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Backcountry Pilot • STOL action in Colorado (testing)

STOL action in Colorado (testing)

Links to general aviation backcountry flying-oriented videos. It can be yours or stuff you find on the internet. Please no airline/military.
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STOL action in Colorado (testing)

Little footage from today. Nothing actually that cool as far as where I'm flying, just doing some testing. When I bought the plane it started as a RANS S6S with a 100hp rotax 912 uls, 116 speed wing, 15" mains under wheel pants etc.

I have been working on it pretty heavily since I bought it several months ago. I put a 114hp zipper big bore kit on the 912, VG's all over the wing, and under the horizontal stabilizer. Much larger tires (21x8 mains, 18x6 nose after modifying nose fork), larger propeller (72" KOOL scimitar) etc. Exhaust mods, intake mods, and lots of little stuff like several instruments it didn't have, a manual leaner for the carbs etc.

Anyway, considering the altitude, and smaller/faster wing, this thing is really performing well! Flying weight today around 1025lbs (I'm tall and not light, 2/3s fuel etc.) Someday I'd like to take it down to sea level or close to, and see what it can really do! :mrgreen: What amazes me other than it's surprisingly good STOL capability, is that it will still cruise at 110mph indicated and burn under 4gph (3.75ish) regardless of how many take offs you do etc. I can afford to go out and fly just to fly in this, sure I'd love something with 4 seats, and more baggage capacity, but this works for me and I'm really happy with the plane.

Thanks for watching the video (shot on a Sony action cam, so the wide angle kind of throws things off, we measure the take offs in the 220-240ft area... if I went with minimal fuel, and used a flat strip, I would think 200ft would be totally doable even way up here. Today was seeing around 1000fpm climb sustained, I have seen up around 1200 at best and a little less weight, so there is room to cut down.. but today is more of the norm)

GravityKnight offline
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Posts: 266
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:03 am
Location: Colorado
Aircraft: RANS S7S / EP912STi /
Robert's gear / 29" ABWs
VG's / T3 / 75" ww

Re: STOL action in Colorado (testing)

GN, I'd beat you on the takeoff and landings, but you'd walk, hell, RUN, away from me in cruise! I do mid 80's indicated (at best) when burning less then 3.5 gph. GPS almost always, all things considered, shows 90+ MPH. I had a flight New Years Eve day, 3.1 hrs, that involved a combo of steady cruising and then lots of landings and takeoffs. No taxing or idling time. When I got home, 10.5 gallons of fuel was added to bring it back up to where I started, hard to beat economy like that. Your getting that thing pretty tweaked out, looking good!
courierguy offline
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Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2005 6:52 pm
Location: Idaho
"Its easier to apologize then ask permission"
Tex McClatchy

Re: STOL action in Colorado (testing)

Yea that larger wing you have definitely has the advantage in slow speed stuff! How long would you figure your take off roll to be? What altitude are you at there? Curious how it compares...

At first I was kind of feeling like a I made a mistake going with the speed wing... but after all the mods I feel a lot better as you pointed it out it can do a lot of things pretty well considering the decent speed, economy, and pretty STOL-ish with the VGs. Thanks for the comment!
GravityKnight offline
User avatar
Posts: 266
Joined: Tue Sep 15, 2015 10:03 am
Location: Colorado
Aircraft: RANS S7S / EP912STi /
Robert's gear / 29" ABWs
VG's / T3 / 75" ww

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