Texas STOL Roundup Sept 29-Oct 1, 2017

[Mark Goldberg]

The Texas STOL Roundup is getting close. I want to encourage everyone from the Bearhawk community to attend if you can. It is a fun event. I welcome everyone to my ranch (9TE7) on Thursday before the event starts. Plenty of room for camping and there are also motel rooms 10-15 minutes away. I will help you get to the motel if you arrive in your plane. We are planning on migrating to Hondo (just west of San Antonio) on Friday. The competition starts early Saturday morning. There will be examples of each of our three models on display in our booth.

Assuming the weather cooperates - this is a fun event. Come on down. Mark

[Sebastian]

Mark
I've been looking at Hondo weather and it looks like they are getting hammered with rain till Thursday. I figure you would be one of the first to hear if they decide to cancel the Fly-in. If you hear something would you please post something to let us know.

Right now planning and looking forward to be there.

Thanks
CJ

[whee]

Here's the latest:

Due to the current inclement weather we are changing the schedule of events. Saturday and Sunday look to be excellent weather days.

So, the seminar is being moved to Saturday morning at 9:00AM. The Traditional STOL event will be Saturday at 1:00PM. The Obstacle STOL will be on Sunday at 9:00AM. The Flour Bombing is cancelled. Friday night we are still having the band so come on if you can.

These changes will allow everyone to get here and still enjoy the full event. Please pass this along to everyone you know who might be coming, and post this on any Aircraft Type forums you might belong to.

Thanks and we will see you this weekend!!!!!!

[Sebastian]

Thanks Whee

[Bcone1381]

Hey Sebastian......Ummmmmm.....whee cant see comments...

[Sebastian]

Brooks
Thanks for pointing that out. I should have seen the closing of his post.

Thanks Whee! Again.

I went to the TX Stol Round Up site and they referred me to there Facebook page. I don't use Facebook, behind the times, maybe but for some reason the whole thing makes my behind hurt. Stupid I know.

[Sebastian]

Well the 4th Texas STOL Round UP has come and gone. I was fortunate enough to get to attend (My first fly-in by the way) unfortunately my plane is not complete so I didn't get to fly there. It appeared there was a good turn out, but not as large as last year I was told. I think that was mainly due to the weather in the area all the way up to Friday afternoon.
Mark G. was there with his 4Place, Patrol, and LSA to show the Bearhawk wares and from what I could tell he had several interested folks stop by. Maybe that means our Bearhawk family will grow.
Jared Yates also made it to the fly-in (I hope he writes about it, he's a much better word smith than I) and did demo flights and participated in the competition. The class Jared was in I think was heavy touring since there were Cessna 180s & 185s in that group (don't have results) while the Cessna's did a good job of getting off the ground they seemed to just lumber in the climb as opposed to Mark's 4Place Jared was flying. The appearance from my prospective was that as soon as Jared broke the ground there was no hesitation or departure angle change till he reached 500' where other competitors had to level out before starting there climb out.
It would be great to see a large turn out of Bearhawks at one of these.

[jaredyates]

It was great to visit with you CJ, and the other Bearhawk folks like JimParker256, Craig Hatch, Bob Maddox, and others. I will put together a page or two for the next Beartracks with photos. You are right about Mark's plane... I actually had to continue to pitch up in the initial climb just to keep from getting too fast for the flaps. On the second day they defined a ground reference for where they wanted us to turn crosswind, and on both takeoffs I was reaching the 500' pattern altitude before turning crosswind. Mark's airplane has always been a beast, and that new prop only makes it more extreme. I was getting 130 knots GS on the way home at around 12 gph, something I certainly envy. I look forward to seeing the STOL results, even though we didn't have any competitors in the Heavy Touring Experimental class. Now I get to say that my flying was "in a class of its own." We had the option to fly a second pilot in the same airplane, but that all started to seem a little questionable.

Someone with more experience, like Battson or Blackrock, would have scored better in the same conditions, compared to me with only a couple of hours in that seat. I flew 4 practice approaches before we got there, and thus didn't have a chance to get scientific about variables like the best flap settings and speeds. Based on intuition and feedback, I flew all of the event landings at full flaps, 65 mph IAS on final, transitioning to 60mph at 50' or so. Takeoffs were at the second notch of flaps, full power prior to brake release, elevator neutral, and three point liftoff. Many thanks to Mark Goldberg for trusting me with his airplane!

It was also an unexpected treat to fly for a little while with Bob Breeden of Valdez fame in the Model B 4-place. He wasn't especially familiar with the Bearhawk, but wanted to see how the airfoil would perform at low speeds. His remarks after the flight included being impressed with how predictable the stall is, and how the slightest bit of elevator reduction returns the airflow back to the wing. He flew around for a few minutes right at the edge of the stall, just feeling how much resolution there is in the stick travel in that AOA range. I had not met Bob before the event, but was impressed with his gracious and humble personality. It is good for us when the die-hard Cub fans get to see how the Bearhawks are so technologically superior, especially in stall predictability and speed envelope.

