Russ McCutcheon
Well Known Member
First full discloser, Jason has been a friend of mine for many years, both running in some of the same circles flying RC model helicopters, with that said he has designed some of the very best model helicopters in the world and by far the most popular, I still fly the best of the models he designed.
I knew his tail wheel setup would be good but it was hard to stray from the Van?s design especially since I weld the Van?s tail fork, the part that put me over the edge to try Jason?s setup was when he told me he would machine my old (31 years old RV-4) tail spring to fit his yoke, he tells me he will do this for anyone, this was the big hurdle holding me back from doing anything. I sent him my spring and he sent it back with a shiny new black yoke and fork assembled and ready to go already attached to my old spring and a nice new shiny Dayton Murdock tail wheel installed and ready to roll, for steering I?m using Jason?s steering link. All I had to do was slide it in, install the bolt and the steering link and I was off to try it out. The link is way more direct and sensitive then my old loose cables, it took a little bit to feel locked in but now it seems natural, pushing back from the pump is great, swiveling around on a narrow runway to back taxi is smooth and seamless, un-locks and locks smooth, the ball bearing and needle bearings supporting the fork make for a very free ease turning /steering tail and reduced maintenance. I did not feel I needed the extra ground clearance his fork gives but now that I have it I swivel right around and let the tail run off the edge of the apron on to the grass, I have always had to avoid that since I got stuck once when the old fork got hooked on the edge of the pavement, that won?t happen now. I?m happy I finally did this, my back doesn?t like picking the tail up to pull the airplane back any more (the main reason I needed to make a change to a full castering tail wheel), sometimes it?s hard to avoid backing up, all the rest including the top notch quality is gravy.
I knew his tail wheel setup would be good but it was hard to stray from the Van?s design especially since I weld the Van?s tail fork, the part that put me over the edge to try Jason?s setup was when he told me he would machine my old (31 years old RV-4) tail spring to fit his yoke, he tells me he will do this for anyone, this was the big hurdle holding me back from doing anything. I sent him my spring and he sent it back with a shiny new black yoke and fork assembled and ready to go already attached to my old spring and a nice new shiny Dayton Murdock tail wheel installed and ready to roll, for steering I?m using Jason?s steering link. All I had to do was slide it in, install the bolt and the steering link and I was off to try it out. The link is way more direct and sensitive then my old loose cables, it took a little bit to feel locked in but now it seems natural, pushing back from the pump is great, swiveling around on a narrow runway to back taxi is smooth and seamless, un-locks and locks smooth, the ball bearing and needle bearings supporting the fork make for a very free ease turning /steering tail and reduced maintenance. I did not feel I needed the extra ground clearance his fork gives but now that I have it I swivel right around and let the tail run off the edge of the apron on to the grass, I have always had to avoid that since I got stuck once when the old fork got hooked on the edge of the pavement, that won?t happen now. I?m happy I finally did this, my back doesn?t like picking the tail up to pull the airplane back any more (the main reason I needed to make a change to a full castering tail wheel), sometimes it?s hard to avoid backing up, all the rest including the top notch quality is gravy.
