I'm a victim of it From left to right, the 8:00's I started with, (and still use for the wheel skis), the 26" Airstreaks I've had the last couple years, and now the 29" Airstreaks I got last week. Taildrginfun and Emflys must take some of the blame for this, but I also blame the Bushwheel people by making them avialable, having them in stock and accepting my credit card over the phone didn't help either, I had called them to just order some more hot sauce. The 26"rs were spoken for before I even got them off, so yesterday I made a delivery flight with a few stops along the way.

A sump drain stop near a wind farm under construction.
Then across the res for a beach landing below a friends house. Last year when I landed here (the beach is only there late in the year) there were no rocks, when I walked the landing area I was AMAZED at the size of the rocks and the ruts that were no more then a slightly felt bump, (4.5 lbs. pressure in the tires) The new John Roberts bungee gear really helps also. Note the lack of tracks, almost, in the sand from the wide foot print of the 29's. Then out into the desert for yet another cave landing and exploration. Technically a "volcanic fissure" I'm told, the old Crystal Ice Caverns, now shut down and posted with lots of signs advising of the danger within (yeah yeah....) I had made the mistake of seeing the movie "127 hours" about the guy stuck in the rock slot who had to chew his arm off (and I did not get that from the Simpsons, thought of it earlier that day) to get out, just a few days earlier. I was making all the mistakes he had made, and more, that put a damper on the fun. I figured the market for making some dough out of such a misadventure was past thanks to him. Loose volcanic shale tapering into vertical 100'+ deep fissures, no cell coverage, no water or rope, no one knew where I was at, I had all the bases covered. Endangering first responders anyone? The landing area, outside of the lava zone, was imbedded with 6 and 8" rocks plus sagebrush stumps (belly rippers) from a fire a few years back, missing the stumps was the big deal, I didn't know the rocks were there until landed. Finally, I made it to the buyers hangar for delivery of the tires, only to find the entire trip was for nothing, he was out of town. So, I left him there and called it a day.

Good story and pix. I thought I was the only one to feel tire size peer pressure.

Nice Tom! Old girls looking like a back country beast, and she's livin' the part. You gotta make it down for one of Kevin's fly in's, maybe in the spring or next summer.

Hey Courierguy

Is that an additional muffler you have?

i dig the pipe courier for sure...as for the tire size, to me it is kinda like cool wheels on your truck! i've put my mostly stock
182T down almost everywhere with 8.50's and does just fine...could go bigger, but i do need a little speed when headed south for a meetin' or two...

jomac wrote:i dig the pipe courier for sure...as for the tire size, to me it is kinda like cool wheels on your truck! i've put my mostly stock
182T down almost everywhere with 8.50's and does just fine...could go bigger, but i do need a little speed when headed south for a meetin' or two...

Hey Jomac..... I must have missed that one. Didn't know you had 850's on your machine

have the 8.50's heiner gave me, and my stock 6's as well...not a ton of diff really, depends how rocky it is. i like to stay out of the rocks as much as possible, as my horizontal is already gonna need some repair at annual...how's the truck'in?

29's!!! Lookin good Tom, I'm sure you'll use every inch of them.

Bighorn wrote:Hey Courierguy

Is that an additional muffler you have?

That is a homemade so called swiss muffler. Supposedly some years back new more stringent aircraft noise regulations came about in much of Europe. I first heard them in a a Tony Bingeles book (the great EAA tech writer, now deceased, the guy really had knack of explaining things simply and in an amusing fashion) about 20 years ago. I have the stock Rans 912S muffler under the cowl, this is additional, and exhaustive testing (sorry) has shown NO reduction in power or airspeed from drag. Must be some, but I've looked and can't see it.....I've had it now for about 500 hours and no problems. Google swiss muffler and you'll get some hits. It makes an already quiet plane even more so.

Recently once again, I ran across another neighbor who lives about a mile away, and the first thing he said was that I have not been flying much, he never sees or hears me..... I've flown over his place countless times this year, (200+ hrs so far) on the way from and to home, so I guess it is working! It's ugly as hell but I don't care, it doesn't cost me any speed and lets me do things off airport but maybe within earshot of people in rural areas and no one complains because they flat didn't hear me! Weight less then 5 lbs, cost less then 200, about 10 hrs to build and install, non certified of course.

Tom , you truely have the quietest plane I've ever heard and that muffler on your plane is truely unique...no guess who it is coming in on downwind at JC. May the bigger tires help you find more great places to land and explore. Keep the good photos coming in..always love to see your posts, the places you fly to, and the pictures you take.
HC

jomac wrote:have the 8.50's heiner gave me, and my stock 6's as well...not a ton of diff really, depends how rocky it is. i like to stay out of the rocks as much as possible, as my horizontal is already gonna need some repair at annual...how's the truck'in?

