Tail Skid Help / Advice

[Ray Lovinggood]

Would anyone please provide advice on how to fix a
tail skid problem?

My LS-1d has a rubber tail skid with a hard plastic
wheel. The skid tends to 'creep' around the fuselage
boom sufficiently enough to cause the glider to not
track straight on a paved runway. For takeoffs, I'll
point the glider's nose several degrees to the left
which compensates for the crooked tail skid that makes
the glider want to go right.

Yes, I have removed and reglued the skid a couple fo
times, using contact cement, but it still 'creeps'
over time. I suppose it can 'creep' when the glider
is sitting on the ground with one wing down and possibly
while in the trailer and resting on the tail skid.
(It is an old and ugly home-built trailer that doesn't
coddle it's baby like a nice new Cobra or Komet.)

The concave surface of the skid, which mates to the
convex surface of the tail boom, is all 'chewed up'
and I presume there probably isn't much surface in
contact with the fuselage boom. How and why it is
chewed up, I can only guess. It might have been sheared
off many times in its life and bits and pieces of the
rubber were torn from the skid. That's my guess.

What can be done?

Can the skid somehow be repaired? If so, how?

Or, should I just buy a new skid? I'm sure they are
a dime a dozen ;-)

Thanks,
Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA
LS-1d, 'W8'

[Sf760]

In addition to the glue, tape it in place with aileron tape.

[Ray Lovinggood]

At 14:06 02 January 2004, Sf760 wrote:
>In addition to the glue, tape it in place with aileron
>tape.
>

I forgot to mention that I do add tape around the joint.
I can't tell you right now if the tape there is the
3M electrical tape I use for the wing joints or something
else. I have used a cloth-tape before, but I forgot
what is was and where I got it.

Thanks,
Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

[Sf760]

Tesa do a 38mm wide fabric tape, I'd have thought Wings and Wheels would stock
it.