RAA bush aircraft

[Guest watto]

I have seen many articles about different aircraft and have always been amazed by the aircraft used in alaska and canada with the big tundra tyres and wheels, able to almost hover and set down on a rocky river bed etc!

 

What do we have available here that is the RAA equivalent of this type of aircraft?

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Watto, The videos entitled 'Big rocks,Long props' 1,2, and 3, highlights the exploits of the these large wheel equipped Alaskan bush planes, piloted by the people who manufacture and market those large balloon tires.

 

Closest we would have here would be either of the following: Slepcev Storch, Hornet/Bushman, or a tundra tyre equipped Savannah. Ole Hartmann the manufacturer of the Hornet and Bushman aircraft has imported some of those tires for his aircraft, and may even be the Aussie agent for them. One Storch has fitted one of their balloon tail wheels, and it is so much better than the original..................................................

 

Amazing what they do on the videos.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Yes Destiny Flyer, as well demonstrated in the previous mentioned videos. Cheers Maj.............................

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Here's Matt's (or maybe Kaz's) pic of the balloon tyred Hornet that dropped in to the RecFlying Fly-in at Camden Haven 2 years ago.

 

He was airborne in about 5 feet on take-off.

 

 

 

[Guest watto]

Wow, now those are what I am talkin about!!!

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

wonder how those big tyres would go filled with helium. leaps and bounds ha ha

 

if you watch closly when they land on water that the brakes are locked on and they release them when the hit the ground proper. they seem to balance the plane with the tail up using max braking without nosing over. must be excilerating to fly like that.

 

 

[Guest Cloudsuck]

G'day Watto, the Savage Cub will do the trick nicely. There is some video on Youtube showing them landing on the river bars etc. Oh, and as Maj says, 'Big rocks, Long props' should be in every aviator's TV cabnet.

 

Edit: just found it.

 

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Nice footage of the savage cub, and I notice he's got VGs on the wings also........

 

 

[Guest watto]

Love to give that a go but I imagine you would get a resleeving from CASA if you did that here, that clip is the one that actually inspired me to run this post it looks like a really rugged bit of aircraft.

 

 

[Guest drizzt1978]

Can you buy this dvd series in Aust? Have seen it for sale in the USA?

 

 

[Guest Cloudsuck]

Can you buy this dvd series in Aust? Have seen it for sale in the USA?

I purchased it online from O/S. Just let Google do the walking.

 

 

[Guest Walter Buschor]

Impressive tyres. Love that Hornet. should one tyre ever go flat in the air the ground loop would be ugly.

 

There is many great youtube clips with tyres like these. Some are downright scary.

 

the grey Nomad

 

 

[dazza 38]

Hi guys, i looked at the savage cub, to purchase, but when i when through the maintence manual, the major service at 1200 hours, says that u have defabric the wings and fuselage. Carry out a visual inspection of the airframe and wings AND repaint the Fuselage. To me at only 1200 hrs, to remove the wing and fabric, strip the paint , carryout a visual inspection of the tubing, repaint, refabric and repaint the fabric sounds a bit exccessive at 1200 hrs, considering skyfoxs etc. Of similar construction doesnt not have the same requirements. Anyway i was looking a u tube. Their is a video of a highlander aircraft doing a dead stick TAKE OFF. HE rolled down the slope of this mountain, coasted to take off speed, and landed beside a river approx 3000 ft below. I checked out the alaska bush wheel web site. The tyres are very expensive, (but not a rip off as far as i can gather) the price it has, something to do with the ply material that they use in the tyre as they run a low psi. Also - for any one interested- a few bush aircraft now have a STC for this new suspension system, it is called AOSS suspension, on the savage cub it is about $5800 euro extra. They use a fluid polyamer, which controls the Rebound, when landing heavily. CHEERS

 

 

[Yenn]

Watto. Shouldn't be too long before Greg gets his new Savannah going, put big tyres on that and it will go nearly anywhere.

