Hi All,

We’ve just upgraded from the 6” Solid wheel to the 7” pneumatic wheel (WHLT-7P) and others may find this post of use one day.

A while back Dad and I were taxiing out for a local flight when the 2-leaf tailspring finally decided to give way after years of service. I emailed John McBean who helped us to organize a new and improved 3 leaf spring. John also mentioned that it would be a good idea to move away from the solid tailwheel that we had (Skystar kit supplied).

When at Oshkosh this year we wandered over to the Matco stand and started talking to the (very helpful) staff. Soon after we’d done a deal and we were the proud owners of a new 7” inch tailwheel.
We opted for the 7” the staff at Matco explained:
“The 7 inch tire holds more air and is less susceptible to pressure changes as the 6 inch pneumatic tire is”
So I finally got around to changing over the tailwheel assembly. I found that the original assembly used a 7/16 bolt to connect to the tailspring while the new one was slightly smaller (actually there was a bush in there)
So we slowly and carefully drilled out the hole to a 7/16 (this is when we discovered that it had a bush in there.. doh ..)
20150926_072800.jpg20150926_072814.jpg

After bolting the new assembly straight on it was time to connect the tailwheel steering chains.. Wouldn’t you know it they were too short now. So we added an extra link in each chain and it was perfect.

Time for the test run!

Started up and within seconds of taxiing there was an enormous difference, it was so smooth and even better was the fact that the tailwheel steering was much lighter now (I do recall the Matco guys telling us why back at Oshkosh but I cannot remember the reason)

My only criticism is that I’m not a fan of the grey tire (looks a bit funny to me)20150927_180047.jpg

Anyway… those of you guys still running solid tailwheels, I’d recommend going pneumatic it’s great!
Jono