Helio's watch out is right!

Looks fantastic.

You must be giddy with excitement. Good for you!

Phil, I would be happy to take you fishing on the Bighorn if it would work out. Unfortunately I have to work M-F though. Got a place to land next to the river, just hop out and fish. I believe you will be passing close to Billings. I will PM you

Great offer Coyote, I'll give you a call tomorrow.

Phil, what's the final wingspan with the wing-x? Is it over 40ft?

With the wing tips over 40' for sure. I'll take a tape to it when I get back.

I know with mine I can still squeeze in a 40ft hanger with couple inches a side.
Takes about 10 min by yourself in an unknown hanger walking from side to side every 2" you move back.

Okay I'm just back from bringing the 185 home from Stene's. Of all the mods I've done to the 185 if I could only do one it would be this, Sportsman STOL with WingX extensions. Massive change in the way she flies slow. Super stable in ultra-slow flight and power off stall is somewhere below 40mph. Wow! What awesome mods! And she might be a mile or two faster in cruise, certainly not any slower. Now it's time to go learn to fly this new airplane.





Before I left Polson Montana Willie invited me to fly with him to a couple local backcountry strips. At the very last second I remembered I had a camera in the plane, quickly rigged it but didn't have time to adjust any of the settings as you'll see. But hey, that's why the video is posted here, it's all about test flying the mods.

Awesome Phil! Let me know if you need a co pilot or camera ship while your figuring her out.

Reading these kind of posts make my wallet and wife cringe...
Look great Phil.

.

How noticeable is the decrease in roll rate?

Renegade wrote:How noticeable is the decrease in roll rate?

My 185 has an Aileron/Rudder Interconnect which means with normal roll rates I can keep my feet flat on the floor (off the rudder pedals) and the ball stays centered. The first thing I did in the test flight was check the roll rate, and yes, without using my feet the roll rate is a little slower.

But fly it like I do the SQ-2, with liberal amounts of rudder that takes the ball off center momentarily, and you could easily snap-roll the 185 even after the wing mods. So for me it's not a problem, and probably better so my feet won't get lazy. The Sportsman also comes with Aileron gap seals which helps with the roll rate. After a few minutes of flying it's a non-issue.

Congrats Phil! She looks great.

Barnstormer wrote:

Renegade wrote:How noticeable is the decrease in roll rate?

My 185 has an Aileron/Rudder Interconnect which means with normal roll rates I can keep my feet flat on the floor (off the rudder pedals) and the ball stays centered. The first thing I did in the test flight was check the roll rate, and yes, without using my feet the roll rate is a little slower.

But fly it like I do the SQ-2, with liberal amounts of rudder that takes the ball off center momentarily, and you could easily snap-roll the 185 even after the wing mods. So for me it's not a problem, and probably better so my feet won't get lazy. The Sportsman also comes with Aileron gap seals which helps with the roll rate. After a few minutes of flying it's a non-issue.

Very Interesting! Are the ailerons noticeably heavier or is it just a slower rate?

RKTX wrote:Very Interesting! Are the ailerons noticeably heavier or is it just a slower rate?

Just a little slower roll rate, not heavier.

So this is weird, I was about to make another post and hit the preview button and everything disappeared. Thought I might be able to recover what I'd typed by using the back button, but no joy. Will try it again later I guess. Weird.

While I was following Willie Stene around one thing was immediately clear. His A185F (same model as mine) got off the ground shorter, climbed quicker, and was faster in cruise with both of us WOT and 2550 rpm. One difference was he has an 86” Mac 3-blade Seaplane Prop while I have an 86” Mac 2-blade Seaplane Prop. The other difference is he had 1 1/2 inches more manifold pressure then I.

Trying to understand the manifold pressure difference, he is using a K&N Air Filter while I was using a Brackett Air Filter, both clean. I have a hard time believing the difference between the two filters could be that great, especially since the Brackett has a slightly larger induction footprint then the K&N. But being a good friend Willie was eager to help me spend my money and happened to have a new K&N still in the box and made me a sweet deal. Here is a picture of it installed, haven’t flown it yet so can’t comment on changes, if any.



I was sure the throttle was set to WOT since we replaced the throttle cable during the initial mods but thought I’d double check. Sure enough it goes all the way to the stop. For some reason I decided to look up into the throttle body (WOT) and this is what I saw.



At WOT the butterfly is actually going past center. It seems that the adjustable stop screw has worn against the throttle body, no doubt from all the vibration over the years. I’ll be fixing this later in the week.



Whether or not these two things improve the manifold pressure, there is still the prop to reconcile. Funny thing is, I didn’t even know I needed a new prop.

Barnstormer wrote:Funny thing is, I didn’t even know I needed a new prop.

I didn't know I had to tear my Horton off to add a sportsman and wing x. Or that I need to strip my interior. Or rebuild my panel. Or put a Pponk and 3 blade MT on. [emoji27]
I'm just getting over how big the freshly installed airglas EB is and trying to figure out how to get a set of 31s as cheap as possible. The rest of the list is going to wait for a while...

Good luck chasing that rabbit Phil!
To many variables. There's always gonna be one a lil faster and a Lil slower. Could be wing angle or the gauge or the list goes on. Of course you know all of that. This is just for banter.
A 2 blade prop is faster than a 3 of same length tho... You probably just need a 550. (; wonder if anyone ever says "there, I'm done, she's perfect".

55wagon wrote:..."there, I'm done, she's perfect".

Put that on my tombstone when the time comes - will ya?

Barnstormer wrote:

55wagon wrote:..."there, I'm done, she's perfect".

Put that on my tombstone when the time comes - will ya?

I am done, she if perfect...now what to do? Oh I know...buy an SQ...shit! Did that yesterday...

Thanks for your insight Phil...after talking to Goza I was pushed over the edge.

AKT