pj.ladd(at)btinternet.com
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 Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:36 am Post subject: taildraggers? |
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Hi,
It seems that some are making very heavy weather of the current trike versus taildragger posts.
Some are just retiring to entrenched positions without really considering the alternative very seriously.
I transitioned from gliders to microlights, going solo on a Quicksilver. The old design, with tip draggers operated by pieces of string, if you were lucky.
I also had some instruction on a Thruster, an Australian designed taildragger which became very popular here. It was a tractor design but apart from that very like the Kolb with a single pole fuselage and a 503 with a high thrust line.There was never any point made that taildraggers were inherently more of a handful on the ground or of the `taildragger problem`. I didn`t know that there was one. I had never flown a trike gear and just accepted the fact that this was way airplanes behaved.
Consequently when I bought a plane of my own, like many pilots I bought the design with which I was familiar.. A Thruster. I had many happy hours in it.
Later I bought and built a Challenger. Not because it was a trike undercart, but because it scored over the opposition. Taxiing the plane for the first time was a revelation. It actually went where it was pointed. It did not need constant attention in a cross wind taxy. It sat firmly on 3 wheels and the rudder pedal linked nose wheel was as precise as a car. Take offs were simplified. You started in flying position, no raising the tail `to flying position` Just ease the front wheel off the ground and that seemed to be the speed to transfer directional authority to the rudder. Crosswind take offs and landing were a doddle. I had experienced no trouble with the Thruster in this regard but this was just so much simpler. The Challenger ran on rails. I still landed pretty much in taildragger fashion, on the mains and tail low but as soon as the nose was lowered, absolute directional control.
Then the Kolb became available in the UK and with a 4 stroke engine. I had always liked the look of the Kolb ever since I saw its picture on the door of a clubhouse during training. I bought one. I didn`t think for a moment about `the taildragger problem`, What problem? I had never experienced one. I am pretty happy with the Kolb but had I been offered a choice of undercarriages when I placed the order then I would have unhesitatingly gone for the trike. How hanging a wheel on the front would have affected performance is open to argument. It would certainly have produced a plane with different characteristics, but better or worse, who knows?. I suspect that no argument will change the minds of some people but I have approached the problem, because of the training I received and the flying I have done in probably as neutral an attitude as possible and given all things being equal I would go for a trike configuration every time.
That being said I do have a sticker on my car that says ` REAL PILOTS FLY TAILDRAGGERS`.
Cheers
Pat
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