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Tailwheel hit my rudder
- Thread starter Cdenora
- Start date
BoydBirchler
Well Known Member
Very common to see a hole broke out in the bottom of the fairing, from the bolt on the tailwheel hitting the fairing. Not much clearance there. A friend on his RV7 made a flat bottom fairing to get an inch and a half, or so, more clearance.
Same thing on my -7. Noticed it After a trip with gear in the back and gusty landing. I bought a Harbor Freight 12 ton tubing bender and rebent my tail wheel spring per instructions previously posted. Amazing the helpful info here. Now I have a very slightly tubing bender collecting dust. Too heavy to ship anywhere or I’d sell it.
Jvon811
Well Known Member
I wouldn't call it common to see damage on the bottom of the rudder. Either the landing wasn't as smooth as you might have thought, or the field was pretty dang rough. In my local network of ~15 or so RV-4 friends, none have that damage. I have had damage from steering chains dragging on the rudder before, but that isn't the same. I've got just over 1000 hours in my airplane doing everything from STOL contests (landing tailwheel first) to Hurricane Relief missions hauling right up to the MGTOW of the airplane. I've never once had to think about the tailwheel hitting the bottom of the rudder. I apologize that I don't have a great answer for you, I don't think your tailwheel spring can "go bad" and need to be replaced unless it's been previously bent by some rough landings. Just food for thought.
Attached is a pic of 2xxlbs in my backseat. My father plus a full 3.5 gallon smoke tank in the baggage area. You can tell, it's already flexing a measurable amount, but still plenty of tailwheel spring clearance.
Attached is a pic of 2xxlbs in my backseat. My father plus a full 3.5 gallon smoke tank in the baggage area. You can tell, it's already flexing a measurable amount, but still plenty of tailwheel spring clearance.
Yes. My rudder fairing was damaged, and the spring is slightly bent upwards.
No, unless it is bent and that fact alone disturbs you... I kept mine this way since I want max AOA when landing on shorter or bad surface fields.
Popcorn's still hit warm, so I gotta go
BoydBirchler
Well Known Member
The big rudder on a RV7 has less clearance than your RV4.
Holy smoke oil Batman! Did you fly it like that? Way past the aft CG I'd imagine - which is very dangerous.
I have flown mine with 200# backseater and also have 3.5 gallon smoke tank in baggage. not a big deal with anything over half tanks of gas, you learn to be tender on pitch. My good friend had an F1 Rocket and was doing his run-up, the tail picked up and he grabbed full aft stick, the resulting bang down was enough to bend his stinger and bash in his lower fairing.
Jvon811
Well Known Member
Well, this being posted in the RV-4 forum... And he said he was flying a -4... I figured an answer from another -4 driver would probably be most relevant.
Jvon811
Well Known Member
Like Bill said, with full tanks, it's within CG. It's towards the aft limit for sure, but it's still very flyable. It's just something to be cognizant of when flying with a pax in the back.
The low clearance under the rudder (and subsequent rudder hole punches I’ve seen) were one of the things I had in mind when designing the new lightweight TW fork. I ditched the typical stud and nut for a low profile top cap with nyloc pan-heads.
This gives an additional 1/2” of clearance between the top of the steerer, and the rudder fairing.
This gives an additional 1/2” of clearance between the top of the steerer, and the rudder fairing.
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I have nearly 1400 hours and 25 years on my airplane. I've flown fully loaded to OSH 10 times, adults in the back, aerobatics like that, etc etc. Guess I'm getting old (or is it wise?) because it's just not smart to fly an airplane that's out of balance with an aft CG. It's an unsafe configuration. I don't do it anymore.
Jvon811
Well Known Member
I hope you're not implying I fly out of CG or promoted that. That's not what I said.
Mark Cigal
Well Known Member
I recognize the tailwheel, but the fork in the picture...... Where can we get one like that ?
Mark
Makes me miss my RV-4. Not to be a pest but where was you CG? I built and flew an RV-4 for 10 yrs. I had a Hartzell and O320. Solo is was right up forward CG which was good. with my 130lb girl friend, some lightweight camping gear, clothes, it was right at aft limit. When landing right before touchdown I recall (been two decades) actually had to apply a tad forward stick or anti flare to keep tailwheel from slapping down first. It flew well but I would not want to play around too far aft CG.
Jvon811
Well Known Member
I weighed my airplane back in 2020 after some panel work. The 1996 original W&B used the 50" Datum but my new W&B uses the 60" Datum. Limit is 68.7"-77.4" according to Van's.
Solo, my W&B works out to 72.7" aft of datum, smack in the middle.
As pictured there above, I'm 210 lbs, Dad is 185 (he's got that Keto diet figured out), and I had half tanks of fuel plus some smoke oil (tank in the rear baggage). W&B works out to 76.2".
I’ll have them for sale on my site once I’m through testing! Should be later this month.
At only 7oz installed weight with axle (~10oz lighter than standard), I’m slowly clawing back the aft CG my RV-4 has with its composite prop.
Pete O Static
Active Member
That’s really interesting. If I run my W&B with your solo numbers at 1/2 tanks, I get the exact same CG as you do 72.7. But when I add 185 to the back seat and fly for approx 45 mins, my CG falls off the back end and that’s with no tank in my baggage area.
sansoneservices
Well Known Member
It's beautiful
Thank you. It’s been rolling around in the back of my head for about 5 years, felt awesome to finally make it happen.
