Wild West Aircraft

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

Post by taildrgfun »

Well I have not given up on the Yamaha yet after all. The last time it started cutting out on me turned out to be just a coil shorting out. I have flown it now for several hours with no problems at all. I am planning to redo my exhaust again for the third time to smooth out the power band and make it still quieter. Even if it continues to run well like it is now it will be quite a while before I have a lot of faith in it. At this point I still plan to bring my Rotax powered Highlander for the stol competition at Oshkosh.
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
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Av8r3400
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by Av8r3400 »

Are you guys still going to have a free-time play hour on friday evening at the ultralight field?
Av8r3400
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

Here is the schedule so far:
Tues- 7:45 to sunset fun flying
Wed- 11:00 to noon competition
Fri- 7:30 to sunset competition
Sat- 11:00 to noon fun flying

This is all on the grass field this year. Wednesday afternoon I'm sure that several of us will fly over to New Holstein for the competition at the Super Cub fly-in. Last year I finished 2nd out of 27 entries in my Highlander.
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

I am quickly becoming addicted to the horsepower that this Yamaha engine makes. It's just amazing how it will take off and climb out and still easily cruise 100 MPH all with the same Prince prop!
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
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marl59
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by marl59 »

Steve, How many miles did the snowmobile that you pulled your engine out of have on it? I'm considering at one that has less than 600 miles on it.
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

Mine had 3,500 miles which I guess to be around 100 hours. It takes about 100 hours to get these motors broke in good because they are so close tolerance.
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
av8rps
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by av8rps »

Steve,

Glad to hear the Yamaha motor is working better. Who knows, Yamaha could maybe be the next aircraft engine manufacturer? :roll: It is much the same as how Rotax got started. They took their snowmobile engine and detuned it for reliability and added a gearbox to it after seeing what Dean Wilson did with his prototype Avid Flyer by using a little 40 hp Cuyuna 2 stroke from a snowmobile and then later adding his homeade 3 to 1 prop reduction gearbox (built from a Ford C3 car transmission planstary drive). Suddenly there was an inexpensive but powerful and light engine option that spawned an entire industry, and ultimately even a new class of aircraft that essentially helped save recreational aviation. Of course the rest is now just history. And from a business perspective it was really huge, as today Rotax is the largest aircraft engine manufacturer jn the world.

So who's to say if you make this work that Yamaha doesn't follow your lead like Rotax followed Dean's? Hopefully you'll find my comments here as words of encouragement to keep moving forward on the monumental task of getting the Yamaha to work. And for everyone else, you just got a little history lesson about just how important and historic the first of this design series was. And our bonus is having these great little planes to play around with :D

I'm confident the design will outlive us all...
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R Rinker
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by R Rinker »

Steve, from my experience in cross country travel in the northern Yukon, pulling a sled, 3,500 miles would be a 'lot' more than 100 hours...

If someone down south has a sled they need 'broke in', just leave it with me for awhile....
Rodger Rinker - Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

I have not had much time to fly my Yamaha but I am up to 60 hours now and it is really working good. It is super fun to fly because it makes such good power and thrust! I am still experimenting just a little with gearing in the Rotax C box but I think I am just about to get this Yamaha/Highlander really dialed in. I was flying it a couple days ago when the density altitude was 3500 feet on the ground and I could go from a dead stop to 1000 feet AGL in 42 or 43 seconds. I take off at about 30 miles an hour I just point it for the sky and it accelerates up to 70 miles an hour climbing 1600 ft./m. My buddy took off right beside me in his 650 pound 100 horse power Rotax Highlander and I just smoked him to 1000 feet. This thing climbs out at least as well as a big bore turbo charged Rotax.
Now I just need to keep flying it and put a whole bunch of time on it and see how it holds up. I must have pretty high expectations because I just bought another sled for the motor to put in another airplane.
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, thanks for the update!
I really look forward to these posts. People willing to share their hard work in development make this a great place for aviation.

DId you rebuild this engine or gearbox before install?

Are you considering Turbo for it?

Thanks again
Shawn
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 »

It runs so strong that I'm going to keep it stock for now. I think I will probably put Nitrous on it if I use this plane for STOL events.
I did not rebuild the engine because it only had about 100 hours on it. The gearbox is brand-new. It was kind of hard starting with a big two blade prop so I put one of those RK 400 centrifugal clutch's in the gearbox and so far I am liking that a lot. It starts and warms up with no prop load which lets it started very easily. The prop engages at about 2500 RPM which is just right for this motor. I usually taxi between 3000 and 5000 RPM. The two things that are quite a bit different from flying this Yamaha versus the Rotax is the sound because of the higher rpm's in the Yamaha and the fact that the Yamaha make so much more horsepower.
Steve Henry, Wild West Aircraft
(the Dead Stick Take-off Guy)
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rmullins
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by rmullins »

Just keep an eye on the clutch. I know some guys that were experimenting with the Rotax 670 (110-120 HP) with that clutch and the clutch had a high failure rate...couldn't handle that much power/
Rick Mullins  #144
Cincinnati, Oh
moving2time
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by moving2time »

Steve, can you post some photos of the engine installation? I have seen the video of the installation of the gear box but other than that is there any custom welding or steel work that was required? How about the engine mount? Photos would answer a lot of questions. You mention playing with the gearing in the gear box. Are you saying that you are changing the gear ratio in the gear box. I am surprised that the gears can be interchanged without changing the case. As always, thank you so much for sharing all that you do on this forum. Joe B
taildrgfun
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Re: Wild West Aircraft

Post by taildrgfun »

There are some motor installation pictures on my website under galleries and then building the 2016 highlander
Yes you can change gears in the same case and that is what I'm going to do

I did some back to back comparison flying with my two Highlanders this morning. The Yamaha feels like the Rotax on Nitrous all the time, not just the normal two seconds I hold the button for take off.
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 »

So what is your guesstimate on horsepower??

130?
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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