The Scout is one of, if not my favorite plane. It's all been said. Fast, warm, roomy (for a tandem), fuel for days. It'll fly whatever you can possibly load it up with, and fly well...... a Cub heavily loaded........ (

Mine performed really well, did everything I wanted to do in Alaska.

There's good reason the Scout is heavy. Extremely tough-built cage. I wrecked mine good.... REAL good. Had it been a Cub, I would have surely been dead.... and that's not just my opinion. The guy I was hunting with, has had an aircraft salvage business, he's seen it all, and operates Cubs, and he stood there watching the whole thing. He knew we were dead...... and suddenly, my now wife, and I crawl out, she doesn't so much have a scratch. I banged my head a little, but was fine otherwise.

It's not a Cub...... and its not supposed to be. It'll do 90% of what a Cub will do in some situations, and 115% in others.

BTW, I know that Scout, its a very nice plane. I would have no doubt bought that, had I the chance.

Tangogawd wrote:The Scout is one of, if not my favorite plane. It's all been said. Fast, warm, roomy (for a tandem), fuel for days. It'll fly whatever you can possibly load it up with, and fly well...... a Cub heavily loaded........ (

Mine performed really well, did everything I wanted to do in Alaska.

There's good reason the Scout is heavy. Extremely tough-built cage. I wrecked mine good.... REAL good. Had it been a Cub, I would have surely been dead.... and that's not just my opinion. The guy I was hunting with, has had an aircraft salvage business, he's seen it all, and operates Cubs, and he stood there watching the whole thing. He knew we were dead...... and suddenly, my now wife, and I crawl out, she doesn't so much have a scratch. I banged my head a little, but was fine otherwise.

It's not a Cub...... and its not supposed to be. It'll do 90% of what a Cub will do in some situations, and 115% in others.

BTW, I know that Scout, its a very nice plane. I would have no doubt bought that, had I the chance.

Thanks, I'm very excited.
So, you know this scout (which has been wrecked real good), and you have wrecked a scout real good. Any chance you are one of the previous owners??

A Scout is other airplane I'd consider if I was to replace my 170B with tube & fabric, to bad it doesn't have a "round tail" STC option. For a fabric "round tail" it would be an Aeronca Sedan

Got this thing installed today so I can finally fly it. Did the validation flight and everything was good. I had heard of people having grounding issues if the nav light was grounded to the rudder, but mine had a positive and ground wire running from airframe back to the nav light so no issues. Very happy with the little unit, easy install and most importantly it works.

Have been having a blast in the Scout. Hopefully the Canadian border opens us by late April so my plans for taking it to AK with me don't fall apart.

Took it down to Taos the weekend before last to see my sister - awesome flight.


Set a high speed record on the way back which would've been cool had I not been coming over the divide. I got thrashed as I expected, but a snow storm was coming in and didn't want to be in Taos for 3 more days.. I had it slowed down to ease the bumps so I'm guessing 50kts on the tail over La Veta Pass.


On that trip, my alternator kicked offline a few times, and I had to reset the master to get it to start making power again. Hadn't done this in the first 10 hours I had been flying it. This was also the first flight since adding the tailbeacon and a USB charging outlet so I was thinking I screwed up my electrical system (I did all the wiring myself). I tested it without the tailbeacon and USB hooked up, so not that. I'm avoiding spending time paying a shop to troubleshoot, so I did it myself by making many calls. Ended up getting the voltage reg people and the alternator people to both think it was intermittent brushes based on field resistance measurements I took and what do you know, there's a $100 replacement brush assembly, and it's an upgrade from original. Just finished installing that today, haven't gotten a chance to test yet. Hartzell was excellent as far as customer service and tech support, right up there with ACA quality of people.

Old brush assembly:


New brush assembly:


Also recieved my ABI wheel/brake kit and ACA axles. Love them. Expected my old stock setup to be worthless but sold it this morning for $700. Not bad. A welcome surprise.


So far I've done all the work myself, with the inspection/oversight/paperwork help of an A&P friend and an IA friend. Really enjoying this plane. Learned more about the inner workings and failure modes of alternators and voltage regulators than I ever wanted to.

Next in line:
- Move ELT from baggage area to under extended baggage (there's a hatch ad mounting platform from when battery was there)
- Figure out why my ELT has a remote switch wire hooked up to it, but no remote switch mounted that I can find. Then probably mount a remote switch.
- Add fire extinguisher.

Glad you got the charging problem fixed Asa. Also hoping the border opens, looking forward to meeting you in person!

Does your ELT have the capability of being hooked up to a GPS source? That would be great if you can.

Kurt

G44 wrote:Does your ELT have the capability of being hooked up to a GPS source? That would be great if you can.

Kurt

Not the one I have unfortunately. It's also not a 406 unit . I know, I know, replace it.

Great looking bird ASA. I have been lusting over a forgotten about scout up here. They seem to be built really strong and I would love to get my hands on one.

