Tom's Model Guide

Mascot steerable front wheel upgrade by Tom Laird. 25/10/99

Notes on fitting a steerable front wheel

Steerable front wheels are a double-edged sword. They are not so useful on grass as they take a lot of punishment and put a lot of strain on the servo. However, when you are on a solid surface ie tarmac, and you have a cross wind, and you need / want to keep it tracking strainght down the runway things are a bit different. The Mascot has a very small rudder and is quite difficult to keep in a straight line. You think you've got it, then suddenly the rudder becomes effective and you go shooting off at some unforseen angle.

The Mod.

Basically, all you do is:

1. Remove the engine and engine mount (you don't need to remove the engine from the mount)

2. Heat and straighten the nose wheel leg. When installed the nose wheel leg has a 90 degree bend in it which fits in one of the horizontal slots in the engine mount. You want to straighten the leg so that it now sticks out the top of the mount.

3. Use a file and increase the width of the engine mount slot so that the nose leg rotates smoothly. If it is too tight you will damage the servo.

4. Fit a collet to the bottom of the nose wheel leg, just above the spring, to stop it moving too far up.

5. Fit an arm to the top of the nose wheel leg at the top of the engine mount. A whasher at each end will also help.

6. Run a Sulivan snake from the rudder servo onto the arm. Secure to the fuselage with expoxy.

Note that the following photographs show a false firewall, as I also fitted a set of Apache Aviation rubber engine vibration eliminator mounts. The photographs clearly show the new cable and steering arm. As usual, clicking on a photograph will bring up a larger version to let you see more clearly.

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