Tail Wheel Question

[Len Petterson]

Re: Tail Wheel Question

My T- craft has Lang tailwheel full swivel work great.
Needs greasing often to swivel well. (;f
Ok I am parked outside.
Len

[astjp2]

Re: Tail Wheel Question

I have had 4 tail wheels on my bird and the one that I am sticking with is the SCOTT 3200 type, the non full swiveling scott I had bent my rudder arm, the scott 3-24b I had ground looped me (no damage, just scared me good), the Maule SF8A had to be rebuilt every year or it would shimmy so bad that I though I would break something...spend the extra money or wait for one on ebay....
My next adventure is a Gar aero 4.00x4 fork and spacer which is like the big bushwheel tailwheel....Good luck Tim

[davidpkii]

Re: Tail Wheel Question

I had three differnt tailwheels on my Taylorcraft (BC12D). When I bought the plane it had the Scott 2000 but it was totally worn out. I taxied it some but never flew it with this setup. I imediately replaced it with a Maule unit and started my flying lessons in the Tcraft. As far as I was concerned the Maule worked fine. When I let others fly my plane some would comment that it was very twitchy on the ground while others didn't seem to mind. I had one friend who had lots of tailwheel time (cropduster) refuse to fly it after one landing. I had nothing to compare my plane too as it was the only plane I had ever taken off or landed. I soloed after 6 hrs of dual and then flew about 125 hrs as a student pilot. I know, but I had my own plane and could fly when I wanted, most of my friends had privates so they could still ride with me as PIC. At the 125hr point the Maule started shimmying on landing. It was really bad on pavement. I took my checkride at about this point and on a couple of my landings the wheel shimmyed really bad. I was a little worried because I knew a couple of weeks before, my examiner was giving a check ride to someone in a 120 when the wheel shimmyed and they departed the runway. Everything came out ok and I passed the checkride no problem. I decided it was time to fix the Maule so I ordered a new bushing. When it came in I took apart the wheel only to discover not only a worn bushing but the shaft was cast so poorley that it was pitted and not even machined over most of the bearing surface. I decided it was not worth trying to fix and replaced the tailwheel with a Scott 3200. WOW what differnce. It was like landing a differnt plane. Instead of trying to dart off the runway on every landing the Scott tracks straight. It almost seems to straighten the plane out by itself. The Scott does take more peddle pressure to turn while taxiing but other than that it is a huge improvement over the Maule. I guess the only drawback is that now landings are not really as exciting or challenging as they were with the Maule unit. From my experience the Maule works fine and keeps you on your toes, it will probably shimmy for you one day. The Scott makes landing much easier and has never shimmyed yet.

David

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Tail Wheel Question

Yep me too , Bill is a valuable asset, just wish he had submitted proposal first to the FAA on his skylight When we tried certifiing the F-19 we found numerous interpretations...... the weighing points are still off, the tail skid was a "required" item. They felt it had to be there along with the tailwheel ??? It finally got all straightened out except for the weight pionts that ahve to be "measured". This will be another section of my next newsletter from the Foundation the " "Taylorcrafter. see u at SNF??