On Nov 17, 4:02*pm, POPS wrote:
I was warned about the possibility of a glassed on tail wheel possibly
being *the deciding factor in your tail boon snapping off in a extreme
ground loop *incident, *whereas a skid or wheel that is intended to tear
off could be the deciding factor in just the opposite happening.
I've left my steel shoe, glued on rubber skid in place, and my super
faired tail wheel I made, off.
Any spinout or repair people care to comment on the idea of the tail
boom slamming into the turf at a high rotation speed with a hard mounted
TW.

--
POPS

The currently popular large tail wheels do a good job of helping keep
the glider straight which seems to
help avoid the problem in the first place.
Once they are seriously sideways in a true ground loop, they slide
reasonably well.
Once the tail digs in, the boom breaks.
Does a break away skid/tailhweel avoid this? maybe -sometimes.
I've put a number of modern tailwheels in older skid equipped gliders
and every owner has bee happy with the
improvement.
FWIW
UH