Hope you get to fly up in April. Would be awesome to fly with you up here finally!

Spdcrazy wrote:Great looking bird ASA. I have been lusting over a forgotten about scout up here. They seem to be built really strong and I would love to get my hands on one.

Hope you get to fly up in April. Would be awesome to fly with you up here finally!

Thanks! Job was already postponed until end of May. Judging by the fact most of their employees are laid off currently, not so sure it will even happen this year. But oh well, the plane will be ready if it does.

Turns out airplanes are great social distancing tools. I'm under a statewide stay-at-home order working from home, however outdoor recreation is allowed if solo or with people in your quarantine group. Flying seems like the epitome of this - closest I get to another person is sitting at a stoplight on the way to the airport. Still don't fly much - would hate for something to happen and emergency resources be used on me rather than people who need it more right now.

My alternator brush replacement seems to have been successful in eliminating the electrical issue. Painted some old hub caps black because I hate the look of silver wheels/caps and might as well protect my shiny new ABI wheels underneath. Also got the plane into "cargo mode" - added rear stick cover and throttle cover from ACA - great products and cheap.

Can't say I would've bought an airplane had I known the economy would tank, but I still have my engineering job (and since it's aerospace its deemed essential) so I can't complain too much.



My two favorite social distancing tools:


Stick/Throttle covers:

No stick, no cable lets you fold the seat flat. Easy loading.

asa wrote:Stick/Throttle covers:

How much work was required to fit these covers? Factory parts?

In the process of buying a ‘97 Scout, deposit is paid, pre buy came out with no major issues. Finance is all but approved, just need finalise to get back to my home field and put a heap of hours on her till the prop needs a time ex. o’haul in March.

Really looking forward to not renting after 30 years.

Duplicate post

The covers are very easy and yes a factory part from ACA, I think $40 each? Was planning to make my own but at $40 I liked these. The silver screw head looking things on the covers (2 on throttle, 2 on stick) are the top of snaps. ACA includes snap screws with them, so after lining it up where I wanted, I screwed the screws into the side panel for the throttle cover and into the floor for the stick cover after predilling a small hole. Piece of cake. Now the snap screws will be semi-permanent so just snap the covers on and off them as needed.

asa wrote:The covers are very easy and yes a factory part from ACA, I think $40 each? Was planning to make my own but at $40 I liked these. The silver screw head looking things on the covers (2 on throttle, 2 on stick) are the top of snaps. ACA includes snap screws with them, so after lining it up where I wanted, I screwed the screws into the side panel for the throttle cover and into the floor for the stick cover after predilling a small hole. Piece of cake. Now the snap screws will be semi-permanent so just snap the covers on and off them as needed.

Thanks, will add that to the shopping list.

Be cautious putting anything heavy on the floor in front of the rear seat when you have the stick removed and those particular covers in place.

I had an enlightening experience one day when a reasonably heavy item shifted in flight and created some restricted stick movement. All turned out ok, but more good luck than good management at the time.

Very directly thereafter I fabricated a light but strong steel cover to replace the factory one. We used to haul some ugly oilfield related pumps and things, basically whatever we could fit through the door. It had lots of scars from heavy loads riding on it after that, never had an issue with it again over a couple decades of use.

UpNorth

My Scout had a worn stained carpet and old wood floor. Replaced it with carbon fiber. Easy clean up and scratch resistant. Also doesn’t soak up water from wet boots. The snaps are screwed into the carbon and the cover is snapped on. You need the quick release rear stick.

And stand on your head as well

Karmutzen wrote:No stick, no cable lets you fold the seat flat. Easy loading.

Thanks for this pic! Didn't realize how well the bottom cushion fit in the floor over the rear stick cover. Protects it and makes a nice flat platform.



It's actually sort of wild how much space there in the the cabin of these things. Not Cessna volume, but the floor is 30" wide. Now if only there wasn't that diagonal brace in the way of the baggage door.

Any of you have cargo nets? Considering one of these to put on the rings behind the front seat:
https://www.safaristraps.com/1-polyeste ... 19-x-41-5/

Tie down rings are 46" tall, 20" wide at top, 25" at bottom.

Goodyear wrote:

3C9BD5DD-00B6-4CF7-879A-1723C64CA1CC.jpeg

My Scout had a worn stained carpet and old wood floor. Replaced it with carbon fiber. Easy clean up and scratch resistant. Also doesn’t soak up water from wet boots. The snaps are screwed into the carbon and the cover is snapped on. You need the quick release rear stick.

Is that the size shape of the standard extended baggage? The trapezoidal door?

Mine (as soon as I can get it here) only has the rear baggage door not the extended baggage, any photos or details of the size and how hard the factory extended baggage retrofit would be appreciated.

I expect to do a lot of solo camping trips so most of the time it won’t be an issue. But it would be nice to be able to get longarms or fishing rods in the rear and out harms way if I’m two up.