Wild West Aircraft SuperStol

[taildrgfun]

Steve Henry here. I know that a lot of you have been waiting patiently for me to get some SuperStol videos out. To be honest except for the way it will land, I was dissappointed with the SS following my exceptionally good HLDR. At first a big part of the problem was my own doing in that I wasn't getting cool enough combustion air to the turbo for the engine to make good power. After getting that taken care of I was much happier. I have been experimenting with different aero stuff and now I am really liking this airplane! I can easily cruise 100 mph now and I like the way the airplane feels flying through the air.

Keep them light for performance and keep your panel low and your cowling low for visibility and you will be glad you did.

Many of you know that I hurt my SS, as I made no effort at all to keep anyone from knowing about it. I do push the limits pretty hard and I pushed a little to hard. I landed at a pretty high rate of decent on a 16% (8 degree) hill with a friend and quite a bit of fuel on board. I landed evenly but too hard and bottomed out both shocks. The right gear leg broke off near the axle just above the gusset. I only had 26" Bushwheels instead of my 31"s which would have given much more cushion. The other important thing was that I didn't have enough pressure in my shocks and they bottomed out too easily.

I have fixed my plane and am flying it again and it is flying great. For now I am still running my 26" tires (because they are 26 pounds lighter than my 31" tires), but I have more nitrogen in my shocks and I'm not pushing the impact limit quite so hard.

I really am going to try to get some video coming soon.

[R Rinker]

Steve, just wondered what the options are as to keeping the cowl and panel low? I would think the top of both are pretty well fixed points. I don't have my kit yet, and haven't even seen one, so forgive my ignorance. I always wanted to sit as high as possible, and use a heavy cushion. I'm sure the side visibility is a big one in the flare also, when forward vis is gone. I always had good side vision and rely a lot on it. Also, could you explain a little about the intake problem, what was wrong and what you did to improve it...Rodger

[taildrgfun]

My cowling is only 3/4" above my engine from the airbox all the way to the gearbox.
My engine is turboed and I had not ducted fresh air to the turbo so the TCU would open the wastegate to protect the engine from detonation from to hot of air when I was wide open for take off. I ran a scat tube from the turbo up to one of the openings on the front of the cowl and it cured the problem.

[taildrgfun]

I got about 6 hours and 50 landings in my Superstol the last 2 days. What a blast!!
Still trying to get some video. We had an external hard drive put on our computer a while back and I'm struggling with it. A computer wizz I'm not.

[taildrgfun]

Sorry it's taken me so long but I finally got a new video of flying my fantastic SuperSTOL on YouTube! Here's the link to it: http://youtu.be/0zDo7hkmCNY

[Saini flyer]

This is not a real video,
1. No one can have so much fun with their aircraft
2. No one can fly like that
3. The transition from land to water is flawless

Looks like one of the special effect Hollywood guys did it....

Well I dont know if it is the Airplane or the one flying it that is awesome..... a whole new level of pure awesomeness!

Sorry it's taken me so long but I finally got a new video of flying my fantastic SuperSTOL on YouTube! Here's the link to it: http://youtu.be/0zDo7hkmCNY

[john2]

Thanks Steve, that's good motivaton. I thought you had forgotten about putting up a new video for us folks needing inspiration. I'm headed home from Kazakhstan today and hope to make good progress on my plane while home for the next month. That's some awesome and awe inspiring flying.

[HS-JAT]

As always...Great video!

[Dave Krall CFII SEL SES]

Well done, thanks for the video!

[levyland]

Howdy Steve,
I watched in last night on my Apple TV/Television. In a word awesome. Share with us the technique for landing (or rolling) on water. Cheers John

[Dave Krall CFII SEL SES]

I texted your video link to a new Comm pilot flying only Cessnas and Cherokees and he was stunned.