[Mark Goldberg]

Jared did a fantastic job flying my BH in the competition with less than 3 hours in my plane. Compared to the other competitors who own their planes and have practiced a lot - Jared was at a huge competitive disadvantage. But his sharp flying skills allowed him to be up there with the best. And the great flying qualities of Bob's design.

I spoke with Bob Breeden at length about his flight in my BH. His interest was in the Riblett airfoil. He had read most of Harry Riblett's book, and was curious about how the airfoil actually behaved in slow flight. He really liked it although I do not want to put words in his mouth or repeat publicly what he said without his permission. It is possible he will get to fly a Patrol to see how the same Riblett airfoil behaves on a lighter weight plane. One thing he said I know he would not mind me repeating. He said that in all his years flying airplanes, mostly Cubs, he had never been pushed back in his seat on takeoff like my BH did. That strong 540 along with that Hartzell 3 blade Trailblazer makes for an exhilarating take off for sure. He was impressed with that. FYI - he flew the flight with his shoes off to better feel what was happening.

I am looking forward to seeing the numbers from the competition. Jared made us all proud. Mark

[schu]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXEU_gbyw9A

These guys know how to fly airplanes slow.

[schu]

Some info:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrPJac80W9Y

[stinger]

Flyins. Thomasville , Ga. Flyin Oct 13-15 2017 SERFI 2017 flyin Evergreen Al. Oct 20- 22 Stinger

[jaredyates]

They have posted the results for the Texas STOL Roundup here:

http://www.texasstolroundup.org/past_events.html

There were two events, the Traditional and the Obstacle. The first was just measured from the touchdown line, with a DQ for landing short of the line. The second required us to fly across two inflated pylons and then land, eliminating the popular "chop and plop" technique. We were in the heavy touring class.

On the traditional, my first was a DQ for landing short. The second was a combined takeoff and landing of 727.5 feet, with 243 for the takeoff. The winner among TC airplanes in the same class was a C180 with 440.7 and 498.3, quite respectable. The only other plane to beat us in the TC Heavy class was the Helio Courier, with 600 and 711.

In the obstacle event, my scores were 893.7 and 957. The takeoffs were 249 and 206. In the rest of the class, the Helio won with 849.9, and the same C180 (Paul Brown) had a landing with 894.3.

Here are some results from the other classes.
LSA: Traditional: 327, Obstacle: 688
Bush EXP: 251, 776
Light: 512, 829

As one would expect, the Bush class had the best cross-class numbers, being that they didn't have the restrictions of the LSA, and didn't have the weight of the heavier airplanes. If there is ever a contest that also includes cruise speed, we'll probably beat everyone.

[JimParker256]

Did they give you any explanation as to why you didn't place 3rd in both "Standard" and "Obstacle" events, since you were flying with the Heavy Touring group, and scored better than the 3rd place finisher in both events? Stranger still, they don't list you at all in the "full results" section. What's up with that?

Having seen it in person, I thought you did a fantastic job, especially considering how little time you had in the airplane in preparation. If was fun to watch! Just wish there had been some headwind for the competition, instead of a direct crosswind to quartering tailwind. It would have made the results much more impressive.

[jaredyates]

Jim, I was flying in the same traffic pattern as the Heavy Touring, but was actually classed separately as Heavy Touring Experimental. Since there were not any others, they don't consider it a "win" per se. They said we could have done another flight with the same airplane and competed with ourselves (as did the Kodiak) but that seemed a little fishy, and would have required another pilot to register and pay the fee. Another option would have been to grab someone else who was registered in another class and fly again with that person as the official pilot. This was problematic in part because the airplane isn't set up for dual controls, and more prominently, because there's little value in winning under such circumstances. While it would have been better to have another heavy experimental, the second best is at least being able to show what the airplane can do up against TC airplanes of a similar envelope, in the hands of a pilot of semi-marginal performance.

[JimParker256]

I guess I "get" the logic of not awarding a winner in a class of one, but it's odd that they didn't even list your performance numbers, and put an 'asterisk' next to it explaining why no "win" was awarded. I'll take it up with Phil... (As if he cares what I think...)

<EDIT> OK - not sure if I just missed them the first time through (though I don't think so), or if Phil updated the results after my inquiry, but Jared's numbers are now posted on the Texas STOL Roundup results page. As I thought, he did really well, and would have placed 3rd in both Traditional and Obstacle STOL competitions if the categories were intermingled. In any case - great results, especially considering how little time he had in the airplane. It was a lot of fun to watch! Thanks to both Jared for competing, and to Mark G for supplying the airplane!

[schu]

I suspect the same would happen in Valdez, you would be in a class by yourself, or you would be in the "experimental" class, in which case you would be competing with airplanes that have a combined TO/LAND distance of less than 100 feet.

I think a bearhawk can do what a 180 can do, which is good, but it seems clear to me that it's not more airplane, at least not enough more, that a good pilot won't more than make up the difference.

As for "If there is ever a contest that also includes cruise speed, we'll probably beat everyone." I doubt that too, every 180 I've been in does 130kts, and the hotrod ones go 140kts.

Don't get me wrong, I love the bearhawk, and I'm happily building one, and I think they are a nice flying and safe airplane, but I'm not expecting more than 180 performance out of mine. I'll be thrilled if I'm wrong.