Uploaded May 2013 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
I upgraded the tail wheel assembly on The Flyer last weekend and installed a new spring, fork, wheel, control arm, and upgraded to a single spring push rod, replacing the original dual springs and chains. The original tail wheel appeared to have been mis-drilled at a slight angle which caused the tire to wear at an angle which could have also been caused by the single arm/axle arrangement I suppose. In any case, steering The Flyer was somewhat of a suggestion rather than a positive decision so I decided to upgrade the whole thing. Once I got in and started looking at what I had to do, it became obvious that I was going to have to remove the horizontal and vertical stabilizers to be able to have the access I needed to drill the hole for the replacement tail spring. Nothing is easy, it seems. Anyway, the installation came out great, and I can't believe how much BETTER the plane steers with the semi-ridge control rod! Wow! Amazing. I also like the looks of the traditional Van's fork and the tail rides a little bit lower now giving the plane a bit more rake which I like too.
Here is a video I made of the installation. I used a mix of time-lapse stills from the hangar security cams along with some high resolution stills from my Nikon D300. The video was really more of an exercise in honing my Adobe Premier Pro video editing skills, but it came out pretty cool!
Be sure to select a high-resolution such as 720p or 1080p and click the full-screen view to be able to see the detail in the time-lapse photos.
I upgraded the tail wheel assembly on The Flyer last weekend and installed a new spring, fork, wheel, control arm, and upgraded to a single spring push rod, replacing the original dual springs and chains. The original tail wheel appeared to have been mis-drilled at a slight angle which caused the tire to wear at an angle which could have also been caused by the single arm/axle arrangement I suppose. In any case, steering The Flyer was somewhat of a suggestion rather than a positive decision so I decided to upgrade the whole thing. Once I got in and started looking at what I had to do, it became obvious that I was going to have to remove the horizontal and vertical stabilizers to be able to have the access I needed to drill the hole for the replacement tail spring. Nothing is easy, it seems. Anyway, the installation came out great, and I can't believe how much BETTER the plane steers with the semi-ridge control rod! Wow! Amazing. I also like the looks of the traditional Van's fork and the tail rides a little bit lower now giving the plane a bit more rake which I like too.
Here is a video I made of the installation. I used a mix of time-lapse stills from the hangar security cams along with some high resolution stills from my Nikon D300. The video was really more of an exercise in honing my Adobe Premier Pro video editing skills, but it came out pretty cool!
Be sure to select a high-resolution such as 720p or 1080p and click the full-screen view to be able to see the detail in the time-lapse photos.
