take off before the wheel gets of the ground

the second pic shows what has been done to the real plane but i don't like the "modern" solution....

I use non-steerable tailwheels on my two 1/8 scale Fokker E.Vs. They are a bear to take off and land otherwise. The nonsteering aspect is fine, with a little speed the rudder action is usually sufficient. On the other hand, I don't taxi around a lot, just set the plane on the runway in the right direction and go.
On the Camel (1/6th scale VK kit) I am building now, I will use a tailwheel on asphalt but remove for grass or dirt. See the pix.
Allan

I did some searching on the net about the tail skid on that plane and I didn't find anything conclusive that would tell me if it was just a tail skid OR it had a small wheel inside a fairing. If I were you I might try locating some drawings on the plane... Or.. just put a small thin wheel inside a fairing.

thanks Allan, that's what i needed to know.

Vasek,
you can easily hide a little tailwheel in there, but what I've found on my fixed tail skid triplane, is that you can, with juidicious use of rudder and elevator, lift the tail with a blast of power and use the prop blast on the rudder to spin the airplane. another trick I used was to make a steerable tail skid which on grass works as well as a steerable tailwheel.
Good luck
Mike