Handling

[Slyfox]

wow! here you got a new airplane and you are saying it's ok to do a high speed taxi. What are you going to do when you want to do a wheel landing, well lets put it this way. just wait until you know your airplane, do 3 point landings. work your skills better, than do the wheel landings. that's what I suggest. JMHO. why chance cracking it up before you even take a first flight. trust me, I can do wheel landing better than most, I love them, but if your skills aren't there and the airplane isn't set up perfect, well your going to have a bad day and you will be rebuilding your airplane

[av8rps]

Again, maybe just the way I like to do tings, but I will always spend a bunch of time taxiing a new airplane so I know everything is working like it should before I leave the ground, and so I am comfortable and familiar with everything in the cockpit for when I do decide to fly. High speed taxi of a plane on wheels is the equivalent of step taxiing a plane on floats. There is no better way to know how a seaplane is going to fly, or to familiarize a plot to a new seaplane than to have him step taxi it. Yet I have many friends that have flown floats for decades and are still not comfortable step taxiing their own airplane. I don't get any of that. If we are going to fly our airplanes well, we need to train until we get good with them.

wow! here you got a new airplane and you are saying it's ok to do a high speed taxi. What are you going to do when you want to do a wheel landing, well lets put it this way. just wait until you know your airplane, do 3 point landings. work your skills better, than do the wheel landings. that's what I suggest. JMHO. why chance cracking it up before you even take a first flight. trust me, I can do wheel landing better than most, I love them, but if your skills aren't there and the airplane isn't set up perfect, well your going to have a bad day and you will be rebuilding your airplane

[efwd]

All the info needed is right in the Grove website. Get there via the Link at the top of the forum. That's what I used for calculating the angle of shim I needed. I also purchased my shims from Kitfox themselves as they are bit less expensive than what Grove gets for theirs.

Hmm, did that kinda remind you of Desert Fox 4?

[HighWing]

From the very beginning, high speed taxiing has been discouraged precisely because of what you are experiencing. I did it once and this on my second build having 900 hours in type. I lost it, but recovered which gave me tons of confidence to make the first flight the next day - this after not flying a Kitfox for about three years.

[efwd]

I concur with AV8RPS. I heard stories of people having alignment issues on landing and as they put it "be prepared for a wild ride". I wasn't going to risk that so I aligned with shims and high speed taxied it. I told John and all that he said was "be careful, many of the high speed taxi tests turn into first flights". Well, I had made sure that I could handle the airplane before I did this and felt confident that even if that had happened I would have been prepared. Anyhow, I hated wheel landings while getting my tail wheel endorsement at S&R. I was sure I would not be doing them for some time. Then the tailwheel shimmy thing happened. I started doing wheel landings almost out of necessity and now I kind of enjoy them.

[Slyfox]

now you state that there was a tail wheel shimmy. when I do a wheel landing I let the tail come down on it's own, generally slow. so I don't have the tail wheel down at a high speed, generally pretty slow. so again if you do a high speed taxi, you should also be lifting the tail a little to get it off of the tail wheel. probably why john said you might end up lifting off. I didn't want to do any high speed taxi on my rv so I just took off. that took care of my high speed taxi test, lol.

years ago I watched a guy land a kitfox and had a high speed when he let the tail down, that tail wheel started spinning in circles, I couldn't believe it, he still was going straight forward, weird. don't know if he felt it or not, I didn't talk to him. I was on the runway getting ready to take off.

[efwd]

Lowell, are you saying you are being told you have the too little slop or too much? I only had shimmy problems with my original tail wheel. This new AB3224A tail wheel is solid and stable. I seem to feel the rudder horn spring working much better on the right than when I push the left rudder. Turning Left, I need to often use breaking. Both my springs have some slack and seem to be even but they are not operating the wheel the same for sure.

[HighWing]

The Stearman A&P wanted it tight enough that there would be a bit of tension on the springs. He saw it the day I ferried a Stearman owner to pick up his airplane after an annual. It was free advice. I guess I mention it because I don't believe there is only one right way for every make and model.

[Slyfox]

this is my thoughts on high speed taxi, don't do it. I believe aopa or eaa came out with an article discouraging people from doing a high speed taxi. when I finished my rv7 I went and got some fuel, taxied to the runway, got on the runway, put full throttle and lifted off the runway when it was ready to fly. that was my high speed taxi . the 4 can give you a little bit of yahooooo, if taxi is fast. best to land slow and just have fun. one more thought, check your tailwheel, if it unlocks easy it may be your problem. my old tailwheel if it got crud in it, it would not lock and it was a handful when it did it. could be your problem. raise the tail and support it on blocks or something, than go in and put full rudder each way and check each time the tail wheel to see if it unlocked on you, if so that's your problem, fix it.

[jack111]

this is my thoughts on high speed taxi, don't do it. I believe aopa or eaa came out with an article discouraging people from doing a high speed taxi. when I finished my rv7 I went and got some fuel, taxied to the runway, got on the runway, put full throttle and lifted off the runway when it was ready to fly. that was my high speed taxi . the 4 can give you a little bit of yahooooo, if taxi is fast. best to land slow and just have fun. one more thought, check your tailwheel, if it unlocks easy it may be your problem. my old tailwheel if it got crud in it, it would not lock and it was a handful when it did it. could be your problem. raise the tail and support it on blocks or something, than go in and put full rudder each way and check each time the tail wheel to see if it unlocked on you, if so that's your problem, fix it.

Dear Sly,
I modified my Maule tailwheel so that it wouldn't unlock and caster. I had read a number times that the Maule had a problem with going into unwanted caster. At 77 yrs. old (me, not the plane), it makes it a bit difficult to maneuver into the hangar but it is doable. On second thought it has nothing to do with my age, it's just a bear to push backward. Jack