Originally Posted by
Hotel Tango
Just a question and nothing more. Could overzealous application/correction of the rudder with an unlocked tail wheel easily lead to a loss of control?
No.not enough airflow over the rudder at that speed. Plus most of the rudder is behind the wing.
Problem doing a take-off with a low wing taildragger is that there are 3 phases in the take-off roll:
- All the time the tailwheel is on the ground.
- The transition fase between lifting the tailwheel and rolling with the fuselage level.
- From that time until lift off.
In Phase 1 the tailwheel will do most of the tracking of the aircraft. Also correct use of the aileron and differential power if needed helps. The rudder is mostly in the shadow of the wing so there will be almost NO clean airflow over it. Only the top part will experience clean airflow.
In Phase 3 The rudder is completely exposed to the airflow so it is at that time your primary runway tracking device.
The most difficult part is the transition Phase 2. Your tailwheel is lifting off the ground so you will loose its tracking capability. The rudder is still in the wing shadow. So the only means of keeping the aircraft straight is differential power, aileron and a little-bit of rudder.
The BE-18 was in that respect a b!tch. It had a very small rudder and a very short fuselage.
So what was the reason for the crash. I can not say. But I can say that what I see in the video is that the aircraft is not ready to fly jet.
Like other people say if there was any kind off problem (flight control, engine) they should have aborted the take-off.
I hope the investigation come with e definite answer.