talon58

My Feedback: (125)

I just can't seem to get my tail wheel spring tension correct. I have shortened my spring, to give more tension, but I still don't have good control turing taxi.

I can give rudder and I get the plane to turn a little, and then it starts to turn a lot, I go the other way with the rudder to try to compensate for the plane turning to much. Seems like the wheel is behind the rudder and then catches up and over turns.

So I'm constantly trying to comensate for slow turning and then overturning.

Needless to day, it makes roll out after landings a bit of a nail biter.

Any suggestions on tail wheel springs?

Thanks.

the-plumber

Now you know why many rider scale tail draggers have tail wheel _locks_.

If you can add another servo to the model, you can make a tail wheel lock fairly easily.

One way would be to copy the tail wheel lock setup on some aerobatic a/c, like the Extra 230.

The photo didn't scan all that well, but you should be able to make out the slot in the tail wheel yoke, and you should also be able to see the lock actuating cable running along the top of the tail wheel strut. Not so easily discerned is that the cable attaches to a lever which is pivots on the end of the tail wheel strut. The cable pushes the lever down into the slot in the yoke to lock the tail wheel, or pulls it out of the slot to unlock the tail wheel. The locking lever (pawl ?) is "L" shaped, with the pivot at the 90 degree bend in the "L", and with the horizontal part of the "L" being the portion which engages the slot in the yoke.

Clear as mud, I'm sure . . .

jclittle

My Feedback: (99)

As you have found out, it is nearly impossible to stretch a spring equally on both sides, you will always get slightly more tension on one side than the other. So I set up the tail wheel spring w/o any tension at all. If your spring is 1.5" long, and the total distance you need to go is 3", make up the distance from the spring to the horn with pull / pull wire. Make a loop of wire from the spring to the control horn. Any movement in the rudder causes the spring to flex just a little bit. This works great on my fleet.

Geistware

My Feedback: (16)

What I do is use a stiff spring and make sure that it is cut to length.
What I want is a stiff system that will give instead of tearing the rudder or wheel off the plane. I don't really stretch the spring to make tension.