Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Air Models / July 2003

Totally agree with Ed's comments.
My 1/4 scale Tiger Moth will nose over if I try to throttle up without
holding some up elevator. Slowly release up as the speed builds up. With the
correct trim, the model will lift of on its own as the speed increases.

I have cheated and fitted a Gyro to the rudder. Gives me super straight
takeoffs.

Regards

Tom Watson
Sydney Australia

This method will work but there are a couple of other issues you need to  be
aware of and think about before you try the first take off.  Most
conventional (taildragger) beginners make on very serious and frequently
terminal error during that first takeoff attempt.  That is insisting on
total directional control in the wrong manner.

As you bring the throttle up the plane will tend to veer off to one side (or
the other if there is a cross wind).  Most beginners over correct and the
problem gets worse in the other direction and another correction is put in
and it gets worse again.  This cycle is very frequently repeated until the
plane gets just enough airspeed to lift off and snap back into the ground.

For your first take off, get authorization from everyone else to stand
behind your plane so you can see what is happening and take the proper
actions.  The next step is to understand and accept that you may not have
the skills to correct a deviation so that means you must have a plan.  Here
is what you should use as it will work and help you get comfortable with
conventional geared birds.  It is what I teach and use - I have set a
'standard' with a particularly nimble plane that many in my club don't fly
because it is difficult on take off.

The very first part plan is the most important and it is that you will chop
the throttle whenever the plane is clearly reaching the boundaries of
safety.  The second part of the plan is that all you will do during the
takeoff run is to stop a deviation rather than correct it back to the runway
centerline.  The following list is what will happen if you do otherwise
before you have learned all the 'tricks' of taildraggers.

1.  When you do correct it back the plane is slow and the control limited so
the correction input is huge (relatively).  This is a function of airspeed.
2.  It  becomes a problem because by the time the bird gets back to the
centerline, it is going further because the airspeed while not enough to fly
is still more than it was when the initial correction was put in and you
have to put in an opposite correction which will take less input than the
original correction took.
3.  Go back to sentence #1 until the plane breaks ground with the rudder at
one limit or the other which causes a low level snap.

Please read this several times to understand and internalize it before you
put your plane at risk.

Good luck,

--
Jim Branaum
AMA 1428

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