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I'm creating the Tail Mate II

goatflieg

Well Known Member
Since there are no tailwheel lifts currently available on the market, I've begun designing my own improved version of the original Tail Mate. I'm thinking about going into small-volume production and I want to research whether a patent was ever issued (my pattern unit is labeled "patent pending") and if so, who might own the patent. So far, my research has revealed nothing; I will do a search through the USPTO. I've read the previous threads here about the Tail Mate; according to Rocketbob the original owner sold the company, but I have no other information. If anybody here has any additional information let me know.
 
I can't answer your question until I get out to my hangar and see if there is a decal on mine.
But I can say this: I treat that thing like pure gold,,,!!
 
Can someone post a pic of the Tail-mate. I've searched and the old web site is dead as are links to any pics. I need to build or buy a tail lift.
 
From the "Way Back Machine"
 

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My two cents. which is two cents more then its worth.

Don't lift the tail wheel... the wheel is one of the things you need to service, maybe lift at the tailwheel spring? This is what I do when doing my annuals'.

Regards
Bill
 
My two cents. which is two cents more then its worth.

Don't lift the tail wheel... the wheel is one of the things you need to service, maybe lift at the tailwheel spring? This is what I do when doing my annuals'.

Regards
Bill

I use my Tailmate to lift the tailwheel, place a stand under the fuselage, lower the fuselage onto the stand, and remove the Tailmate for the rest fo the maintenance task…..
 
I do the same thing Paul does with his for servicing my tailwheel - very easy and safe. I’ve had mine for almost 20 years - 6 tailwheel RV’s, including my current RV6 build, and it has been a very handy tool. I’ve noticed a couple of broken strands on my cable, so I’ll be replacing that soon, but other than that, maintenance free.
 
I have plans for the Tail Mate I. Measured an existing product and did up some a plan in CAD set up for RV tailwheels. I sent out copies before.
If I knew how to post a PDF file on this site, I would.

Anyone, email me at . . .
rv18r at comcast.net
and I will send a copy.
To OP, feel free to take my plans FWIW.
 
I've seen the wooden ones; saved photos and considered doing that since I've built so many other wooden jigs and stands. But I really like the metal one and have some improvements in mind. It's also a good excuse to finally learn how to weld, or at least tack weld before a pro finishes it. I'll keep y'all posted; thanks for all the additional info.
 
I use my tail mate with a long board bolted to the lift platform to raise and lower the bottom cowl. Really works great. Also use it in normal tail lift mode. Really well designed unit

Bob Grigsby
RV3B. Fighting engine issues
Flying Cub a bunch
Donated. Thank you Doug
 
I use my Tailmate to lift the tailwheel, place a stand under the fuselage, lower the fuselage onto the stand, and remove the Tailmate for the rest fo the maintenance task…..

+1 with my off plan tailmate

BTW - I had to extend the lift from the frame to accommodate the long rudder of my -7. The standard is too short.
 
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... I really like the metal one and have some improvements in mind. It's also a good excuse to finally learn how to weld, or at least tack weld before a pro finishes it. ...
One thing to consider is you might be shipping this. If it comes apart, perhaps with bolts, it will be easier to ship. I bought an engine hoist from Germany that was flat packed like Ikea furniture, and it bolted together in about 10 mins. I'm sure something similar could be done for your TM2. Even for storing it in the hangar, for those that are "space challenged."
 
One thing to consider is you might be shipping this. If it comes apart, perhaps with bolts, it will be easier to ship. I bought an engine hoist from Germany that was flat packed like Ikea furniture, and it bolted together in about 10 mins. I'm sure something similar could be done for your TM2. Even for storing it in the hangar, for those that are "space challenged."

Yes; that is one of the considerations we're targeting.
 
Sign me up. I have a TMI and use it (and sometimes abuse it) for all sorts of taildraggers. It is a bit light for the likes of an Aviat Husky with more weight on the tail than RVs. A precarious proposition with the little cantilevered wheel shelf and the welds. The original nylon rollers would stick so I changed them out for some steel bearing rollers like they use on cargo slides for cargo aircraft. Basically heavier aircraft cause the rollers to gall on the square slide tubes. I also changed out the pulley for a ball bearing aircraft control cable pulley.

When I lower the tail the rollers quite often stick so I have to let out some cable and push down on the aft roller to take up the slack.

And here is another vote for accommodating longer rudders like the RV-7 and Husky. With longer rudders I have to hold the rudder off center until the tail is high enough for it to clear the frame of the TMI.
 
Tail Mate

Martin,

If you decide to pursue production put me on the list. Maybe a road trip to Michigan next Spring/Summer if the box will fit in the -8. Take out the back seat, remove the rear stick and lots of room......

