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Haigh Tailwheel

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Randy

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I talked to Jim Miller this morning about a single place canopy for the Acro Sport.(1-816-358-5086) He supplies canopies already mounted to the tracks with framework and windshields cut and mounted. Pretty much ready to mount to your aircraft. I am only looking for the 1 piece bubble as I already have the tracks but during the discussion I mentioned I was looking for a good tail-wheel and really wished the Haigh tail-wheel was still being manufactured.
For those of you that do not recognize the name, Henry Haigh is a great akro pilot that flew on the USA world team. He manufactured a tapered rod, full castering, self locking tail-wheel that was the greatest invention since sliced bread in my humble opinion. I had them on two SkyBolts and absolutely loved them. They are small diameter, hard rubber tires that "S" turn easily without unlocking, just skid the tire across the runway. In fact the only time I ever unlocked mine was for extremely tight maneuvering. You had to be going slow because the inside wheel would actually back-up during a tight radius turn. The tail wheel completely took out all the rudder pedal dancing required on takeoff's and landings. The second the wheel was down the plane tracked straight. The distance between main gear and tail-wheel is also increased several inches adding to the stability of the aircraft.
Mr. Haigh stopped production for liability reasons as he was along in years and did not want it hanging over his head after retiring.
Well, low and behold if Mr. Miller is not a close friend and neighbor of Mr. Haigh and has access to the prints for the wheel and will gladly manufacture them if there is a reasonable amount of interest. He can make them out of stainless or titanium tapered rod.
So, anyone interested in this tail-wheel now or in the future please let me know. Mr. Miller can quote a price based on the number of units he thinks he can sell.
 

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