converting an avistar to a tail dragger

[hobbico99]

i was thinking of changing it to a taildragger so i am more advanced on my second plane. how do i do it? :confused:

[Franco Gozzi]

Converting an avistar into a taildragger is not so difficult.
First remove the existing landing gears.
Then mark the new location where you have to place the two wheels gear, which is at two inches ahead the center of gravity. To do so you have to remove the covering film from the plane belly and strengthen the area where you have to place the gear by mean of some hard plywood sheets and reinforcements.
In the same time, to compensate the weight increase, you can remove the plywood from the place where the gear was before and put some 4 or 5 mm balsa sheet there.
Cover the area again by any convenient covering film and screw the gear in place using the same hardware that you had removed before.
Now you can install the rear gear which you have previously bought at your hobby shop. Again you have to create a small reinforced area in the bottom side of your plane tail where you can firmly screw the gear in place.
At this point I do not suggest you to design a solution to make the tail wheel stirrable which could be time consuming and lead to an uncertain result.
Keep the gear frame fixed and straight, simply allow the small wheel to self stirr by a 0.5 mm loose fitting on the gear pin.
By this way taxing maneuverability will be a bit limited but your take offs and landings will be as straight as your toes can make.

Go for it, it will add some thrill to your sorties.

Cheers,
Franco

[Franco Gozzi]

:o at the end of my last post I have written "toes" while I actually meant thumbs.
Well, my mistake could be a very funny idea, isn't it?