>>Dave was good enough to tell us that he had sheared the stop pin
reversing the
bird.That is a valuable bit of information but I am not really sure that I
like the idea of using a stronger stop acting on the arm. Sorry Graham I'm
not being different for the sake of it but the twisting side load that the
tail can exert on the fixing of that dirty great spring arm may well do a
nasty to the fus<<
The dirty great side load will come anyway when you land with a bit of
drift on. With my installation, cables alongside the arm, if the stop broke
and the wheel went full 180 degrees, both cables would be on the same side
of the arm. No way to get them untangled without climbing out.
This business of the cables being tight, rudder straight ahead, means extra
friction on the rudder circuit. My cables are tight all the time and there
is enough friction to hold the rudder almost a full slip ball either side
at 80 kts. (Yep, bin flying today)
I did half a dozen landings, most on hard runway, light crosswind. Very
pleased with the ground handling. The plane is much more docile in pitch,
with greatly reduced tendency to bounce. In yaw it's just like a Cub now,
the sharp grab (most pronounced on your first flight with a new tyre) if
you allow the tail to touch with rudder on, is gone. Take off too is more
docile. Less necessity for tap dancing.
On grass the new tail wheel slides sideways more easily than the old.On
firm grass the turning circle is better, wet and the steering is not so
good. If you lock the brake on roll out you have no steering anyway once
the rudder stops working. Don't land downhill on wet grass!
Going to do some more landings (and the odd take off {;-0>) before trying a
bit less tension on the springs.
Graham
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