larger tail wheel

[WHY]

Hi Carey

Used to fly several different Aeronca 7AC Champs years ago and some had the old small hard rubber "castor type" wheel and a couple had a larger "air type" tail wheel (Scott, I think) the ground handling difference was DAYLIGHT AND DDARK.

Tony

[Airone]

Hey Tony

Are you saying the larger tailwheel is the Daylight and the smaller one Dark?





Hi Carey

Used to fly several different Aeronca 7AC Champs years ago and some had the old small hard rubber "castor type" wheel and a couple had a larger "air type" tail wheel (Scott, I think) the ground handling difference was DAYLIGHT AND DDARK.

Tony

[WHY]

Hi Jon

For sure for sure, the larger one is MUCH BETTER , The article that Jim Eich wrote in PRA, ROTORCRAFT the May 1991 issue, shows that on the XNJ790, ( the Squirrel ) he used small main gear wheels and a large tail wheel ------------to be exact, all three wheels were the same size. This was the result of having a real problem with the ground handling and was one of the things he did to help get more stability out of the handling. As I talked to Jim he pointed out the the ultimate problem was not the gyro but "JIM " himself. Jim was a very big boy and with him in the gyro, the load on the tail was so heavy that when he approached lift off, there was apparently more weight on the tail than on the mains and it became very "squirrely" thus the name the squirrel.

However, as the story goes in the article, when his friend Norm Regnier got into the gyro he had no trouble at all taking off and landing or flying, thus it was determined that the serious difference in the two pilots weight was why it was so unstable.

This is why it is extremely important that correct percentage of overall weight be determined for the tail, especially with the pilot and fuel on board.

To much weight on the tail and it will go nuts on takeoff, to little and the tail will bounce around like a basketball while doing taxi work. I wish I could say for sure what this percentage is, but am not experienced enough to be sure, at the moment, looking at sucessful tractor's like the Little Wing and Chuter's tractor and now maybe the Pitbull it would seem to be around 15 to 20 percent loaded.

Tony

[Airone]

Thanks Tony

Great info

[mcbirdman]

Hi Tony,

Before the VW was removed on Ron's gyro I think there was 40lbs on the tail.