I'm just curious if anyone here has flown the Slepcev (or similar) Fi-156 replicas. I will be flying with a friend who is the new owner of one across the US, and through the Rockies. Just looking for some feedback on the low chance that someone has time in this aircraft or knows of it.

Currently it's fitted with monster 31 inchers on the mains, pumped IO-360, Borer prop. . .and interesting paint.

You lucky son of a gun

I taught a fabric class to a guy that was building one in Canada. From the pictures he brought and the drawings he had, it looked like an awesome airplane!!!
Hope you have a BLAST on the trip and take LOTS of pictures!!
JH

I think you could almost nose over in that thing and not have the prop touch the ground.

When congress gets done investigating Barry Bonds and Balco for steroids they better look at this experimental next...

Mark

N6EA wrote:I think you could almost nose over in that thing and not have the prop touch the ground.

When congress gets done investigating Barry Bonds and Balco for steroids they better look at this experimental next...

Mark

Yeah. . . I couldn't help but wonder how those long chicken. . err. . storch legs would hold up to fore and aft loads that those bush wheels seem to ask for, they seem a little overdeveloped indeed.

I'll certainly be getting pictures throughout the route, though right now the WX is looking pretty bad. . .though I have always wanted to try landing backwards!

What a cool plane.
I like that you can clean all the mud off the belly without bending over. It looks like they took that gear off the Spirit of Saint Louis. It will make a great towel rack for camping too.

Take lots of pictures and don't hurt yourself getting in and out.

YB

PS
We all hate you.

I think those and the real fiesler stocrch are so cool.If i hit the lottery ,i am looking for a real fiesler(or however the spell it).What is the stall speed of the real ones and the kit copies?

Yellowbelly wrote:What a cool plane.
I like that you can clean all the mud off the belly without bending over. It looks like they took that gear off the Spirit of Saint Louis. It will make a great towel rack for camping too.

Take lots of pictures and don't hurt yourself getting in and out.

YB

PS
We all hate you.

Yeah, big step up, I have a feeling some sore hamstrings are in my future!

I see that you are in Tracy. . . I fly there pretty regularly with IAC 38, at 1Q4 as well as TCY when renting out of Attitude Aviation at LVK.

supercub185 wrote:I think those and the real fiesler stocrch are so cool.If i hit the lottery ,i am looking for a real fiesler(or however the spell it).What is the stall speed of the real ones and the kit copies?

It's been hard to find a straight answer. . .most report that it doesn't really stall, power off it just descends nose high, power on it trucks along.

Budd Davisson says:

"I cranked the 20 degrees of takeoff flaps up and turned downwind to try for a landing. Only then did I realize how tiny a runway looks when it's only 1,000 feet long and two-thirds of it is a narrow slash going through a dense forest. If this was a STOL airplane, we certainly had the place for it. As I reduced power to crank the flaps out, I had to really watch my nose attitude and airspeed, because dropping the nose just a little sent the airspeed sky-rocketing up to 50 knots or more. As I found later, I should have been more worried about getting too fast rather than being afraid of slow speeds. "

and

"To make short-field landings on a chosen spot, you usually like to get the airplane slow enough so you have to use power to drag it in. I was constantly frustrated in the Storch, because I never got it slow enough to need power. Almost every landing was power-off, and eventually I was so exasperated that I was approaching at 25 knots indicated. At that speed, I needed power to soften the touchdown, but it still wasn't slow enough to hang on the prop. I'll bet the really hot-shoe German types would come creeping in over the trees at practically zero airspeed, letting it fall on command and catching it at the last moment with a burst of power. I tried to stall it while at altitude and found that it not only refuses to stall, but as long as I had the slightest amount of power in to give it elevator effectiveness, I could easily fly the airplane where I wanted while holding the stick all the way back. Once you master that kind of approach, you could land backwards on an outhouse roof."

From his pilot report on the Fi-156: http://www.airbum.com/pireps/PirepStorch.html

The designer of this particular aircraft, Nestor Slepcev, says to following on his page:

"The aircraft will fly at 22mph at full flap and 30% of power. Take off run into a 16mph wind is vertical with no forward roll."

He doesn't specify which model he is talking about,

http://www.slepcevstorch.com/

Are the leading edge slats fixed?
Do you think the need for very long gear legs is a result of using the slats? I wonder if you always takeoff 3 point.

I saw a Storch replica about 10 years ago in Idaho. (Twin Falls??) The only things that I recall was that it was huge and the trim was on the left hand and there was a bicycle chain. One of the Pix. I just saw a pix. that had a inside view and you can see the bicycle chain.

Someone in Idaho may know about the airplane I saw. It wasn't finished and it looked like it never would be.

You guys have to tell me where you are. I'll bid for a layover just to see the plane Maybe I could fly it around inside the hangar, I'll just keep the bank angles shallow.

That is one *ugly* sumbitch airplane. I'd fly it, though!

I think it strange that the SuperCub guys install the ThrustLine mod to angle their engines *up* and this thing has a pretty significant downward angle. I suspect it's due to the angle of incidence of the wing, eh?

Bud's pirep sounds as though he had a heap of fun.

Jon B.

Latest EAA Sport Aviation shows a "Pazmany Storch" in the completions section. O-540 monster with exposed cylinder heads, military-style paint job. Really bitchin, in Utah. Anybody we know?

I think I'd only fly it to clear ditches and fences, then high speed taxi the rest of the way across country. jg

Yeah, but look what I found in your photo album...

onthegas wrote:Latest EAA Sport Aviation shows a "Pazmany Storch" in the completions section. O-540 monster with exposed cylinder heads, military-style paint job. Really bitchin, in Utah. Anybody we know?

Ours is in UT,and reportedly the only other US based Slepcev SuperStorch is in UT as well. . .I'm not surprised. . .it's good Storch country!

There are some good youtube vids showing the plane. There was a good one of a guy flying one thru the valleys in Wales. Also, there was an article recently in EAA (I think) about a guy who flew them in WWII. After the war he immigrated to the US and is still flying today.

Hey onthegas, yes, I have two friends that have owned those model storches. I think they are way cool. So cool, that I'd spend all the time I could, off airport, hence the high speed taxi across any field I could.

With my limited ski flying here in Ohio, the few times I did it, that was how I operated. I left ski tracks across all the flat land I could. Fences, most ditches, tree lines, and power lines were all that I flew over. I did frozen and liquid lakes that way too. It was always a blast!!

patrol guy wrote:I think I'd only fly it to clear ditches and fences, then high speed taxi the rest of the way across country. jg

Thanks for 'splainin' that to me! You poor farmers have all the fun!

There is a writeup on the Storch in Robson's "Conventional Gear - Flying a Taildragger".