Probably cheaper to ship it but where’s the fun in that?
 
When I lower the tail the rollers quite often stick so I have to let out some cable and push down on the aft roller to take up the slack.
And here is another vote for accommodating longer rudders like the RV-7 and Husky. With longer rudders I have to hold the rudder off center until the tail is high enough for it to clear the frame of the TMI.

I think this is quite common. Mine does the same.
 
The original designer of the TailMate is a friend of mine. In summary if there was money to be made selling them at a reasonable price, and demand was high enough, he or the subsequent owners would still be selling them.
 
The original designer of the TailMate is a friend of mine. In summary if there was money to be made selling them at a reasonable price, and demand was high enough, he or the subsequent owners would still be selling them.

One way to make a small fortune in aviation is to start with a big fortune.
 
I made a tail wheel lift by modifying a rider mower lift that I purchased at HF. Paid I think $59 and only had to do a little welding to make it into my tail wheel lift. Very easy spent maybe an hour to make it. I do the same as Paul when I need to service the little wheel.
If I knew how to post pics I would. Have tried unsuccessfully
 
The original designer of the TailMate is a friend of mine. In summary if there was money to be made selling them at a reasonable price, and demand was high enough, he or the subsequent owners would still be selling them.

I remember reading your posts in the older thread; consider me warned. If we do sell them it will be on-demand with very small margin and we will sell them at the price we have to charge. I'm sure it won't be as cheap as people want it to be; just building them the way I want it to be won't be as cheap as I want it to be. Selling others isn't something I have to do and I know the demand will be low, but there isn't anything on the market now. If they like what we build and want one, we will try to accommodate them. Still very much in the speculative stage right now, but I will build at least one for myself.
 
+1 with my off plan tailmate

BTW - I had to extend the lift from the frame to accommodate the long rudder of my -7. The standard is too short.

Bill. The BW plans are a bit taller than the original tailmate. Was told taller was needed for the RV-8 for some reason. And yes, back of the RV-7 rudder conflicts with the lift frame. I just break the tailwheel catch and swing to the side.
 
Blake Frazier, at www.flyboyaccessories.com, is the heir/owner of the Tailmate product. He and Todd Reifers, the original builder worked out an agreement some time ago... before Covid appeared and threw a wrench in this and many other plans.

Todd's address is shown in the ad that appeared in an earlier post in this thread. It always amazes me how some people can dig up stuff from almost 20 years ago!

Anyway, we've made a working prototype with several manufacturing and use improvements. It's still expensive to make, but the improvements help.

Sorry, I'm not going to discuss the improvements. :rolleyes: You'll have to wait.

Blake and I discussed earlier this week about getting the project back on the front burner, i.e. start welding the parts together and actually consider taking a few pre-orders with final pricing TBD. Those that have serious interest can send an email to Blake at this address: [email protected]
 
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Glad to hear that flyboyaccessories will be working on an improved model; sent Blake an email. My plans for my own version have been cancelled; my co-builder for that project was killed in a plane crash yesterday. Still reeling from that news.
 
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Received the following reply from Blake Frazier:
Thanks for getting in touch and thanks for starting up this conversation. We've been working on these on the back burner for some time now but the thread you started up and the conversations that followed have been a kick in the pants to get moving on it.
At the moment, I think we've got everything just about finalized except for the part that cradles the tailwheel itself. We'll be testing a few designs for those and we'll get going on the rest of the pieces, so hopefully we can gave something together in a reasonably short time frame... though I'd expect a couple of months to get everything pushed through.
We'll keep you apprised of any updates!
 
Wheel capture design does need improvement.

Received the following reply from Blake Frazier:
Thanks for getting in touch and thanks for starting up this conversation. We've been working on these on the back burner for some time now but the thread you started up and the conversations that followed have been a kick in the pants to get moving on it.
At the moment, I think we've got everything just about finalized except for the part that cradles the tailwheel itself. We'll be testing a few designs for those and we'll get going on the rest of the pieces, so hopefully we can gave something together in a reasonably short time frame... though I'd expect a couple of months to get everything pushed through.
We'll keep you apprised of any updates!

I sent Vince some pictures of my tilting shoe design in case he is interested.
 
my co-builder for that project was killed in a plane crash yesterday. Still reeling from that news.

Sincere condolences Martin, this hobby can sometimes be terribly sad :(
 
Looks easy to fab from wood or steel weldment, build your own. A tail wheel tow bar yes, but a lift not so much. If I had a lift I suppose I'd use it on occasion.
I man handle it and lift tail from tailwheel stinger. I have a aft fuselage cradle with foam, plus I add weight on tail wheel stinger, when jacking. I don't lift tail or jack whole plane that often. With a full swivel tailwheel it is easy to move plane around.
 
