BVeazey
Active Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2010
- Messages
- 42
- Reaction score
- 0
Hey everybody! I've been lurking on this board for a long time and have learned so much from all of you. My thanks to all who share their knowledge here; I'm here to ask for more.
Last month I took the plunge and purchased an airplane...
N44JS was started by afellow in Wisconsin in the 80s; later purchased as a project by an Illinois gent (I plan to get in touch with him soon) who finished and flew it in 1994. In 2007 it was sold to a man in the St. Louis area, whom I purchased it from. The seller is a very capable mechanic who took good care of the ship, and he was a genuine pleasure to do business with.
She has an O-360 with a pressure carb and Christen fuel and oil systems. The prop is the standard Sensenich 76x56. It has a starter and battery (under the gas tank), but no alternator. There's a receptacle fora battery chargeron the bottom of the fuse. No avionics, and the empty weight is 1029 lbs. The airframe has about 400 hrs. TT.
Theshipfliesstraight, butdrops the right wing a bit in a power-off stall. There's the odd washer or three shimming in various places on the I-struts, testament to the builder's efforts.The Maule tailwheel is too tall, soproperly slowed down,she always lands tail first.
On the ground, it sits left-wing-low just a tad. The left die spring is about 1/4" longer than the other. I'm assuming I may have to put a spacer in there to even it up, but if anyone knows a better way, please do tell.
I've got about 65 hours tailwheel. Mostly in Citabrias and Decathalons (some of it in the back seat). I've been prepping for the Acro by getting dual in a Stearman.
I first landedthe Acroon grasslast weekend,from thefront (this one has brakes in front, too), no problem. I traded places with seller, again on the grass, no problem. We thenwent to the pavement at his home airportand I almost groundlooped it. He got out, I went around the pattern, caught myself flaring too high, so i went around. Next time I put it on cleanly, rolled some, got a small swerve going and did groundloop it, with an audience,quite similar to the previous pass. Fortunately, no harm except to my ego. I did another circuit to a good tail-first three pointer. I thought the problem was my big feet versus the small pedals.
Monday, I started flying home to Virginia. Thatwill be a whole 'nother post, but I guess most of you understand something about travelling in an open 'pit biplane. I had a good landing in Illinois on concrete, and another good one in Ohio on grass. In West Va., I went around on the first one because I thought the float was going on too long. The next pass was a good one.
Tuesday morning, in Virginia, I almost looped it again.I wound upstopped, but turned 90 degrees right on the runway.The left rudder was against the stop. I fueled up, inspected things, then taxiied outto head home.She wasn't taxiing right;left pedal didn't turn it nearly as smartly asright pedal. I did some circles, shut down and got out. I looked things over again, started moving the tailwheel by hand, and got a loud "bong"as the lock went into place.
Everything was fine after that. She taxied like she was supposed to. Twomore good landings that day. Not that I'm Bob Hoover or anything, and could positively say the problem was the hardware and not the pilot,but I like to stack the deck in my favor: I'llbeordering a Matco tailwheel this week. And practicing....
Thanks again for all I've learned here, none of this would be possible without this resource. I'm sureto come up with plenty of questions as I go along.
Last month I took the plunge and purchased an airplane...
N44JS was started by afellow in Wisconsin in the 80s; later purchased as a project by an Illinois gent (I plan to get in touch with him soon) who finished and flew it in 1994. In 2007 it was sold to a man in the St. Louis area, whom I purchased it from. The seller is a very capable mechanic who took good care of the ship, and he was a genuine pleasure to do business with.
She has an O-360 with a pressure carb and Christen fuel and oil systems. The prop is the standard Sensenich 76x56. It has a starter and battery (under the gas tank), but no alternator. There's a receptacle fora battery chargeron the bottom of the fuse. No avionics, and the empty weight is 1029 lbs. The airframe has about 400 hrs. TT.
Theshipfliesstraight, butdrops the right wing a bit in a power-off stall. There's the odd washer or three shimming in various places on the I-struts, testament to the builder's efforts.The Maule tailwheel is too tall, soproperly slowed down,she always lands tail first.
On the ground, it sits left-wing-low just a tad. The left die spring is about 1/4" longer than the other. I'm assuming I may have to put a spacer in there to even it up, but if anyone knows a better way, please do tell.
I've got about 65 hours tailwheel. Mostly in Citabrias and Decathalons (some of it in the back seat). I've been prepping for the Acro by getting dual in a Stearman.
I first landedthe Acroon grasslast weekend,from thefront (this one has brakes in front, too), no problem. I traded places with seller, again on the grass, no problem. We thenwent to the pavement at his home airportand I almost groundlooped it. He got out, I went around the pattern, caught myself flaring too high, so i went around. Next time I put it on cleanly, rolled some, got a small swerve going and did groundloop it, with an audience,quite similar to the previous pass. Fortunately, no harm except to my ego. I did another circuit to a good tail-first three pointer. I thought the problem was my big feet versus the small pedals.
Monday, I started flying home to Virginia. Thatwill be a whole 'nother post, but I guess most of you understand something about travelling in an open 'pit biplane. I had a good landing in Illinois on concrete, and another good one in Ohio on grass. In West Va., I went around on the first one because I thought the float was going on too long. The next pass was a good one.
Tuesday morning, in Virginia, I almost looped it again.I wound upstopped, but turned 90 degrees right on the runway.The left rudder was against the stop. I fueled up, inspected things, then taxiied outto head home.She wasn't taxiing right;left pedal didn't turn it nearly as smartly asright pedal. I did some circles, shut down and got out. I looked things over again, started moving the tailwheel by hand, and got a loud "bong"as the lock went into place.
Everything was fine after that. She taxied like she was supposed to. Twomore good landings that day. Not that I'm Bob Hoover or anything, and could positively say the problem was the hardware and not the pilot,but I like to stack the deck in my favor: I'llbeordering a Matco tailwheel this week. And practicing....
Thanks again for all I've learned here, none of this would be possible without this resource. I'm sureto come up with plenty of questions as I go along.
