To steer or not to steer

Steve Pierce said:

Haven't tried the no tailwheel steering thing yet.

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For you specifically Steve, I am willing to bet you wouldn't notice the lack of chains back there. You might even prefer it, but I admit it is an acquired taste.

I absolutely adore not having those damn chains and springs back there. The feel of the rudder in the air is vastly improved and I am able to keep (or even add) rudder deflection in the roll out. Crosswinds are not any worse, and are arguably easier to control until really slow. Tom points out the biggest problem with the setup however: skis are be much more difficult while slow in three point.

Don't ever admit to even trying it or every internet expert will tell you you have a death wish and are the reason their insurance went up this year. They will then quickly compare the size of your chosen tires to the inverse size of your schlong. Then they will follow up with <insert the trendy complaint of the month here>...Just don't do it, man. Stick with the chains.

I don't think no steering would be all that bad on a Cub, IF you could add a locking device to the TW.

Most of the big ag planes have no tailwheel steering, but I think they all have lockable tailwheels.

Lose a brake on a long runway sometime in a crosswind......when you didn't roll out RIGHT next to the turnoff which went right to your tiedown.....

MTV

Here’s my two cents...and comes from personal experience...I actually like running a free spinning tailwheel...if the surface is relatively smooth. From experience on my plane as well as a couple friends...if you are in rocks and rougher surfaces, upon touchdown the Tailwheel sometime spins, which can result in it making contact with the surface in the wrong position...here is a photo, blown up showing my tailwheel about to make contact sideways. It does not result in a directional control issue, rather damage sometimes. In this occasion it bent the rim significantly on one side (Matco 11”). Never lost air...but large Bend in bead of rim. I have seen it damage BBWs, as well as Scott 3200. Granted these are all rougher landing zones...

courierguy said:

I could be fooling myself, wishful thinking, but I think having a steerable tw when on skis lets me make a tighter turn around, when I goose it with stick back and full rudder.

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Couierguy, I started a new thread about this. I didn’t want to get this one too far off of the rails.

I went chainless with my Baby Bushwheel for several seasons and reinstalled the guts and chains a couple of years ago. My experience was similar to J5Ron’s. There are times when a free castering tail wheel was nice. But I decided the disadvantages outweighed the pluses. On a few flights I had a GoPro mounted so I could see what was going on back there on gravel and sand bars and like J5Ron, the tail wheel was spinning around and around and kicking up stuff. Or it starts out 90 degrees to the travel direction on touchdown. Crosswind taxis are not that easy either.

For me chains are better.