Trcycle Gear on G770 with Steerable Nose Wheel

[A VIKING]

Originally Posted by DanMcN

Might be more ground manoverable by leveling out the tail.

Taxi requires a forward tilt to the mast to generate the down and aft thrust from the rotor needed for taxi.
The Goblin has 90 degree orientation between the mast and centerline of the tail boom so any forward tilt of the rotor also brings the tail rotor up with it.
If you look at a Goblin sitting on skids it has the raised tail also because of the forward tilt of the mast with that configuration.
I increased this tilt slightly to increase taxi thrust and also provide for better ground clearance with the tail skid for rotation during a running takeoff and for flare during landing. It also provides better clearance for the tail, landing in grass.
If I were to level the ship by lengthening the nose strut I will loose the ground clearance for the tail and also forward thrust with collective pitch. Adding collective pitch sitting on the ground would only pop the ship into a hover and not roll forward.
The application of cyclic is counter productive to taxi. It does not create the forward thrust needed for forward or backward rolling motion.
With collective application for taxi you have the entire rotor disk pushing down and away which creates good motive force for rolling.
With forward cyclic application in an effort to taxi, the airflow at the back half of the rotor disk is pushing down and aft which is needed to roll forward but the front half of the disk has its airflow moving up and away witch counters the forward push of the rear disk and the ship does not roll forward on its wheels but instead it lifts the main wheels off the ground and balances on the nose wheel looking much like a wheel barrow. If you were to add some collective pitch at that point it will roll on the nose wheel which is amusing as a stunt. It's actually pretty easy to do but looks very complicated and mystical to any onlookers.

The tilted rotor disk works very well for motive force for rolling but also for stopping.
If you watch the taxi video closely you can see the ship rapidly accelerate and then decelerate to a stop for a pivoting turn, Just by lowering the collective to zero pitch causes the ship to stop in its tracks and makes it look like I have wheel brakes but of course I don't. I guess you can say I do have "air brakes".

As far as increasing maneuverability, it can make any radius turn you desire down to a pivoting 360 degree turn. It can roll forward and backward. The speed of all this is determined by your skill on the sticks. Cyclic will be used but only for trim to keep the wheels squarely on the ground.
Difficult to see in my video but my taxi area was on a side hill which complicates the taxi somewhat. On level ground its easy.