Tailwheel troubles

Planes… I think I am experiencing the full weight of plane ownership, i.e. nothing goes as planned. We put 1863C on skis a couple weeks ago. That went fairly well, especially considering it hasn’t been on skis for 15+ years. I took my friend Greg out to show me around Lake Hood. We did a little taxiing and things felt okay, so I dropped him off and prepared for a flight up to Big Lake. I even called Dad and told him I’d meet him at the airport, so he left. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it. As I pulled away I couldn’t get the plane to go right… I sat there and spun in circles. Luckily Greg had stayed to watch me take off and helped me wrestle the plane back on to the tiedown. Dad was not so lucky… he ended up waiting at the Big Lake airport for an hour and a half before I was able to get hold of Mom to go get him.

The next week and a half has been spent taking apart the tailwheel, putting it back together, putting it on, pulling it off, and having people look at it. In the end the diagnosis was it is worn and needs to be rebuilt.

I got the parts today. There is one pin that I can’t get out. The parts that I got aren’t machined super clean and need some work before they’ll fit (they have some burrs which seems a little sloppy to me). Amanda is getting sick of seeing me spend all this time working on the plane and although I enjoy it, with a young family my personal time is pretty limited to do this kind of stuff.

At the end of the month I have some flying scheduled to take Mom and Dad out to Rainy Pass. And, I’d like to fly around the Iditarod some. But, I’d really like to do some flying before then. At this point I’m not planning to put skis on next year, although it would probably be a perfect winter. I’m sure the frustration will subside soon enough, but I’m ready to get my tail – and tailwheel – in the air!