Piper Pacer / Tri-Pacer Question.

Auster and Beagle nosewheel types

Dont forget the various attempts at Auster then Beagle to ‘go nosewheel’ the Auster Atlantic?…the Beagle Airedale…doubt if any have been reversed…..it was necessary to be ‘modern’ then, now ‘retro’ is a factor….

The Pacer has the reputation of being one of the best handling lightplanes of its time and the Tri-Pacer for being one of the stodgiest due to the extra weight and drag. A lesson in aerodynamics.

According to Wikipedia, the Tri-Pacer outsold the Pacer by 6 to 1 during the former’s first year on sale. A lesson in marketing.

First, here in Australia, recently we see Tri-pacers being converted to taildraggers, I don’t recall it being the fashion back in the 1980’s or 1970’s.

Second, I think the better and easier ground handling of a tri-cycle undercarriage over a taildragger might explain the selling ratio.

Maybe a Auster driver in England can tell me if Austers float excessively on landing over there, here in Australia on a warm summer day (say 35-40 degrees C) floating makes you very careful on landing.

Wow, Thank you to all who replied, I am still amazed at the level of knowledge out there ! all of those fantastic reply’s to a very small question !
My first mistake was to assume the modification was done during the production run, well now with your knowledge, I see it was a later mod in the days when tail draggers were not so available !
Forever impressed. Keith.

Hehe. This is one of my more embarassing flying incidents.

For a lot of reasons, mostly to do with Auxerre doing a passable interpretation of the Marie Celeste, we arrived at Troyes desperately short of fuel.

No response from the tower, no plates, howling crosswind. Trinny was flying and set up a downwind join for the main, when I spotted the very wide, parallel grass strip. I offered the opinion that it would allow us to offest at least some of the 35kt crosswind and the suggestion was adopted.

We knife-edged as we turned final (Yes, in a Colt) but somehow Trinny got it on the ground.

I assumed we’d stay there the night, Trinny, with the thought of some of France’s finest Foie Gras in mind, insisted we should set off again.

We refuelled then lined up (still no tower) in the extreme corner of the grass and hurled ourselves skyward. OK, perhaps not hurled, maybe more like rocked and bumped and hopped.

As we climbed out and tuned en route for Lyon Bron the aircraft pitched to one side, dropping the right wing drastically. This gave me a perfect aerial view of the field…. and its directly-into-wind grass strip, the of which you speak – the one neither of us knew existed until that moment.

ILAFFT

Moggy

Can’t agree with the’nicest handling aircraft’ tag-I flew ‘ARBS’ several times while it was based at RAF Swanton Morley,found it stoogey with poor vis in a turn but nonetheless a very pretty aeroplane when a tail dragger.Now where’s my J1N!

TROYES-crosswind
no problem use the grass runway -it will not throw ya dentures out

Vagabond owner

My question is why ? why convert a tricycle undercarriage aircraft to tail dragger, I wouldn’t have thought there was a shortage of tail draggers at that time ? was it to make use of the slightly better speed and range of the PA22 with the nostalgia etc of the PA20 ? would the conversion retain the same operating charicteristics ?

The Pacer has the reputation of being one of the best handling lightplanes of its time and the Tri-Pacer for being one of the stodgiest due to the extra weight and drag. A lesson in aerodynamics.

The Tr-pacer was Pipers answer to Cessna all-metal tricycle aeroplanes in the early 1950’s.

According to Wikipedia, the Tri-Pacer outsold the Pacer by 6 to 1 during the former’s first year on sale. A lesson in marketing.

I did my tailwheel training on the 152

G-HART at Atlantique.

Moggy

You can convert your old Cessna as well if you become bored with it.:D

150 (Texas Taildragger conversion?)

Old straight backed 172

and the not so common 175

:p

The Tr-pacer was Pipers answer to Cessna all-metal tricycle aeroplanes in the early 1950’s. Poor old England struggled on with the Auster for years later and lost its market share of the light aeroplane segment – Ahhh… Auster – The good old “Steel Aeroplane”, I want a Mk3 done up as original (Military)

Very nice photo and such blue sky, here in Queensland, Australia our blue sky is a bit washed out due to the stronger sunlight.

What everybody else has said.

There are minor advantages (Looks / drag ) to the tailwheel configuration, bought at the cost of minor operational drawbacks – mostly lowering the crosswind capability.

I would not have liked to have been in a taildragger at Troyes back in 2006 landing with something like 30-35 knots straight across the runway heading.

It is a fairly simple conversion

Moggy

The Tripacer carried a lot of nosewheel. I’ve heard of it referred to as the “Flying Milkstool” If the owner of this one was comfortable flying a taildragger then it made sense to take the refinements and increased horsepower of the Tri and convert it into a faster better looking machine. I’ve never flown the Tripacer but put a few hours on the Colt, Vagabond and J3 plus many on the Super Cub. The taildraggers were really very gentle on the ground and I can believe the conversion would have been a pleasure to fly.

…..and its faster, without that huge nosewheel in the way, and it means that the pilot has to do something with the ruder pedals instead of just resting his feet on them:D

Looks better too.

think the vast majority have been modified with the Univair conversion kit if my memory serves me right. You will be looking at a bit of fabric work and I should imagine some welding and cowl work.

I believe that it is a relatively simple conversion, as the main legs can be reversed and the nosewheel removed with (I believe the fittings for the tailwheel already being in place).

John

The conversion was quite popular in the 1980’s and 90’s . To some it makes
the aircraft more attractive – it does however make it a completely different proposition on landing and take off!