Landing on the beach

[Rodney]

Akarmy - since you have made the transition from tri-gear to conventional - how much time is involved in the conversion? And - if one wanted to go back to a tri-gear - is it possible?

Thanks
Rodney Wren

[cap01]

andy , what about brake lines ? do you have to bleed the brakes when you switch ?

[SkyPirate]

Andy ,.I had to land once dead stick in a corn field in Vermont that was about 25 degree's down to my right,.and 20 degree's up soft and full of cut cornstalks,..I lined the mains up between the rows and at the last second I leveled the wing to the ground , touched down with a little right rudder so the plane would head up hill, stick in my lap and light brakes,..the reason why I leveled the wing to the ground is if I was going to bounce ( luckily I didn't) I wanted both wheels parallel to the ground,..with out power, touching one wheel down first especially in soft ground, it would have opened the door for a ground loop. just before I stopped I kicked the tail right more so the wings were as level as I could get them and the tail was pointed down hill.
I'm glad that I had practiced dead stick landings on a regular basis

[akarmy]

So it took me about a day to do the conversion from tri-gear to tail dragger. I think you could shorten up the time once you had done it once. It's fairly easy to do. You pull the cowl, suspend the plane from the engine mount using an engine hoist. Once the main gear is off the ground, you pull the bolts and brake line fittings from the top. Then move it forward to the other mounting location and rebolt in place. I had to punch new holes in the fabric for the brake lines in the new location and yes had to bleed the brakes. Then remove the nosegear, bolt on the tailwheel, hookup the chains and you are about done. In my case I swapped out the tires for larger ones, but that's not strictly necessary.

I think if you wanted / needed to change it more frequently the only real pain is having to move the brake lines and bleed the brakes each time. Not sure how you could eliminate that step. Maybe someone has thought of an idea for that...

[SkyPirate]

I know it would add more line's/ minimal weight which would also give more area for fluid etc,..but if a valve was set at both locations with a T in the brake line from master to "T" then forward and rear mounting location ..it would eliminate the need to remove and replace the lines each time the gear was transformed,if transforming was going to be a common practice.install a plug in the "not used " line end,.. and remember to open or close the appropriate valve ,.with the grove gear and gun drilled set up this would be an easy set up.

[Rodney]

Skypirate - that's a good idea - wouldn't take much to set that up - especially during initial construction.

I've also been thinking about making a special axle for the front gear that would allow you to mount two tires, each outboard of the gear forks. That would give the front gear a lot more tire area on the ground, and perhaps prevent the front gear from digging in. There are also tires out there that are "flatter" than the normal aviation tire - and they would also increase the footprint or area of the tire on the ground.

Just a thought.

Rodney

[SkyPirate]

Rodney ,..on a caster front wheel ,..different tire shapes then recommended can cause a wobble problem ,..if you put 2 tires on a caster system that might also give you more of a problem on other then asphalt surfaces. I'm not familiar with the caster used on the kitfox trigear ,..some systems have a dampening system ,.some are just caster,..nothing to dampen a wobble in them .

Chase

[Rodney]

Your right - it would definately require some testing.

I don't know if it would work or not - just a idea - probably should have kept it to myself for now.

When I get my Kitfox - I'll probably look into it for soft field work.

Rodney

[SkyPirate]

nothing wrong with thinking out loud ,..I am guilty of that all the time Rodney