Bob Wood wrote: "I just bought a tail wheel just like yours from Aviation Products Inc. but haven't been able to locate a tail spring for it. Where did you get yours?"
My original tailspring was a quarter inch thick piece of spring steel that I believe was 1.5" wide. It wasn't stiff enough, and I had some good dents in the bottom of my rudder to prove it. I added a "leaf" of 1/8" thick 4130 strap on top, and that helped, but it still needed more. Then Larry Flesner sent me the remaining piece of a leaf spring that he made his from, and I think it was 1.75" wide and 5/16" thick. I had to spend a few minutes grinding the end down to 1.5" to fit the tailwheel base, but it has worked flawlessly ever since. All of these widths may be off a quarter inch, but the plane's at the airport and I'm not. I think maybe it was Jack Cooper who pointed out that some Chrysler minivans had composite springs that were easy to work with and just the right size, so there is almost surely a large supply of exactly what you need in a junkyard nearby. I know in Birmingham Alabama there's a business that does nothing but custom leaf springs...replacements and stiffer aftermarket springs. Mark Langford ML at N56ML.com website at http://www.N56ML.com --------------------------------------------------------
