RV-3 Gear

I love flying my -3, but I do still have one concern though. I stand 6' 4" and I have my head about 1/2" from the top of the canopy. I cannot see over the nose when on the ground. Not usually a problem,except when the field is narrow, that get the ole heart rate up. My question is this, was or is there a shorter gear for the -3. I have sat in a -4 and I can see over the nose.
Any help will be appreciated!

Mike Bauer
RV-3 N87LB flying
RV-4 N742MC building
[email protected]

Mike, to the best of my knowledge there was only one gear length ever made for the RV-3. Of course the RV-4 was given longer legs along the way so you will commonly see both short legged and long legged versions.

My tailwheel CFI stuffs a jacket up on the glareshield to impair my forward vision when we go flying - he says it's important to get a good feel for peripheral vision. Vis is good in the 170, but I guess it might not be in other stuff down the road!

Thomas

Try working on the other end.

Don't know a different main gear for the -3, but the tail wheel can make quite a difference. I have a taller tail wheel on my -6 and it makes a big difference in forward visibility on the ground.

Mel said:

Don't know a different main gear for the -3, but the tail wheel can make quite a difference. I have a taller tail wheel on my -6 and it makes a big difference in forward visibility on the ground.

Click to expand...

Good point, there are at least three alternative tailwheel options all of which raise the tail. There's a tradeoff however... the RV-3's ground attitude is already less than the angle of attack needed for a stall. Theoretically taildraggers should sit at the precise attitude needed for a stall, that way when you do a 3-point landing you're right at the attitude needed.

I already have a Doug Bell tailwheel painted and ready to go but do not plan to install it until after I fly my RV-3B and can assess the difference. I want to see how it lands and also measure the difference in ground angle. It's a simple bolt on swap.

For the record, alternative tailwheel assemblies that I'm aware of include...

The Doug Bell tailwheel - No web site, but this thread has all the info.

Vince Frazier's tailwheel - Can be found here.

Aviation Products - No web site but you can see Larry Bowen's installation here.

Of course for any of these you'll need to convert from the old style non-full-swivel tailwheel but this is not a difficult conversion. Aint it great to have choices?

Actually all of the RV tail draggers sit lower than the critical AOA. This is not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that to "3-point" you must "attitude" land instead of full stall.

Hey guys;

Thanks for all of the good info! I was able to get some things faxed to me from some of the places that you told me about. Now it's just a matter of figuring out which is the best for my situation. And just for the record, all of my landings are "attitude" landings, if you have ever seen some of my stall landings you would laugh youself silly. It's better to let the plane land itself with a little power.

Mike Bauer
RV-3 N87LB flying
RV-4 building N742MC