Much Ado About Nothing

Jonathan St. Cloud wrote on 3/29/2020 10:17 AM:
On Saturday, March 28, 2020 at 8:15:05 PM UTC-7, Michael Opitz wrote:
At 02:37 29 March 2020, Nick Kennedy wrote:
RO
I think these days tailskids are as rare as hens teeth.
The last one I saw was when the guy who bought my 1958 Ka6CR
towed it home
in 2000.

A lot of the 1980's vintage tail skids were retrofitted with the
in-line skate wheels embedded in the skid. They helped, but still
wouldn't track as well as the larger pneumatic tires. My Discus-B
and I believe my first ASW-24 still had skids.

RO

Your ASW-24 didd not have a skid. But they were still a handful even without a load of water, with a quartering tailwind at start of roll. An ASW-24 with CG hook is the only glider I have released on tow on the ground for control issues. I did aerotow my ASH26 a multiple times with the gear mounted CG hook, that was much nicer than the ASW-24 CG hook.


Did your ASH26 have a steerable tail wheel? That makes a tremendous difference in
controlling where you want it to go. Even without that, the designer's deliberate
positioning of the main gear more forward than usual puts considerable weight on
the tail wheel, increasing it's authority, and making the glider much less likely
to swerve.


--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1