Tomcat

Thanks Quorneng. That's solved that one then, As is with one push rod.

Don't forget, as soon as the tail comes up, you are ground-steering with the rudder anyway, so it doesn't matter what the wheel is doing!
To taxi a tail-wheel aircraft, you hold in full up ele, to keep the back end down to prevent it tripping over, and use squirts of power (and assymetric brake) to show who is boss!
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As Brian LeComber once wrote - a landing in a Beech 18 isn't over until you have got out and locked the doors.

In this Question, Castoring does allow more scope for some steering. But not using that particular style of tail wheel. A much lighter style would be adequate for that model. It is your model tho' and it will work.

Eric wrote, "Don't forget, as soon as the tail comes up, you are ground-steering with the rudder anyway, so it doesn't matter what the wheel is doing!"
I have decided that I want a steerable tail wheel, & if I don't get one I'm going to throw all my toys out of the pram & kick it over ! :lol:
Imagine a Summers day, about 25 C, wall to wall sunshine & the smell of fresh cut grass. Your model is prepped & you are sitting at the bench with a cold beer just out of the cooler. Wouldn't it be nice to taxi elegantly over to the strip before soaring into the blue ?
Then I woke up & looked out the window ! Think I might invest in some floats. :woohoo: :whistle:

Don't drink and fly! [badass]

My Funcub has its tail wheel fixed to the rudder, and it's a pile! Never quite pointing in the right direction! Why not have a skid with a spoon shaped end? Ticks all the boxes for me. Light and nothing to break.

Now you are just complicating things Klippy. That's three options & I only have two brain cells left ! ( & they spend most of the time arguing )
If what I have now doesn't work, I will give it a try though. I am sure my daughter won't miss the odd teaspoon. :lol:

Eric. Regards drinking & flying. Some years ago I was having a pint (as you do) with a shooting pal who flew for BA. I asked him what the regs were on drinking. He gave a quizzical look & said, " I can't remember if it's 2 pints 10 hours before or 10 pints 2 hours before"! :huh: Ex fleet air arm on sea vixens, if I remember. Interesting chap!

All of the airline pilots I have ever known (many) have been heavy drinkers, it's one of the reasons I hate flying!

Crash - can I refer you to one of my books - Sea Story.
roughly 50% of it is on board a carrier, with Vixens, Bucc's and a few Wessex and Gannets -
www.amazon.co.uk/Sea-Story-cant-take-jok...38936&s=books&sr=1-2
also on kindle -
www.smashwords.com/profile/view/thebraysbookplace
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Can't pass up an opening for a sneaky plug! :woohoo: [badass]

I might well give that a go Eric. I'm sure I have a white fiver laying around somewhere. :blink:

Perfect flying conditions here today, so decided to test fly the Tomcat before I finish the paintwork & detailing. The first flight was very successful. Nice gentle, if some what nervy take off. Got it rolling with about 50% up elevator & eased the throttle forward until it lifted off, no flaps. It flew surprisingly well ! I had to trim it quite a bit as it seemed to constantly want to turn left, but apart from that no major issues. Went through all the flight modes on the lemon stab ( gyro off, on & auto level) & it did exactly as stated on the tin. Power off glide ratio in auto level was amazing, it just kept floating & I didn't even use the flaps! In fact I'm starting to think they are unnecessary. Flight duration of 6 mins with a good, all be a bit short landing. I don't like walking too far ! :lol:
Second flight started well. Full throttle take off with just about full elevator & it went straight up in a very short distance! :woohoo: About 4 mins in I was switching between rates with the gyro in auto level & everything was fine at first. Then it became more & more erratic & only intermittently responding to my inputs. I just cut the throttle & managed somehow to get it down to about 10ft before it went down in fortunately, a very soggy field. Apart from the tail parting company(easy repair) & a lot of mud, the damage is very light.
The main problem now is, have I got a faulty receiver, or is it something to do with switching rates whilst in auto level ? By the way, it was well in range.

Have you checked the range? I know you said it was ok, but have you checked - in THIS model!!!!! With the model in different orientations?
Have you set the fail-safe? Model fastened down, apply about half power, then switch the transmitter off. The motor should stop after a couple of seconds.
Have you set the motor shut-off setting correctly on the speedo - number of cells/ actual volts stop-level?
If it didn't, you might have run out of on-load battery volts. Sluggish servos is a good sign, albeit too late!
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Checking the battery off-load tells you nothing much. On load, the voltage drops, but can recover when 'rested'. That's where the Wattmeter comes in useful - watch the volts go down as the amps load comes up.

I think Eric has identified the two most likely issues, radio range and battery volts.

Testing the fail safe settings should give some idea of how the plane should behave on loss of signal due to range. As he points out effective range can be orientation sensitive. In any case at loss of signal the gyro should still be working so whatever the fail safe is set to the plane should continue that in that fashion in a controlled manner.

At '4 minutes in' the battery volts could also be in question, particularly as it seemed at first to be intermittent, although in my experience the ESC will cut/reduce motor power well before the controls are effected.
Of course with any sort of poor/intermittent battery connection everything goes and the gyros do tend to take a bit longer to 'reset' after power loss than the rx side of things.

Eric. Yes I did a range check prior to the first flight & at longer distance than recommended, only one orientation though, facing away. Stefan checked the movement with me on the TX. I know you say checking the battery off load doesn't tell you much but I had no problems on the first flight & the battery was at 42% afterwards. The second battery was at 72% after the crash. I wouldn't describe the servo movement as sluggish, it was a though the stab had gone haywire ! All this happened after immediately after I had gone from low rate (80%) to high(100%) & then back to low. I had been flying for about a minuet in high rate & it was flying fine, the problems started after I went back to low. The best way I can describe it, as if the stab had lost calibration. In hindsight I should have just turned it off but I didn't have time to think of that ! :S The ESC has a preprogrammed fail safe that cuts the motor on loss of signal & that works. I don't have a program card for it so that's about all I can check. I will do a complete reset on the RX tomorrow & ditch the dual rates, it flew fine at 100%. While i'm doing the repairs the steerable tail wheel can go, as you said, it's only on the ground for a second ! Flaps will probably go as well.

crash
As far as I am aware the 'rates' are a function within the tx to alter the ratio of the signal transmitted to stick movement and thus should have no impact on the gyro.
It is possible on the later gyro types to have remote control of the gyro rate (it needs extra channels) so in theory you could set the low servo rate to increase the gyro sensitivity at the same time. The result could be interesting but I have no idea if it is even possible.