Is your tailwheel steering secure?

[Robert Lees]

A gentle reminder to mouse your steering springs, else the hangar rushes forth into one's landing path.

[VictorBravo]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

Thank you, will do !

[gnflyn]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

Mousing those links sounds like a great idea. What size wire did you use? I have some soft iron wire about .060", but wondering what you used.
Thanks....

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

I did my B about 20 yrs ago with .041 safety wire, .060 soft would be good too. The picture is on the web site somewhere.

[Frank DeBartolo]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

I had mine come loose once (appx 4 years ago) and it was quite an experience. The only thing that keeps it going straight is judicious use of brakes. Hope I spelled judicious right. Quite an experience. No damage--and I stayed on the runway OK, but the adrenaline did come up. I did mouse the springs on both ends and on both sides afterwards. No problem since. I used the pictures provided by this forum. They are on the web site and in the TOC newsletter. I printed those on the web site out put them in my file. Mousing is easy to do--especially if you have the pictures from the site. Those pictures are also in one of the old Taylorcraft Owners Club quarterly newsletter and there is an article about mousing in that newsletter.

Frank D
N43684

[Forrest Barber]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

Lots of folks apply the springs too tight, on the Pitts I learned to let them sag a bit. If too tight then the ship will veer off if you break a rudder arm or loose a spring.

[M Jones]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

I replaced the wire attachments from the springs to the horn years ago with small "quick links" that I picked at my local aviation/tractor supply store. They've seemed to work OK...

[Carl E. Carson]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

Like Mike, I too replaced my clips with the carabiner type, they are even
drilled at the nut so they can be safety wired. I don't know if they are "legal"
or not.

Carl

[flyguy]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

Robert: What is that little black mark across the bottom part of the clip in the photo? Hope it isn't a nick/notch.

I have been using heavy duty key rings for years, no failure, or signs of wear and tear so far. Think the screw together link looks like a good idea if the nut could be wired safe.

Carl: Where can one find the drilled ones of the correct size?
Thanks
Darryl

[Robert Lees]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

It's a shadow of the edge (end) of the clip. Flash photography tends to show sharp edges. Thanks for the concern.

Rob

[Carl E. Carson]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

Darryl: I'll have to look/think of where I bought them. When I do I'll let you know. Better yet send me your email to: [email protected]

Carl

[Robert Lees]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

Your local chandler will have them in stainless. Drill the hole, wire it up & silently challenge your IA to find it non-compliant with a non-existing FAR.

[3Dreaming]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

Maule supplies them with their compression springs these days.

[SteveR]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

Thanks for posting, I wired mine over the weekend after seeing this. I had zip tied them after one spring came loose on the day I bought the plane...somewhere around 350 hours ago. Zip ties had kept them secure since then, but safety wire is a much more proper and secure way to do it. Thanks for posting.

[Carl E. Carson]

Re: Is your tailwheel steering secure?

3Dreaming: Thanks for the reminder, that is where I got mine when I purchased new springs. Any off the shelf types wouldn't be too hard to drill as mentioned above.

Carl