[Mike Ice]

Hello,

I have a hard time getting up on the wing of my tail dragger 9.

Is it possible to add steps to the 9.

Has anyone added steps to a tail dragger after it has been built? Did you run into any huge problems?

Mike Ice

 

[Sam Buchanan]

Hello,

I have a hard time getting up on the wing of my tail dragger 9.

Is it possible to add steps to the 9.

Has anyone added steps to a tail dragger after it has been built? Did you run into any huge problems?

Mike Ice

Mike,

After nine years of flying my RV-6 and holding my breath while my height-challenged bride stepped off the wing, I knew it was time to add a step to the right side of the plane.

After ordering a RH step from Vans and doing some eye-balling while holding it near the fuse, it was obvious the standard step was too long for my plane. The step extended down far enough to look flaky and didn't "divide" the space between the wing and ground evenly.

I called Vans to see if they had background on installing a step on a taildragger and possibly a shorter step. They said they had only heard of this happening on one RV-8. Since I didn't want to mess up the gorgeous welding on the step I asked for and received the phone number of their step vendor. The plan was to see if the vendor would either modify my step or build one three inches shorter. I think if Vans stocked a handful of shorter steps there would be some sales to taildragger builders.

Never was able to make contact with the vendor so decided to mod the step myself. Instead of hacking the beautiful welds, I sectioned the middle of the down tube three inches, MIGed a 4130 tube inside the leading edge of the airfoil-shaped tubing, and welded the downtube back together. After carefully dressing the welds, I had a very nice step that was 3" shorter and perfectly proportioned for the RV-6.

Installation was fairly easy, took about an hour to drill out the baggage floorboard rivets and open up the plane. Total installation was about eight hours and the results are very satisfactory. The round hole in the side of the fuse was carefully cut with a fly-cutter in an AC-powered hand drill turning very slowly.

Highly recommended if you have short or mature pilot or passenger.

 

[Mel]

I installed steps on my -6 that come straight out the side of the fuselage at the flap trailing edge. They don't hang down at all. Come to LOE and see them. I've had them for over a year now and love them.
If you will send me your e-mail address, I'll send you pictures of the install. <n168tx(at)flytx.net>

 

[vansrv8]

I added one to my 8 during the build but a friend did add one to his 8 after the fact..he said it was not that big of a deal on the 8, just had to remove the flap fairing.

We shortened them by about 2.75 inches on the 8.

 

[Bob Axsom]

Not difficult but awkward

My step installation took took 9.8 hours spread over 3 days from 8/15 through 8/17/1997. It is important to get then on straight with respect to the airflow in flight. I originally riveted them to the fuselage and anchored them with an AN3 bolt in the inboard plastic block. Recently I made them removable for racing and I replaced the rivets with #8 flathead stainless steel screws and platenuts attached to new nutplate assemblies (2024T3 aluminum probably 0.021 - 0.025 sheet attached to the inside of the fuselage wall. I chose to cut access openings in the baggage floor and make cover plates rather than drill out the steel stemmed pop rivets in all the ribs of the baggage floor. Each cover plate is secured with three platenuts and #8 screws. I used dimpled platenuts in all locations and dimpled the screw holes (even those behind the step flange location). To cut the initial holes in the baggage floor panels I used a hole saw from Lowe's in my electric drill then used my right and left hand tin snips to cut the openings to final size. The steps are long and cutting a section out and welding the elements back together is necessary I believe as the others say they have done. Talk to someone that will weld them for you before you cut them if you are not going to do it yourself - they need to see the original configuration and they need to get it back together with the same alignment. My mod started on 6/13/08 and was completed on 6/21/08 after 31.9 hours of work. The speed difference with the steps removed is on the order of 0.5 kt. They will be well worth your effort.

Bob Axsom