The International Cessna^® 170 Association

Landing in Sacramento after a great vacation with the Family. Nice landing but on rollout got the swervys and the bumbies and stopped. Tailwheel flat. I decided to taxi about 100yards off the active to a non- active runway and shut down.
I was on the south end of a towered airport and my hangar was on the north end. I unloaded the family and bags and tried a power on, brakes on, full nose down taxi, to keep the tailwheel light and get to the north side close to my hangar. After about 2000ft and on the north side of the field I shut down and my fellow north field aviators drove up to drag me in.

Lesson learned. Trying a taxi like that heats up the brakes and I could have lost them.
Someone had a Taildragger dragger tow dolly. It lifts up the tailwheel and we were able to push the airplane into the hangar. Having that or a furniture dolly in the hangar would be great. Any flat tire could be put on the dolly and you could push the plane back to the hangar.

And had this happened at your last landing while still on vacation you would have had your spare with you and ready to go on with little trouble after reading my article in the last 170 News. Right?

All the spare parts and tools were removed in order to fit the family, bags, and kids stuff.

Taxying on a flat tailwheel can damage a $500 wheel. A $15 spare wheel/tire assy from
Northern Tool can make life very simple to move an airplane.

Any recommendations on a cheap/light jack to keep in the plane?
You're not going to ask someone to hold the tail up while you get the tire off

a cheap japanese or korean scissors jack from the junk yard....or use a milk crate, etc.

A cheap light jack for lifting the tail is simply a stick of the proper length, a fulcrum stick, and a wood block to prop up the tail.
Another method I've seen used is to lift the tail by using your back under the horizontal stabliizer to spread the load and placing a block under the tail spring at the U bolt.

lift the tail by using your back under the horizontal stabliizer

Maybe it's not as heavy as I thought.

bagarre wrote:

lift the tail by using your back under the horizontal stabliizer

Maybe it's not as heavy as I thought.

If you look at your wt/bal info you'll see the wt on tailwheel is likely about 130 lbs or less.

A few years ago I, another 170, and a Decathlon met in Alamosa, CO, flew 8 days up to the northwest. On the 2nd to last day during a fuel stop in the Salt Lake City area, the other 170 pilot (who had the spare tube & tire) had to leave and go directly home due to a family emergency. Wouldn't you know it, after a week of back country strips, the very next landing in Page, AZ, on pavement, on a Friday evening, my tailwheel was flat.

The people at American Aviation were as helpful as could be. Much to my relief, there just happened to be an amphibian super cub in the American Aviation shop for a while, that just happened to be scheduled to have the nose tires replaced...which just happen to be the same ones I needed! Thankfully, the American's owner let us have the tube & tire for the amphib and got us on our way on a Saturday morning since the super cub was to be there a while longer.

When you replace the tire, inspect the wheel bearings and if damaged you might as well replace them now.

New tube and tire on today. A small puncture in the tube on the side. No idea how it got there. I normally replace the tailwheel tire and inspect the bearings every annual anyway so it was only 6 months old. There were no ruff spots on the wheel or tire that I could see or feel.

gahorn wrote:

bagarre wrote:

lift the tail by using your back under the horizontal stabliizer

Maybe it's not as heavy as I thought.

If you look at your wt/bal info you'll see the wt on tailwheel is likely about 130 lbs or less.

Place wife or kid on all 4's and have the other person place the tail on their back. Go get a soda pop and continue the job.

I carry about 20 lbs of tools plus a spare tailwheel tire/tube and a small bicycle pump to air up the tire if I have to change it. Also carry a spare main tail wheel spring, just in case. I can't quite justify the cost of a spare tailwheel or I would have it already aired up. George's suggestion for a spare might work just fine. I don't know if it would work to fly you home or not, but likely would. You can never carry everything you might need if you did the 170 would never get off the ground Fortunately if there are other planes/pilots at the airport, most folks will loan you tools or a mechanic, if available, will assist. Usually if you take along a bunch of tools, you won't need them. Its the ones you leave at home that you will need

170C wrote:.... George's suggestion for a spare might work just fine. I don't know if it would work to fly you home or not, but likely would. ...

Yeah..it would work just fine. I had this exact Northern Tool wheel assy in my hangar intending to use it and it's companions to build a rolling worktable.
I arrived one night late at my place and landed with a flat tailwheel. It's really difficult for one person to move a 170 with a flat tailwheel into the hangar even for a short distance.

I remembered the wheel. it's axle hub is exactly the correct width for the Scott tailwheel fork, and the tire and tube (although chineese) are actually the same size as the official tailwheel tire/tube...2.50/2.80-4. (I suppose that it's cheaper to buy this Northern Tool wheel assy just for the TUBE... ....but, I digress...) Anyway, I jacked the plane, removed the axle, installed this N.T. wheel. Took maybe 4 minutes....and pushed the plane into the hangar.

If a bushing was used to adapt the 5/8" NT hub to the Scott 1/2" axle-bolt was used (bluEldr recommends common copper tubing) you could fly all the way across the country on it, until you got home to make permanent repairs. (Or you could just steal the tire/tube off it, and install on the Scott wheel, just to get home.)

Anyway...the price is right if you need an exigency plan to move your airplane and don't have a dolly or other method. For the short distance involved I simply put it on the 1/2" Scott axle and moved the airplane. A bushing would only be necessary for long-term use.