Sky 40 Restoration - Keep trike, or go tailwheel?

[DocPrinter]

Hi All,

 

Restoring a Sky 40 and am mostly in favour of converting it to a tail dragger. What are your thoughts, especially those who use Sky 40s on grass strips?

 

I did notice the XL version is steerable tail wheel right from the plan.

 

What should I do to mount the main gear? I was thinking strip off some of the balsa sheeting where it bolts in and glue on a double skinned piece of lite ply. That with load spreading on the nut/fastener side sufficient?

 

Thanks!

[Engine Doctor]

Lite ply will rip on grass  out unless gras is very short and landings are really smooth. Proper ply with nylon bolts is a better option, JMO  

[DocPrinter]

Cheers, asked to make sure I wasn't over or under speccing my mod. I'm guessing the ~6mm firewall ply is overkill, what would be advised?

[DocPrinter]

More variables than I had anticipated:

 

https://www.balsaworkbench.com/?page_id=926

 

In the interest of getting this back in the air sometime soon I think sticking with trike maybe the appropriate answer.

[Keith Evans 3]

Hi I converted my Sky 40 to a tail dragged a little while back and used an aluminium tail skid screwed to 1/8 ply glued to the lite ply and it works well .

while you are at it consider splitting the ailerons into flaps and ailerons .Mine are approx a 40 /60 split of ail. To flap .

 They work well and add another dimension to the flight envelope .

[Engine Doctor]

20 hours ago, DocPrinter said:

More variables than I had anticipated:

 

https://www.balsaworkbench.com/?page_id=926

 

In the interest of getting this back in the air sometime soon I think sticking with trike maybe the appropriate answer.

The 6mm firewall is to support the nose wheel mount.  For taildragger suggest 3mm birch ply doubled up where uc fixing  to take/mount T nuts.  

[Keith Evans 3]

I used the original u/c as a guide for the spread of the wheels made out of 10 swg backed up with a secondary brace soldered to it and used 4saddle clamps screwed to a 6 m.m. Ply base mounted into the fuselage sides backed with 3/8” triangular balsa .

The u/c was infilled with 1/8”lightply .

[Nigel R]

I fly off grass, and most of my airframes are trikes.

 

If it's currently set up as trike, I certainly wouldn't say it "needs" changing.

 

(I also wouldn't change it the other way either).

 

[DocPrinter]

Thanks for the comments all, some food for thought, and found a good diagram on positioning of landing gear if I do comit to a tail dragger.

 

Guess a bonus of the trike is the gap where the throttle servo was could be repurposed as a nose wheel servo and rates etc could be independent of rudder.

 

Which ever way I go I need to get bits as the nose gear that was on it was not right for the plane. That said, one nose wheel assembly and a wheel is cheaper than a full tail dragger  undercarriage set.

[Keith Evans 3]

I found the Sky 40 when in trike mode took off just as well with a fixed front wheel assy. And saved on servos .

[Nigel R]

Yes, just clamp the gear to the firewall, no steering, easy, simple, quick.

 

If you must have steering then run it from existing rudder servo no need for extra one.

[DocPrinter]

Thanks all. Going to stick with trike setup. Few bits on order to replace missing items.