Yeah I guess I forgot about the swappable power pod concept. Back when I first started all the trainers were trigear designs because it made it harder to nose over on a landing that isn't flared correctly. If you came in and flared late nose wheel would bounce the nose back up and you would porpoise down the runway and look stupid but the plane would be flyable. The idea of the slide in power pod had just been started by one company that built a nitro pod with .40 engine and gas tank that could be transferred between planes. I can't remember if all of those planes were taildraggers? I know when I took my PPL training that all the trainers where trigear because of the easier landing ability. It made it easier to get the pilot safely on the ground over the older Cubs and Taylorcrafts, but it did make for less skilled pilots! I guess by having all the FT planes taildraggers we start off learning to be better pilots and rebuilders of planes!
Based on what I've seen in the videos most RC pilots don't spend much time taxing down the runway like the real planes had to in real life to get enough airspeed to lift off. Usually the lift/thrust ratio is high enough they go from tail up to flying in a second. Remember the old war movies when they had to bounce down the field before they could lift off.
I never thought of a castor style nose wheel but that does make sense, having the main gear behind the CG will still make the plane track straight on take off. The tail draggers tend to pull to the left from torque requiring rudder to compensate on power up. I would say make it a trigear and see how it works, the extra little bit of weight up front might help the CG in the air too.So yes I see that to add a nose wheel would require a fixed firewall onto which you could mount the nose rod. Not all nose wheels were steerable on models, my Thunder Tiger Cardinal 177 just had a free wheeling nose that steered by rudder force like a taildragger once you get the weight off the tail. You do have to get a little airspeed before getting enough rudder control so yes taxing out to the runway was hard, I usually place the plane on the runway or short grass. It just looks weird seeing a plane that looks like a Telemaster dragging it's tail. And the original kit had instructions to set it up as a taildragger too you just had to mount the main gear farther forward and add a steerable tail wheel to the rudder. I guess I'm just old fashion thinking that a plane sitting on the ground flat and level ready to fly looks more dignified than squatting on the ground
No I have to get my TT behaving well before I tackle the Brushwacker but it is difinely on my radar, maybe this spring.
You are doing the Bushwhacker as well?
At this point it is a proof of concept. I have a GForce E400 2212 100Kv, GForce 40A ESC, and 2S 30C 100 mAh battery that I purchase to convert an old Comet Aeronca Chief rubber band kit. But since I found the foam building community I have put the balsa build on the back burner and am looking to make a home for this power plant set up. I built an Armin wing watching Experimental Airline video that has a 40" span and 8.5" cord. I was going to build a Noob tube fuselage for it but am now marking out a modified Schrub Smacker fuselage instead. I printed up the plans for the fuselage and cut it out for a template. I have to add 3 3/8" to the middle to accommodate the wider cord, I added nose cheeks that extend past the firewall to hide the motor from the side, and elongated to tail section to maintain the 2 to 3 times cord guidelines from the Flite Test trainer design article. I am going to transfer my new profile to poster board so I can recreate new fuselage layout. I don't have any of the fancy CAD software so this is all hand draw on paper and poster board. I'll update when I lay it out on FB.
As Grifflyer alluded to that FT planes are designed around the removable power pod that a nose wheel isn't practical, but this modification of the Shrubwacker will probably have a fixed firewall a nose gear might be in the works. I too am from the world where a plane sitting on three wheels looks right!
Completely understand....
No pressure but have you maidened the BB yet?! You are killing me here man!
You are making it "Simply Your Storch" putting you signature on it. As long as it still flys all is good.
Chris.... THE WAIT is killing me!! 😳 She's READY! I promised myself that I wouldn't fly without Video, and won't Maiden her without Greyson...
Which is easier to do at this point when it's still just on paper!
PRECISELY!! 👍👍
Could you fix up your phone to your hat?
