Wild West Aircraft

For general discussion of the Just Aircraft family of aircraft.
Includes: Highlander, Escapade, Summit and SuperSTOL.
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MN Snowy1
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by MN Snowy1 »

Hey guys, I'm an admin on the Yamaha Aircraft Conversions Facebook group (I go by "Anatoli") and gotta agree: I'm not really a fan of Facebook either! My account is an alias where I hide away from everything FB is about... except for getting together with fellow Yamaha enthusiasts.

And I am guessing that Steve was faced with a choice on his main social media outlet it he appears to have chosen FB as that place. Certainly it would be tough to keep up in multiple places online and still get out to fly alot, work in the shop, and do all the other things in life!

As far as my thanks to Steve; Really all that I have done along the lines of choosing Yamaha and managing the group have been "in the footsteps" of Steve and his pioneering effort in the Yamaha. Without him I wouldn't have one on the nose of my plane, and wouldn't be offering my free time hobby of helping others learn more about Yamaha.

So once again: THANKS STEVE! And for those of us who want to keep up with what he is up to, it looks like FB is the place to go. Wild West has a page, there is a Just Aircraft group, Steve and Cathy have their personal pages, our group keeps in close contact with him as do others. On FB you can join, friend, and subscribe to all those pages.. and get notifications and updates for all coming into one app. Of all the things I like and dislike about FB, that "cross connected - instant in touch" nature of it is where it stands out... for better and worse! :wink:
KITFOX 5 (YAMAHA GENESIS RX-1), Full Lotus Floats
Flying spring 2018 (Hopefully!)
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SheepdogRD
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by SheepdogRD »

MN Snowy1 wrote:... I am guessing that Steve was faced with a choice on his main social media outlet it he appears to have chosen FB as that place. Certainly it would be tough to keep up in multiple places online and still get out to fly alot, work in the shop, and do all the other things in life!

... for those of us who want to keep up with what he is up to, it looks like FB is the place to go. Wild West has a page, there is a Just Aircraft group, Steve and Cathy have their personal pages, our group keeps in close contact with him as do others. On FB you can join, friend, and subscribe to all those pages.. and get notifications and updates for all coming into one app. Of all the things I like and dislike about FB, that "cross connected - instant in touch" nature of it is where it stands out... for better and worse! :wink:
Steve is still active both here and on FB. This forum is more for information sharing specific to owning, building, flying, and maintaining Just Aircraft. It's a much better resource than FB when it comes to searching through information posted over the life of the forum.
Richard Holtz
Highlander N570L -- Ms. Tonka -- in gestation

If just enough is really good, then too much ought to be perfect.
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BucF16
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by BucF16 »

Snowy1, I KNEW "Anatoli" HAD TO BE AN ALIAS! Thank you very much for keeping the FB site sane. Had it not been for you and the FB site I would not have had the confidence to proceed with my Yamaha path. I agree, for better or for worse FB is what we have to live with. I agree with SheepDog "Richard", This Wings Forum is the best resource for building my Highlander. I can't count the times I've pulled out my iPhone and searched this site. Always found my answer.

Now that summer is over, I'm back in the shop. I'll update my website and this forum on my journey so that others after me don't make the same mistakes.

The most cogent statement I ever read here (I think it was from Fred Hoffman) was during the discussion on how long it took to build the Highlander. paraphrased: Well the factory says "600 hours" BUT thats not counting the time spent looking for the part or tool I just had in my hand 1 minute age!

For me that doubled the time :oops: :evil:

Cheers
Bruce
Bruce Johnson Highlander # 393
"Because I fly, I envy no man on Earth"
Builder web site:
http://www.bruceshighlander.blogspot.com
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alan
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by alan »

Bye bye Steve. It was nice knowing you it.

Alan
If I had known I would live this long I would have taken better care of myself.
mikepliske
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by mikepliske »

Fred,
re: a hopped up rotax by edge performance....

If you follow the Yamaha Aircraft Conversions FB group, you'll see that Thomas Hauklien, of Edge Performance-Norway is acquiring a Yamaha Apex, and I believe will be using his experience of turbocharging Rotax engines to the Yamaha Apex application!!!

This is getting pretty exciting!!

re: seeing newer posts on FB, under "RECENT ACTIVITY", click on the down arrow and choose "NEW POSTS"....this will display a better chronology.

Mike
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MN Snowy1
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by MN Snowy1 »

SheepdogRD wrote: Steve is still active both here and on FB. This forum is more for information sharing specific to owning, building, flying, and maintaining Just Aircraft. It's a much better resource than FB when it comes to searching through information posted over the life of the forum.
I couldn't agree more about how much better a forum like this one is as an information resource. FB is good in some ways and really bad in others! I WISH we Yamaha enthusiasts had a better platform. But I do my part in the group as a volunteer because I simply enjoy sharing info I've learned with others and am not personally interested in developing a forum as another side hobby. Maybe someday we'll get some help with that and move up in the world to a forum!

And when I look back at my last post, maybe I worded my it poorly (which is common!) So please let me clarify: I sure as heck am no spokesman for Steve!! Just another fan. A "nobody" to him for sure. I only meant that "it appears to me" that he is more active on FB than on the other social media outlets that I have followed him on.

Hopefully what you see in my previous post is what I really intended: A big "Thank You" to him!

Brett
Last edited by MN Snowy1 on Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:28 pm, edited 2 times in total.
KITFOX 5 (YAMAHA GENESIS RX-1), Full Lotus Floats
Flying spring 2018 (Hopefully!)
Clark in AZ
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by Clark in AZ »

Well, an update here would be nice. What happened at High Sierra? Was he running the new gearbox? How is that proceeding? etc.