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Looks easy to fab from wood or steel weldment, build your own. A tail wheel tow bar yes, but a lift not so much. If I had a lift I suppose I'd use it on occasion.
I man handle it and lift tail from tailwheel stinger. I have a aft fuselage cradle with foam, plus I add weight on tail wheel stinger, when jacking. I don't lift tail or jack whole plane that often. With a full swivel tailwheel it is easy to move plane around.

Same approach here but after reading this thread I began to wonder if I could lift the tail with my engine lift and a strap, at least enough to get it on the sawhorse, rear of the plane seems to be getting heavier:eek:
Figs
 
Same approach here but after reading this thread I began to wonder if I could lift the tail with my engine lift and a strap, at least enough to get it on the sawhorse, rear of the plane seems to be getting heavier:eek:
Figs

Your back will appreciate a tail mate - whether you buy it or build it. I know mind does. I've built a wooden one using Sam's design, and it works fine.

Of course you could use an engine lift and a strap if the main wheels are solidly chocked and you are careful to lift straight up. The rudder might get into the way a bit.
 
"Armstrong" Tail Lift

If you are only raising the tail on your airplane to place it on some sort of support while maintenance is done, and will not be moving the aircraft around afterward, then this tail spring extension handle is a simple solution.

The only real benefits of this "handle" are ergonomics & convenience. Because the handle doesn't extend very far past the rudder, it doesn't extend the lifting arm moment enough to take very much weight off when lifting. But from a standpoint of lifting protocol - you can get your body in an efficient position to do the job.

My Rocket has 55# on the tail - and I'm OK using this handle. Maybe not so much for a heavier lift!

My actual use for this handle, most of the time, is to lift and place the tailwheel in its receiver for my "tow bar".

YMMV - and probably will.

HFS
 

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Tail & lower engine cowl lift

The table lift from Harbor freight referenced above looks like a good solution for lifting the tail. Also looks like a good way to get the lower cowl on a 3 bladed setup. Gonna have to pick up one of these I think. One thing I think it needs is a better safety lock so may need to fabricate something better than the stock safety levers. Really don’t want the tail dropping to the ground from 27”. This thing could make life easier and serve a dual purpose.

 
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My objective for a re-design would be two-fold:

Q.). Make a sturdy and safe design that can support multiple taildragger types, such as Super Cubs, RV's, Swifts, Scouts and Cessna 180's. While I can appreciate the TM1 and use it all the time it was specifically designed around the Van's RV specifications. There is probably a huge untapped market if the bush plane and antique owners could use one too. And I have had occasion to need to acess the cockpit while lifted and the TM1 is just a little too rickety to trust. I will lower the tailwheel onto a support if that's the case.

2.). Add a few more inches to the lift so an RV-8 could be lifted to level. The TM1 doesn't quite get there. Some of the above China Store alternatives only lift the tail 30 inches or so which is fine for servicing the tailwheel but not for oil changes or weighing/fuel calibration or rigging. Bruce Bohannon also showed me how he uses his Tailmate to lift the tail so more oil drains from the engine than when in a three-point attitude. Most Lycomings use a forward oil sump drain so there is residual oil trapped in the sump and lines. This happens even with the aft drain plug. I start the oil draining in 3 pt attitude and then crank the tail up to get more out.
 
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This is my version. Had some interest in it but not enough to produce and sell at a realistic price
 

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Here's an alternate design idea, easily adapted to the task of lifting a tailwheel.

I designed and built this some years ago for my mom. At the time she was still living on her own, and had one of those "I fell and I can't get up" episodes. No damage, just poor leg strength, but it led me to think about some sort of assistance device. She could crawl ok, so the device became a lift chair. There are commercial versions for $3K or so...but we build airplanes, right?

A linear actuator drives a simple carriage up and down a vertical square tube. Actuator capacity is about 250 lbs, so it will easily lift old ladies and tailwheels. The carriage is largely made from two 1/4" aluminum plate arms, waterjet cut from .dwg drawings. The arms would easily mount a tailwheel shoe in place of the seat.

This particular actuator is DC, connected to an AC power supply for household use. I'll convert to battery and take it to the hangar eventually. Yes, it has a remote.
-
 

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Love this articulating seat, Dan. When my wife had back surgery recently, I made the investment on a pair of raising recliners for both of us, and we love them. I also recently got an Aerocreeper for working on the airplane. A great, sturdy unit... but many times I wished it could be mechanically or hydraulically manipulated from a reclined position. There are videos out there of a space-age-looking creeper that does just that... but based on the lightweight appearance and very low price, I feared that it was way too good to be true.
 
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