Wild West Aircraft

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Includes: Highlander, Escapade, Summit and SuperSTOL.
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wln
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by wln »

Steve,
what do you think would be the total installed weight of the yamaha.
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

The injected Apex engine with throttle bodies and gearbox is 140 pounds. I don't have a total weight for everything but it should be within 5 to 10 pounds of a total weight for a Rotax 912s, with 50 more horsepower.
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
moving2time
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by moving2time »

Steve, sounds like you are finally running the Apex engine. Tell us about the gear box. As I understand it, the gear box was designed for the higher HP that the Apex would provide. Are you running a prop on the test stand or are you just running the engine? Do you believe that the Rotax gear box is holding up to the HP and prop on RX installation? What prop are you running on the RX? Can you post a video of the running APEX? So many questions. Looking forward to some video of the Apex in flight. I hope you are able to fly one of them to Oshkosh this year. I may need to spend a whole day just looking over the engine. :D Joe B
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

Joe I still have the RX-1 in my airplane with the Rotax gear box and I like it a lot, it's doing very well. My Apex engine is still on my test stand and I have run it quite a bit with no prop on it but I have also run it several hours with a prop and I want to run it quite a few more hours with a prop before I put it in the airplane This engine also has a Rotax gear box for now but there are a couple people working on a more heavy duty option that I will hopefully have on my engine before too long. I've posted several things on my Facebook page but I suppose I should post more things on here.
I have 180 hours on my carbureted Yamaha in my Highlander as of today. It is just a blast to fly! The engine works great and makes really good power and my Highlander flies incredibly well too!
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

IMG_8372.JPG
I just got home from a 1300 mile trip to Colorado in my Yamaha Highlander. As it normally does, it performed flawlessly the entire trip. I have 212 hours on it now and I will most likely just keep running it through the summer. I thought I would probably have the Apex engine installed by now but I have had some snags with the clutch in the gearbox, and I just don't want to put it in the airplane until I have it well tested on the ground. The RX-1 works so well that I don't really want to change it out now until after the main flying season is over for me.

Another thing that I have been trying out lately is the Beringer Alaskan landing gear. It works really really well, better than any gear I've ever had and on the Highlander. The downside is that it is more draggy in-flight and that it's quite expensive.

The propeller on my airplane in the picture works good on trips and OK for all around but is definitely not a short take off propeller. I like at least an 80 inch prop for any kind of competition and this one here is only 72 inches. It is made in the Ukraine by Luga. They are supposed to be making me a longer one but it has not showed up yet.
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Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
joe49
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by joe49 »

What was your fuel burn and speed on your trip?
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

I was usually cruising at 100 mph and I think I averaged about 6 gallons an hour. The Yamaha is more powerful so I can still cruise 100 hundred mph even though I have big tires and draggy landing gear, it just uses more gas to do it. I can fly around easy at 70 to 80 miles an hour on 3 to 4 gallons per hour. Wide-open for take off and climb it burns nearly 8 gallons per hour, but at that point it is making some serious thrust!
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
AV8R Paul
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by AV8R Paul »

Have you every tested it to see what the thrust number is?
AV8R Paul
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taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

Yes Paul I have a very good strain gauge (scale) that I've done many static thrust tests with. At around 4,000 density altitude if I have it propped for take off my stock, carbed RX1 pulls right at 600 lbs. It pulls harder than my 912s with a big bore kit and 40hp nitrous boost. The stock $6,000 Yamaha pulls like my $32,000 130 hp turboed 912s Rotax would pull.
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
av8rps
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by av8rps »

Hey Steve, do you know what a standard 912ULS pulls on your gauge in similar condition? I'm guessing mid to upper 400's?
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

Upper 300s to low 400s
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
TD1
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by TD1 »

Steve, I know in you Highlanders you've gone to the bush tires (29"?) on bungees with the extreme suspension..... to the TK-1 Shock Monster(?) replacing the bungees.... now to the Beringer gear. How does this compare to the TK-1 kit? The TK-1must have taken a good bit of bounce out of the gear on semi-hard landings/rough stuff. The Beringer even more so? Does the new gear set the plane taller and/or wider? Yet more travel? Hard to tell from the pics but looks taller. And weights... couldn't find a weight to compare it all to.

Thanks for the work and testing on these planes. Incredible.... invaluable.
Last edited by TD1 on Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
Tom Dougherty
Kahului, HI
av8rps
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by av8rps »

taildrgfun wrote:Upper 300s to low 400s
Thanks for the info Steve. It was lower than I expected. I remember playing around with a handful of different props when testing a friends 2 stroke 618 Rotax that pulled 425 lbs. I would've thought for sure that the 912 would outpull the 618 two stroke, but apparently not the case,
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

Results can be different from one day to the next. I wonder about a lot of numbers that are stated as hard facts. There are just so many variables. If you do a thrust test at or near sea level I'm sure you would see better thrust numbers than I get here at 2,500 feet. I remember checking my friends Rotax 100hp in his Escapade with a 3 blade Kiev prop and it only pulled 360 pounds. Put on a different prop and have it pitched more for take off and the number could be quite a bit higher. On that same day my turboed 912 uls with a long 2 blade prop pitched for take off pulled nearly 600 pounds.

I like the TK1 and Beringer suspension. TK1 is much less expensive and works very well, I still sell quite a few of them to Highlander guys, you really can't go wrong with them. If price doesn't matter and you want incredible off airport suspension get the Beringer gear. It does make the plane stand up taller with more angle of attack and does an even better job of soaking up the big hits. It feels a lot like the Superstol gear and that is partly good and partly not so good. If I have to taxi in a crosswind I would rather be on TK1 because it holds the plane more level. Beringer lets the plane lean sideways with the wind. I don't like the feeling of that, it always has me hoping that the wind doesn't get under the wing and blow me over. Same type of thing on sidehills. The Beringer gear hurt my fuel burn from 5 gph with TK1 to 6 gph to go 100 mph because it is dragier through the air. They are making aero covers but I haven't got any yet. I think part of the drag is because they hold the tires so far down from the fuselage like the Superstol does.

Both systems are very good and very different from each other.
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
av8rps
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by av8rps »

Yes Steve, pull testing can have a bunch of variables. We tested my 912uls Highlander with a two blade 70 inch Sensenich and couldn't even get 300 lbs at 1200 msl. We tried it repeatedly only to get same results. Compared to other props that pulled significantly better, we wrote off the Sensenich as the worst prop of the group tested. Yet, it rocks on my Highlander. Can cruise 110 mph at 5450 rpm, climb 1800 fpm when just me and 10 gallons fuel, and can dang near hover with full throttle and the stick all the way in my lap (can't do a simulated departure stall unless I pull power back). So again, while pull testing is a good baseline to use most of the time, sometimes it doesn't make any sense :roll:

The new landing gear options described sound interesting for sure.
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