Tailwheel springs

[Dano"T"]

A guy with an Avid Flyer is getting instruction from me for his Sport Pilot Lic....we were flying it on grass...no real problem....went to pavement and that thing is wicked on takeoff.....gets going about 40 and then becomes very unstable and difficult to control.....I realize it is short coupled....but it is extreme. This , as you might imagine makes it difficult to give primary instruction in.....any suggestions? (He put a new tailwheel on and the springs are Tight) but she's an animal even with the tail up. I don't have much trouble myself...but the student is frustrated. And I get my share of heart throbbing when I have to take over the controls on takeoff as it skids wildly out of control. Anyone have any experience with these Avid Flyers....or I suppose a Kitfox is similar. Maybe I should just take him back to the grass strip and he can practice there for a while. It darn sure is a twitchy little buggar on takeoff though I was thinking there may be an alignment issue.....thoughts?....it has a 2 stroke that winds up to 6500rrrrs on takeoff....I believe with the gear reduction the prop ( or gyroscope as I call it,)is spinning in the 4000 rpm range and having some effect as well) what do you guys think....this is the first 2 stroke I've flown.

[flyguy]

Re: Tailwheel springs

No suggestions Dano, but I can make use of your experience to advise a friend who is just about at the "taxi test" point with his Avid. It is in my hangar and has an 85 HP Aussie engine (forgot name.)
I'm going to mention your experience to him next time I see him.
Sorry I can't help any, never flew one. Maybe go on Avid forum on line? Think I saw one there.
Thanks for the info. PS Question: does it have the curved high lift wing or the "speed" wing?
Darryl

[flybikefarm]

Re: Tailwheel springs

Check for toe in. That will agrivate it on pavment. Want nuetral or slight toe out. George

[Dano"T"]

Re: Tailwheel springs

Toe out?....I was told opposite...that you want toe in. This plane has some toe in....we checked it. It is interesting. I'll try an avid or kitfox forum. I was skeptical of the experimental, but I'm sort of enjoying it. If you say toe in makes it worse on pavement I think I believe you, because this thing is squirrley.

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Tailwheel springs

Many times an Aeronca A7AC will track fine with 15 psi in the tires and then get twitchy if you pump it up to 20 psi.

[N-43121]

Re: Tailwheel springs

I agree with "flybikefarm", check for toe in on the main gear. I came close to wrecking my BC-12D once because of this. I had been operating off of gravel for a couple summers and skis in the winter. My main gear had developed serious toe-in; I believe primarily due to ski operations on rough river ice. I relocated and the airport in the new town was paved. I used up every bit of a nice wide runway trying to keep things under control. With toe in, when the weight shifts to the right wheel, it wants to go left in a hurry. When you smash the rudder and shift the weight to the left, it will go right in a big hurry.

I did a custom front-end alignment using a 20-ft long piece of 2-inch electrical conduit and everything settled back down.

Rod