On Thu, 13 Dec 2012 06:57:27 -0800, Eric Greenwell
wrote:


The Grob tail wheel that plugs in always seemed like a good idea: full
dolly size wheel for moving it around, drops off during launch if you
forget it, small and light enough to carry in the glider, seemingly
minor weight addition to the glider to use it.

My partner and I used to have an Astir-CS, and I wouldn't have wanted
the factory tail dolly in the cockpit: it was several pounds of
ironmongery and could have done some damage in a bad outlanding. We
did make a small, lightweight one to carry aboard, but used the much
larger factory wheel for most ground handling.

The dolly hole made a whining noise that was ground-audible at 1000
AGL...don't know how much drag that really produced, but we habitually
taped it over before a contest launch. And that produced a memorable
event: I positioned my partner on the grid, removed the dolly, and he
said "Tape up my a$$hole!", unaware that he was on a hot mike.