Raimo & Fred, William in my experience generally gave good advice, but as
reported the C of G advice is misleading. Flying with as rear as possible C
of G is good for tail wheel authority on the ground and for greater
efficiency and speed in the air, but of course flying with the C of G behind
the rear limit is bad for your health! I guess what William meant was
putting it back as far as possible so that in every loading combination it
would still be within the range. This however still requires it to be close
to mid range on the empty plane:
For an 830lb empty (APS wt) plane, adding 200lbs of pilot brings the
Cof G forwards 0.9 ins, but adding 80lbs of luggage puts it back 2.4 ins.
Flying with a 150lb pilot and 80 lbs luggage (probably the extreme
situation) combines to put the C of G back a bit over 1.4 ins. With the aft
C of G limit being 62.5 ins this suggests that it would be unwise to arrange
your empty C of G to be any further back than 61 ins. Those who are tempted
to take camping gear, a couple of bikes and the labrador might well need to
have it substantially further forward! Regards, David Joyce, G-XSDJ
----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Klein" <fklein@orcasonline.com>
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 12:34 AM
Subject: Re: Fw: Europa-List: Singleton Tail Wheel Mod
>
>
> On Thursday, Nov 29, 2007, at 11:30 US/Pacific, Raimo Toivio wrote:
>
> > would you like to tell us also
> > the rest 3 things to ensure
> > XS MW trouble free operations?
>
> Raimo,
>
> Happy to do so; from my notes of a conversation with William Mills at
> Sun 'n Fun, 2007; also present was Terry Greaves; William made the
> following recommendations:
>
> 1. Add weight in tail to get the CG at the aft limit,
>
> 2. Modify Graham Singleton's tail wheel mod (as per previous post),
>
> 3. Outrigger Rod Lengths: delay drilling the bolt holes into the wheel
> brackets until the very end of your build; ensure that the O/R rods are
> long enough so both wheels touch on level ground.
>
> 4. Make initial flights on grass.
>
> Fred
>
> PS: Thanks everyone for the thoughtful discussion of the tail wheel
> issue. Too many years ago when I was considering building a Q-200, the
> mantra was "Don't build in isolation!" and I recall making two short
> trips to visit another builder to learn the special joys of hot-wiring
> foam; such visits, a monthly newsletter, and Oshkosh forums were the
> extent of the ability to share information. How different things are
> today, w/ nearly instantaneous global feedback on any question which
> arises from a variety of informed sources thanks to the internet, the
> Europa Club, and folks like SteveD and Matt Draille.
>
>
> --
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>
>
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