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New Sonex tailwheel assembly installation

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skycrew

Andy Bisceglia
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 7, 2017
Messages
46
Location
London Ontario Canada
Okay, I know there's been a million posts and the subject is polarizing, but I'm going to start with the original design of a push/pull steering rod. My S1 came configured with chain and springs, and I may go back to that, but I want to try both. I fabricated the rod as pictured below and it seems to work well statically. I will do taxi tests next. The one main concern I have is rudder throw. The springs allowed it to hit the stops. The travel on the new castoring tailwheel prevents full deflection. I cannot seem to find degree of angle for rudder deflection in the plans. The horn is about a 1/4" from the stops currently, but I have to believe max throw is better? Any advise from the gurus here?
Cheers
TW1.jpgTW2.jpg
 
You might be alright with the deflection you have but more can't hurt, especially with a rudder as small as the Sonerai's. I don't know of a published number for deflection but would guess that close to the elevator without hitting it was the designer's intention. From the photos it seems that a longer horn on the caster along with some twist in it so that the bolt is parallel to the bolt in the rudder crank would give you more. But that might entail a new link too. Nothing is ever easy.

Ed
 
You might be alright with the deflection you have but more can't hurt, especially with a rudder as small as the Sonerai's. I don't know of a published number for deflection but would guess that close to the elevator without hitting it was the designer's intention. From the photos it seems that a longer horn on the caster along with some twist in it so that the bolt is parallel to the bolt in the rudder crank would give you more. But that might entail a new link too. Nothing is ever easy.

Ed
Thanks Ed, that’s great advice. I have plenty more bar stock so fabbing up another link is no problem.
cheers
 
You might be alright with the deflection you have but more can't hurt, especially with a rudder as small as the Sonerai's. I don't know of a published number for deflection but would guess that close to the elevator without hitting it was the designer's intention. From the photos it seems that a longer horn on the caster along with some twist in it so that the bolt is parallel to the bolt in the rudder crank would give you more. But that might entail a new link too. Nothing is ever easy.

Ed
That did the trick perfectly Ed, and I didn’t need to fab up another control arm. I just extended the horn on the tailwheel assembly and now have full rudder deflection. I find ground handling to be much improved. Thanks again for the advice.
 
Since Sonex is not offering the original Sonerai tailwheel assembly, it would be nice of them to offer theirs with a little (actually a lot!) less castor. If I break my spring, I will buy their titanium spring. But I plan to make my own tailwheel assembly with much less castor.
 
Since Sonex is not offering the original Sonerai tailwheel assembly, it would be nice of them to offer theirs with a little (actually a lot!) less castor. If I break my spring, I will buy their titanium spring. But I plan to make my own tailwheel assembly with much less castor.
Why not just get a 10-degree or 20-degree tailwheel block from API?

https://apitailwheels.com/
 
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