grass takeoffs and landings

[v2flier]

Began park flying using a folding prop, after nearly running out of suitable model choices I tryed a modern aerobatic plane but subsituted 3" wheels and had successful takeoffs and landing off short grass.That big wheel fitting has opened another world of aircraft choices.I'm now pushing the envelope of size for a park flyer being outside the recomended 2lb limit,should move to a club field to continue my progression and limit park flyers to the smaller machines.The takeoff tecnique of giving up elevator and gunning the motor keeps a taildragger from noseing over at inital rollout and am airborn in 10 feet.Landing are also short using up elevator again to prevent tipovers.

[pizzano]

Nice....3" wheels "on a acrobatic plane" (no model mentioned) seems like over-kill on a tail dragger. The grass ROG issue could be accomodated just as well with 2", have the same quick lift aspects (really more of a thrust issue) keep the nose down just as well in a tail drag flair landing (more of an issue with tricycle gear on grass) and be a whole lot less obtrusive...lol

Glad your'e having fun!

[v2flier]

I have tryed 2.5" wheels without success, caused noseover on landing.Realize there's many varables at play here,most important is the surface.My conditions vary from long lush to short brown mowed soccer field,my spot landings aren't very accurate.As far as wheel proportions I'm happy with progressing to a higher level of experiance.More experiance will bring better skills and more scalelike models.Models include GP Sukoi? ,Hyperion Extra 330,Hyperion Cap 232, ? Zlin 50l,and my current favorite E flight Pitts Model 12. Share what your haveing success with would'nt you?

[BroncoSquid]

I feel your pain. Not areobatic, except for loops, but here is my Slow Stick with 3" foam wheels. Landing in the sand with the thin wheels it came with was No Bueno.

[hayofstacks]

I'm gonna have to say trike gear does better at tail first landings on grass. Its also much less likely to tip over.

We fly at a soccer feild at my local park. Right where the goalie stands is always completely flat and almost grassless. This would work for a slowstick like parkflyer, but not something that eats a lot of runway.

[Beemerider]

Currently all the stuff I fly does the belly landing thing. Some of my planes had landing gear. Didn't take long before the word had became the operative term here!

Folding props and smooth bellies--gotta love 'em!

[mclarkson]

I think my best gear in the grass has been the floppy, skinny, ugly-as-sin stock GWS gear on my Slow Stick. Those hard, super skinny wheels seem to cut through the grass better.

Most of the grass I fly off of is too wild, tall and unkempt for most planes, so I generally hand launch and belly land the majority of my fleet.

[whitecrest]

+1. The GWS 3-inch wheels work well in grass, and the spokes don't break. Takeoffs are no problem on grass that is a little burned out or from a firm baseball infield. Also, a torsion-box style landing gear is a great shock absorber, and if installed properly, will not tear out of the fuselage.

[hayofstacks]

Get the 100mm ones. There about 4" and will absorb about twice the shock of the stockers.

With my bipe slow stick, in a bumpy grass feild, it almost looked like a scale ww1 plane frome behind with the tail up and the main gear bouncing up and down on low and slow touch and goes.

[Beemerider]

One of our club members took a piece of a foam tube (can't remember right term--kids use them in swimming pools-buy at places like Dollar Store etc)
I think they come in a couple of sizes. He cut a piece 1/2" or so wide and fit it over the wheels on his GWS SS. Works pretty nicely and different colors add to the looks.

[pizzano]

I've seen something very simular to that Beemer. The guy used what looked like fish tank air pump tubing. Glued it around the SS wheels. It actually cut through the sand surface pretty well and survived asphalt surfaces better than the stock wheel.

I haven't tried anything other than the Millennium X-gear and wheels......they work great on all surfaces.