 

 

[Spin]

Hi guys, i looked at the savage cub, to purchase, but when i when through the maintence manual, the major service at 1200 hours, says that u have defabric the wings and fuselage. Carry out a visual inspection of the airframe and wings AND repaint the Fuselage. To me at only 1200 hrs, to remove the wing and fabric, strip the paint , carryout a visual inspection of the tubing, repaint, refabric and repaint the fabric sounds a bit exccessive at 1200 hrs, considering skyfoxs etc. Of similar construction doesnt not have the same requirements. Anyway i was looking a u tube. Their is a video of a highlander aircraft doing a dead stick TAKE OFF. HE rolled down the slope of this mountain, coasted to take off speed, and landed beside a river approx 3000 ft below. I checked out the alaska bush wheel web site. The tyres are very expensive, (but not a rip off as far as i can gather) the price it has, something to do with the ply material that they use in the tyre as they run a low psi. Also - for any one interested- a few bush aircraft now have a STC for this new suspension system, it is called AOSS suspension, on the savage cub it is about $5800 euro extra. They use a fluid polyamer, which controls the Rebound, when landing heavily. CHEERS

Geez Dazza, that seems like overkill, especially as I understand that both frame and engine mount are nitrogen injected and have pressure gauges to let you monitor for any minor fractures. I see you fly from Boonah, I've been walking circles around 7030 that Greg has on strength there, certainly looks the goods!

 

 

 

[Guest Cloudsuck]

carryout a visual inspection of the tubing, repaint, refabric and repaint the fabric sounds a bit exccessive at 1200 hrs, considering skyfoxs etc.

G'day Dazza, the way I look at it is that 1200hrs is 12 years of flying. Not too bad.

 

 

[Guest watto]

Watto. Shouldn't be too long before Greg gets his new Savannah going, put big tyres on that and it will go nearly anywhere.

Yes mate it will surely be interesting to see how the new one comes up!

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

The 1200 hrs is probabily just covering thier arsx, excuse the pun. Rotax wants you to overhaul thier 2 strokes at 300 hrs,..yeah right !!. That savage Cub has the classic early Piper wing. Great looking aeroplane.....we have so many to choose from these days !.........................................................................................

 

 

[bushcaddy105]

Haven't seen the need for the big tyres on my Bushcaddy R80; it does a pretty good job as a bushplane on the 15 X 6 X 6 as standard, even though it is supposed to be on floats. Check out bushcaddy.com for lots more details

 

 

[Guest watto]

Haven't seen the need for the big tyres on my Bushcaddy R80; it does a pretty good job as a bushplane on the 15 X 6 X 6 as standard, even though it is supposed to be on floats. Check out bushcaddy.com for lots more details

Good solid looking Aircraft, who is the Australian distributor?

 

 

[sain]

There is also the Zenith CH701, CH750 and CH801s.. Plans or kit built.

 

all STOL and can be fitted with tundra tires. there are a couple of clips on youtube of 701s doing short take off and landings.

 

The Foxbat A-22 is supposed to be STOL as well, though I know bugger all about it.

 

 

[dazza 38]

Spot on, MAJ, it sounds like XXXX covering. If used privately, as cloudsuck has already mentioned. 1200 hrs is not that bad, (average flying 100hrs a year). With our harsh climate, i would have recovered the aircraft before 12 years were up. When used on line, like 7030 at boonah, im not sure hours many hours pauls a/c has done yet, i mean it only a few months old and it is popular, i think it is up around 100 hrs. Im guessing 300 hundred or so hours a year? Maybe Four years to major service?. Hello spin, some of the options are - Tubing filled with a corrosion preventative fluid. And of course as you have mention nitrogent filled engine mount. The information i sourced was direct from Zlin's own web site CHEERS. I havent flown a tail dragger for a long time. I am looking forward to being re-trained and flying Mr Turners Cub in the near future. PS- For general interest, it was my wife (ex wife now), that was the student in the skyfox, off bribie island that had the wing carry through tubing failure, luckily for her, mr Brett Leathley (great instructor) was with her. Being of tubular construction, the other surrounding tubes carried the load (just). Brett landed with full Aileron deflection (just to keep straight and level) and landed on the beach. This was the reason the (extra) Tubing AD was implemented. As most of you are already aware of. (she passed her flight test the next day in another aircraft).

 

 

[JG3]

Here's my Savannah on some pretty fair-size rocks. Those 8.00x6 tyres are plenty big enough for anything but pure show-off. More about those STOL landings at

 

StolSpeed Aerodynamics - Performance Enhancement for Light Aircraft

 

JG

 

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

dazza 38, yes I remember that incident, and holy shix when the seatbelts tightened up they knew something had happened !!. I'm glad to hear that the event didn't turn her off flying completely.

 

JG3, yes those big 6.00 x 8s are pretty versitile at the right pressure. They are the same as used on the Storch and they last pretty well also. And put a set of full lexan doors on the Savvy, totally different experience. And John, love ya storys. Next time I'm by Kilcoy, I'll drop in for sure.

 

 

[Tomo]

And put a set of full lexan doors on the Savvy, totally different experience.

Yeah, Makes it so much better!:thumb_up: