Ron Wheeler Scout

[Guest dad]

A friend of mine recently aquired what we believe to be one of Ron Wheelers Scouts.

 

I there any one with more information on this aircraft.

 

Thanks

 

Peter

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

I have a bit of info on these, photos and description of engine and control 3 or 2 axis ect will identify the model. Ron Wheeler still supplies bits for them last i heard. A few of these still flying on private property.

 

 

[Steve L]

Hi dad, if you google http://www.auf.asn.au/ronwheelerscout. or go to AUF and look under the FLY LIGHT section.. even type "ron wheeler scout" in google

 

steve

 

 

[Guest dad]

thanks for that everyone,

 

Ozzie do you have contact details for Ron?

 

It appears that some testing of ultralights with floats took place on Moogerah Dam near Boonah but to date we can't identify which aircraft they were.

 

Thanks

 

Peter

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

i have a phone number for him back in sydney won't be there till monday night. but i belive he is listed in the phone book lives near coffs harbour nsw.

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

We have a Wheeler Scout Mk I with Pixie motor, hasn't flown for a few years, wings need redoing, but hoping to restore, re-register and give it a go. Persently in a shed in Maryborough Qld, have owned since the mid 1980's.

 

Sue

 

 

[paule]

Hi all just wondering if I could also get a hand with Ron Wheelers twetie and scouts I & II. I have a twetie and am geting the scout 1&2 tomorow But I need to get drawings/ instructions/ data package on how to set them up including the pontoons if you coud help that would be greatly apreciated

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Hi Ron wheeler lives north of coffs harbour in NSW try the white pages i have his number my other abode in Sydney but won't be there untill tomorrow night have some line drawings ect for them. The tweetie hang glider is a rare bird and led the way to the powered scout. good on you for picking up the two scouts. If you have trouble getting on to ron give me a PM.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

See my above post. If you still can't locate Ron Wheeler's phone number give me a PM Monday night when i get back to Sydney. good on you for grabbing those two scouts. where you located? that Tweetie hang glider is a rare bird. you have the start of a good collection.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

The man is pretty keen to have driven up and back from Victoria. Good onya mate!

 

 

[Guest pgpete]

I owned a Scout mk III with a rotax 337. i flew it in the 90's . Used to do wingovers and hover on the spot in a brisk headwind. I decided to retire it before it killed me. My scout was the most refined of the scout lineage - but that isnt saying much - a Tyro is an infinitely better aircraft. Do yourself a favour and just hang it up in a museum.

 

Just to give you some insight into the problems -

 

the distance between the seat and the main keel over your head means only a small person can fly it without their helmet hitting the keel.

 

You cannot let go of the stick in level flight - if you did it would whack to the forward stop.

 

At high angles of attack the wing would change shape ( single surface wing) and require allmost full forward stick to maintain level flight

 

The motor restricts forward vision

 

The control harmony is poor sensitive pitch control and insensitive ailerons.

 

Ailerons were ineffective and quite often you would need to use rudder to level the wings if conditions were thermic

 

Even by ultraight standards the power off glide is like flying a stuka dive bomber its so steep.

 

The scout was pioneer stuff - but if you have been building your flying career on Jabiru's and the like you will be sorely disappointed.

 

oh and the original scouts that were powered by hotted up victa engines barely had enough power to fly out of ground effect.

 

good luck !

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Correct rigging and skin tension removed most of the poor handleling problems that were described above. The original victa still provided over 100lbs thrust. Weight challenged pilots where the problem.

 

 

[farri]

It appears that some testing of ultralights with floats took place on Moogerah Dam near Peter

G`Day Peter,I have a photo of a Wheeler Scout on floats,that I took many years ago at Mission Beach ,It was owned and flown sucessfully by,Perry Harvy.

 

I wanted to write a bit about it and upload the photo but can`t get the size down to the 150kb max.

 

If you would like the photo,PM me your Email address and I will send it.

 

Cheers,

 

Frank.

 

 

[Spin]

Frank email me the photo on sparky at ausfish dot com dot au, I'll reduce it and mail back to you if you like. Be interesting to see historical photos like this.

 

 

[farri]

I owned a Scout mk III with a rotax 337. i flew it in the 90's . Used to do wingovers and hover on the spot in a brisk headwind. I decided to retire it before it killed me. The control harmony is poor sensitive pitch control and insensitive ailerons.

 

Ailerons were ineffective and quite often you would need to use rudder to level the wings if conditions were thermic !

Ok Guys,not trying to frighten anyone here,I`ve flown a Scout,but.

 

Years ago,I allowed a guy who owned a Wheeler Scout to use my strip to do some flying.A very experienced Scout pilot, owner of Scouts and a prominent AUF CFI, was here at the time and offered to do some test flying for the guy so as to try and sort out some handling difficulties.

 

It was the perfect day,about 8.00 am,no cloud or wind,test pilot got up to about 1000' agl on the down wind leg of a very wide circuit and well away from the strip, suddenly the AC dropped the right wing,it went into a very steep side slip and impacted the ground heavily.

 

Our property has channels, (Drains) , and fortunately the AC came down with one wing on each bank of the channel,he was stapped in the seat but now in water and not able to keep his head up.

 

We had a harvesting crew working here at the time,they saw the accident and were able to get to him very quickly and hold his head up,I got there as quick as I could and while trying to asess the situation so not do more harm than good,he passed away,we pulled him up out of the AC and revived him,in hospital,it turned out he was more injured than at first suspected but managed to survive to fly another day.

 

He wasn`t sure exactly why the AC did what it did but one thing we can be sure of is, had his body impacted on the bank of the channell instead of the water,he would not be here today.

 

I wonder if he ever flew a Scout again?

 

Cheers,

 

Frank.

 

Ps, The accident was investigated by CASA, who sent two inspectors from Brisbane to inspect the AC and interview the pilot in hospital and no it wasn`t Lee Wakeland.

 

" Flying is easy,crashing is hard".

 

 

[farri]

For those interested.

 

The Scout belonged to, Perry Harvy,who ran the first ferry/charter boat operation from Mission Beach to Dunk Island and outer barrie reefs,he flew it across to Dunk Island and back and loved nothing better than flying 20 feet above deserted beaches.

 

Fortunately Perry was a skilled diver, he was out over water one day without floats and, yes, the engine stoped,it hit the water and he was stuned for a while,when he came to he was on the bottom, straped in the seat with 30 feet of water over him,he was able to unbuckle and get to the top to fly another day.

 

After that he filled every possible place with liquid foam,fitted a box on to it and kept gogles and flippers in it,he also kept it on floats more offten,I don`t know what finaly happened to it.

 

The photo of the GoldWing was taken at Mission Beach ( Sorry I cut 3/4 of the left off ) and the AC was built from scratch and mostly on the kitchen table by the guy sitting in it,and yes it did fly well and it was the first AC I ever flew beside,the guys name is Stan Onandia,he was a member of the FNQUA. I don`t know what became of Stan or the AC.

 

Thanks to Spin who was kind enough to size the photos to an acceptable size for me.

 

Frank.