Truckin is good. I'll send a PM

Cool stuff!

Wasn't there a few ...Cessna maybe, recon planes in Vietnam that had HUGE mufflers on them.
Ran almost the length of the fuselage, iir.

nealkas wrote:Cool stuff!

Wasn't there a few ...Cessna maybe, recon planes in Vietnam that had HUGE mufflers on them.
Ran almost the length of the fuselage, iir.

The same idea, I believe the birds you refer to were made by Scwitzer (wrong spelling I know.... the sailplane builders) and also featured a geared engine specifically to swing a larger prop slower. The length of mine was based on ground clearance at the rear (before I got extended gear and bigger tires) and the stock sizing of the telescope tube I used. That length also matched pretty close the special muffler packing (trick stuff, not your basic glass) I was able to get, about 40". So that pretty much determined the length, one of those "it designed itself" things, I love it when that happens!

Tom I to have an S7 with 26 airstreaks and kind of like the looks of the 29" but scared of losing more speed. I have the 912S and at 5200 cruise at 102 mph will I lose more speed by going from 26's to 29's. I am also going to get the new gear like u and emmit have. Thoughts?

Sent from my SCH-I500 using Tapatalk

courierguy wrote:

nealkas wrote: Wasn't there a few ...Cessna maybe, recon planes in Vietnam that had HUGE mufflers on them.
Ran almost the length of the fuselage, iir.

The same idea, I believe the birds you refer to were made by Scwitzer (wrong spelling I know.... the sailplane builders) and also featured a geared engine specifically to swing a larger prop slower......

The one I'm familiar with was the Lockheed YO-3 "Quiet Star", built during Vietnam for observation & leaflet-dropping. I just googled it & it was based on a Schweizer glider design, had an IO-360 Continental with a 6 blade prop & a long muffler. There was one of these deteriorating on the ramp at Skagit,WA airport for years-- just this year I heard it was sold/donated to a museum (Museum of Flight at Boeing Field maybe?) disassembled & hauled off.

Back to tire peer pressure -

I too am feeling the pressure from my fellow Highlanders in the PNW and recently heard the most loving, tender words a wife could ever say: "go ahead and get the fat tires, dear" [credit G. Swingle video for her familiarity...].
So, I'm wondering why the change from 26s to 29s and if you notice much difference?

thanks

k

Drag wise I havn't noticed any change from going to 29's from 26's. That's just my gut feeling, not based on any testing. I DID notice, and testing confirmed it, a change when going to the unfaired Cub type gear. In fact I waited until I got the results in on totally fairing the gear before going with the 29's, I wanted to make sure I could "afford" the speed hit. Having the gear unfaired and the 29's would be a fairly serious hit, enough for me anyway to want to avoid. Now that I have the gear "fixed" and the big tires, I am very near where I was, close enough not to matter for what I gained.

On this whole faired gear thing: it seems that some (those with unfaired gear) use the arguement that they'd rip it off in the places they land (and it's real hard not to take that, especially coming from an Alaskan pilot, that they mean they are landing in he-man places and anyone with faired gear is only hitting the girly landing sites ), and it won't make a difference anyway. Notice they don't say they HAD faired gear, and it was such a maintenance issue that they eventually got away from it..... they seem to be assuming it WOULD be a problem. I have already patched both elevators, both hor stabs, and the belly in numerous places, they are the high maintenance places in off airport landings, the gear legs not so much and who cares I'll patch them if the time comes. It's worth it for the drag reduction! Better climb, less fuel at the same cruise, better glide, way too many advantages for very little disadvantage if any.

You can do the math (they are wider AND taller) but the 29's contain a MUCH larger volume of air then the 26's (something to do with pie, go figure) and as such offer a surprisingly cushier ride then the 26's. Plus the larger dia. of course helps. I only have 10 hours or so on them, but the big advantage is increased prop and belly clearance (combined with the taller gear), I would probably have reconsidered a couple of the landing sites pictured in my post, and was honestly pretty surprised when I walked the beach and desert landings afterwards, and saw some of the rocks and gullys I'd rolled across, I could have done it with the 26's, but I would have KNOWN it, with the 29's I was SURPRISED they were there

None of all matters of course, the most important thing is knowing I now have the biggest frigging tires (and I really hope ABW doesn't come out with 31" Airstreaks...) made for my weight plane. I'm sleeping better, am in a better mood, and just generally have that warm fuzzy feeling that the plane is totally squared away. For the time being anyway .