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Tail wheel rigging

B

Barnstormer

Member
Have noticed on my newly acquired 6 that the tail wheel doesn't agree with rudder position. I'm assuming it should be somewhat in agreement with the rudder. Did I *** u me right?

Thanks
Pat
 
Barnstormer said:
Have noticed on my newly acquired 6 that the tail wheel doesn't agree with rudder position. I'm assuming it should be somewhat in agreement with the rudder. Did I *** u me right?

Thanks
Pat
Click to expand...

I think we (forumer's) will need more information, or intuition to help you:confused:
 
tail wheel

The wheel and rudder are usually in close alignment. It is not a given, I set mine on my 6 with the rudder about 12 deg. right to help reduce wear on the tire during t.o. The steering chains should not have any slack. Dennis McCright 9364433562
 
My Brentz Lynx setup has slack and I like it that way!!!

Too tight and the rudder will bind on them before hitting the stops and it is harder to get the tailwheel to unlock....

Also makes my limited experience with crosswinds easier to handle.
 
My Rocket Link has almost no slack and is very nice. I'm not 100% sure I have it perfectly aligned with the tailwheel yet, but visually it's close enough. I hadn't considered offsetting it to reduce tailwheel wear.

I wonder if offsetting the tailwheel could be used as an alternative to the fixed trim tabs people put on their rudders? Tailwheel a little off one way, pushes rudder a little off the other way, and you get straight flight? Maybe?
 
Rather than offsetting your tailwheel, why not simply flip the tire over IF you notice lopsided wear.

I'm no expert, but I have hundreds of tailwheel forks out there, talk to guys on the phone all the time, and also have hundreds of our tailwheel tires out there.

Screaming Eagle tailwheel forks in stock, tires too, and 140 other RV items to boot.
 
Brantel said:
My Brentz Lynx setup has slack and I like it that way!!!

Too tight and the rudder will bind on them before hitting the stops and it is harder to get the tailwheel to unlock....

Also makes my limited experience with crosswinds easier to handle.
Click to expand...

The slack vs tight rudder to tail wheel interconnect has been debated a lot in the past (search the archives), but I totally agree with Brian

My personal opinion is that slightly slack with weight on the tail wheel is best for new RV tail dragger pilots. By having a slight amount of slack it desensitizes the steering control when running at high speed in the three point attitude. You are essentially making small steering corrections with just the rudder. If you need a big correction you begin to get tail wheel steering with a larger rudder input. I feel this also helps a new RV tail dragger pilot make smoother transitions when the tail wheel leaves the ground because by the time this occurs the airplane is at a speed that they pilot is already steering with rudder only.

I don't have a huge amount of tail dragger time but I do have a lot of RV time in all of the different models so I think I have an educated opinion.
I flew an RV-7 for a while that we installed a direct link on. After a while we took it off and reinstalled the traditional chains. None of the other pilots that also flew it liked the direct link (they all had much more taildragger time than I)

YMMV

A comment on geometry problems with the direct link...I have seen just the opposite from Brian. I have seen some RV's where the geometry was changed enough with the installation of a direct link that if the pilot applied full rudder it turned the tail wheel far enough to trip the swivel lock. Not a good thing if you ever end up in a situation where you use full rudder input during a landing.
 
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