Clark
Building SuperSTOL Kit 512
Cave Creek, AZ
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SheepdogRD
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by SheepdogRD »

Steve was eliminated early (by Mike Patey and Draco). Because it was single elimination, Steve was out of the running, and the final was between Trent Palmer's 915iS-powered Kitfox and Draco. Draco won.
HS STOL Drag Race 2018.jpg
I'm not taking anything away from Mike Patey. He did an awesome job on the Draco build, and he's done us all a favor by helping bring added attention to our section of the aviation world. He's built the most bad-ass STOL machine I've seen. It does amazing stuff, and can be flown as a back-country airplane; it isn't a STOL-event-only machine. One pilot commented that he's single-handedly doubled the value of every Wilga on the planet.

But I don't relate to Draco like I do to YeeHaw 6; Draco is only accessible to builders with a million dollar budget and gobs of time and talent, whereas YeeHaw 6 is a true back-country airplane that fits my budget, time and talents.

The High Sierra event left me a little disappointed, at first. I thought it seemed like running a NASCAR machine against go-carts: interesting and impressive, but not exactly head-to-head competition. I wondered if they should have put Draco into an Exhibition class; Steve would likely have worked his way up to a final with Trent Palmer, and that would have been far more exciting to me.

But wait a minute: Mike's best time only beat Steve's best time by 5 seconds: 1:17 vs 1:22 for the 3/4-mile-long two-direction drag race. That 5-second gap might be closed by more horsepower: turbocharged Yamaha horsepower... and that's in development. Maybe HS 2018 was just a bump on the way to victory lane.
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Richard Holtz
Highlander N570L -- Ms. Tonka -- in gestation

If just enough is really good, then too much ought to be perfect.
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BDA
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by BDA »

Soooooo...
Steve had the second fastest time overall?
SuperStol XL Alaskan With Titan 340
N331AK. Shawn Taplin
Wing extensions,Symetrical Airfoil tail ribs (NACA 21)
Mods in progress: Heavier struts, Double slotted flaps
Goal: 15mph no wind
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SheepdogRD
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by SheepdogRD »

BDA wrote:Soooooo...
Steve had the second fastest time overall?
That's what the results show. After Mike Patey, Steve had the two fastest runs of the day.
Richard Holtz
Highlander N570L -- Ms. Tonka -- in gestation

If just enough is really good, then too much ought to be perfect.
Clark in AZ
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by Clark in AZ »

I can see some changes coming in the way they run the Stol Drags.

Perhaps, don't run against each other in elimination style, but rather the clock? Have each contestant make three or four runs, best overall times win? Still run two planes at a time but they're racing the clock instead of each other.

Or, I can see some kind of handicap system being developed or maybe classes being introduced because of Draco. Otherwise, everyone will be competing for second anytime Draco shows up.

Or, if you want to be really crazy, make all contestants run at gross weight. Then you'll really see the which aircraft has the best STOL characteristics. :D
Building SuperSTOL Kit 512
Cave Creek, AZ
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

I’m back! Really I never meant to be gone I have just been so busy all summer and fall it’s been really crazy!
I keep thinking that I will get caught up and have a little free time but it just doesn’t seem to happen.
I sold YeeHaw 5 a few months ago with 385 hours on the Yamaha RX-1 engine with the Rotax gearbox. It was awesome, but I sold it because I had built YeeHaw 6 with the newer Yamaha Apex fuel injected engine. I flew it about 160 hours or so with the Rotax gearbox on it at which time I replaced it with the new Sky Trax gearbox. It is working extremely well! At first it had straight cut gears which were pretty noisy but we have since replaced them with helical cut gears and it’s much quieter and very nice to fly with.

The High Sierra fly-in as usual was a blast! I was faster than anyone except Mike Patey with his turbine Wilga but the way they did the lineup I had to face him in the 2nd round and of course he got me. I knew I had to be perfect and he had to make a mistake for me to beat him, and I did fly it really well but he did not make a mistake, in fact he had his very fastest time when he was racing against me. We both knew that we were each other’s toughest competition based on our times and there just is no way that we should have faced off that early.

One thing that it did though is seriously motivate me, as if I needed more motivation! I thought I would wait another year to build myself a new Highlander but I have decided now is the time! I have had some ideas for a different wing that I wanted to try for probably the last 10 years and I’m finally doing it. Also I have been just waiting for someone to turbo charge the Yamaha for aircraft use and now that is happening with my friends at Edge Performance in Norway!

Right now I’m in the process of building all of my ribs and I had better get down to my shop and get back to work!!
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
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BDA
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by BDA »

Steve - excited to see the new wing!

I see you have STOL fences on the new plane, see much difference there?
SuperStol XL Alaskan With Titan 340
N331AK. Shawn Taplin
Wing extensions,Symetrical Airfoil tail ribs (NACA 21)
Mods in progress: Heavier struts, Double slotted flaps
Goal: 15mph no wind
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

Shawn I put the flat wing tips on the airplane from the beginning mostly because my friend Jerry Burr who does more testing than anyone I know, said that is the best kind of wing tip for a stol cub. If you are referring to the ones mid wing on the top and bottom that something I did just for the stol drag race. I was trying to create lots of drag when I had the airplane in a slip so I could slow down quicker.
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Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
FredHoffman
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by FredHoffman »

Weren't there slats on the outer wings at Oshkosh? How are you able to take them on and off ?
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