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Tailwheels

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gha111

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As important as a tailwheel is to the handling of a taildragger, you would think there would be consensus as to how they should be configured. I've just painted the fuselage on my rebuild of a AS1 and have started to put things back together. I have bought a Matco, full swivel wheel because the previous wheel, which steered great, only turned 90 degrees, so if you wanted to push the plane backwards, you had to pick up the tail. Installing the Matco, I notice the spring/chain attach holes are 7" apart, about 1 1/2" wider than the old wheel. The plans for the AS1 call for the rudder arm of just over 5", which means that the chains and springs are no longer almost parallel. Now for full rudder displacement the tailwheel only moves a little over half as much. In looking at other planes, I notice that a Champ and 2 Starduster 1's have the opposite ratio. The rudder arm holes are 8" apart and the tailwheel is only 6". That means the wheel is going to move a lot more for any given amount of rudder movement. I haven't flown a Starduster but that Champ is one touchy mother while using the rudder on taxi and rollout. I would guess that would be true of the Stardusters too. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? There even seems to be a BIG disagreement on which way the wheel post is to be set. Some say the top of the post has to be raked aft to prevent shimmy, but I've read in some books that the post has to be raked forward. Neil...are you still there? Garry
 

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