Happy New Year Netters An excellent source for tailwheel are the millions of shopping carts at the local marts. Find a broken cart and extract the castering wheel. Another place is the medical supply companies which have some of the best looking small wheel that I have seen. Please think about that large heavy wheel and the moment arm that its extreme aft position will bring. One of the reasons that tailwheels have continued to exist is that they are small and create less drag then the nose gear. And, if you keep it small enough there is obviously less weight. There are down sides to the tailwheel but they can be overcome, and are insignificant if you have already decided to use a tailwheel anyway. On one of my trips home from Oshkosh the bearings in my 2" wheel seized up and upon reaching my fuel stop some one noticed that half of the wheel had been ground off and I was dragging the remainder. "Funny", I said to the man, "I never noticed". "How was I going to continue my trip home." someone asked? I replied that I was going to pretend that he had never seen the problem and just continue my trip. To my way of thinking I know that I had just landed, taxied down several taxiways and parked without missing the wheel, Why was I going to sit Indiana hoping I could find a replacement. One has to remember that several taildragger aircraft only had skids on the rear, no wheel at all. To turn the aircraft all I had to do was apply power, fwd stick and use differential braking.
Orma aka AviationMech 19 Years flying the KR-2 AP/IA my 37th year in Professional Aviation
